Wayne State's Hilberry Theater has ambitious plans of taking over an entire block of Cass Avenue. There's just one problem (originally brought to our attention on the Historic Detroit facebook page). It is adjacent to a historic home, The Mackenzie House, which is pretty touchy one to pick on. In the 1970s, the Mackenzie House was slated for demolition, but a group of WSU students protested and formed a historic preservation group which is now housed in the building as Preservation Detroit. The current renderings don't show what WSU plans to do with the Mackenzie, but several anonymous sources indicated that WSU is interested in moving the house to accommodate the mega expansion, but does not have details worked out yet. Let's take a look at the current status of the block.
The Hilberry mega-expansion is a $48.6M project that is relying on Kresge funds. For now, Wayne State is calling the renderings "concept drawings." Two more are below.
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