Abandoned detroit full#

Making space to retreat to and interact with nature and each other.Offering interactive outdoor adventures and concessions.Elevating creative and performing arts in nature.Providing ample outdoor education opportunities.Showcasing the island’s opportunities for sustainable ecosystems.Honoring and exploring Belle Isle’s history.As detailed in a DNR press release, the student-conceived design proposals for the site are tied to the following six broad themes developed in the workshop: Specifically, the public is being asked to share their thoughts on a half-dozen overarching reuse themes and resultant design proposals established last fall following a virtual design workshop led by landscape architecture and environmental design students from MSU-SPDC, and involving the participation of a limited number of park stakeholders. Now through July 8, the public is invited to opine on how they would like to see the old zoo site be redeveloped.

Still very much in the early stages, the revitalization of the old Belle Isle Zoo is kicking off an initial public engagement phase with a survey led by the parks and recreation division of the DNR in collaboration with the Michigan State University School of Planning, Design and Construction ( MSU-SPDC). (Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers collection/ Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain) Detroit-based urban exploration website has referred to the abandoned zoo as “one of Detroit’s most shameful victims of neglect and corruption.” Vintage illustration of the entrance to the old Children’s Zoo at Belle Isle Park, Detroit.

Abandoned detroit full#

Although the resident animals are long gone, the old zoo site, sitting in a state of abandonment for two full decades, has remained a popular spot among camera-wielding ruin porn aficionados. Plagued by declining attendance and political malfeasance, the zoo was ultimately shuttered in 2002 by disgraced then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and never reopened. Debuting in 1895 on the sprawling, Frederick Law Olmsted-designed island park is the Belle Isle Zoo, the attraction was rebranded as the Detroit Children’s Zoo in 1947 and renamed/revamped/re-themed again in the 1980s as Safariland.