Detroit has a vast supply of decayed and vacant buildings, many of them architectural treasures. Even if MCD is somehow restored, it will be one of only a handful saved, while so many others will languish for some time. Many, like the Lafayette Building, may become so damaged that they have to be torn down.
What if instead of spending a huge amount of money to try to save one building, the city found a little bit of money to do basic maintenance to preserve the structural integrity of many buildings – and create a safe path through parts of them that tourists could walk through similar to how ancient ruins are displayed in Europe. Heck, don’t even clean the buildings up. That saves money and makes them even more impressive to visitors. This could preserve more structures for the long haul, and create a tourist attraction. The structures can always been renovated later when demand warrants.
Actually, the tourists are already coming whether it is authorized or not. Thirty folks a day at MCD is pretty impressive

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Detroit: Embracing the Ruins

I find this idea both really obvious (and as mentioned, currently occurring) and also interesting in that it challenges popular ideas about what kind of ‘ruins’ are meaningful/educational/valuable/historical.

Things that were unthinkable are now becoming thinkable…there is now a realization that past glories are never going to be recaptured. Some people probably don’t accept that, but that is the reality.

— James W. Hughes, dean of the School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, quoted in Detroit looks at downsizing to save city