CCS center proves Detroit can rebuild

September 22, 2009
Daniel Howes,  Detroit News Columnist

 A little after 10 a.m. today, some of Detroit's heaviest hitters are expected to celebrate the opening of the College for Creative Studies' new center in the remodeled hulk of the old General Motors Argonaut Building.

Expect speeches, smiles and applause for philanthropists Bob Thompson and Al Taubman, whose $15 million gift to the $145 million project got his name on the building. The A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education marks another step in the revitalization of Detroit's New Center; renovation of an architectural icon; opening of a public charter school for grades six through 12; and a deepening commitment of the college to a community that needs all the help it can get.

Most of all, they'll be celebrating an idea gone right in Detroit, even if they don't exactly say so. The Taubman Center is bricks-and-mortar validation that a few smart politicians, influential business leaders and innovative educators can coalesce around an idea, push through the soggy blanket of negativity nearly smothering southeast Michigan and show how things can work.

"Good ideas that really are about the well-being and future of the city can bring people together ... and [help] put aside disagreements and differences of philosophy," Rick Rogers, president of the College for Creative Studies, said in an interview Monday. Detroit has "been suffering from a barrage of bad

publicity, and it's completely obscured the good things that are going on here." Read more...