I learned the stories behind the buildings. Why they mattered, beyond what I could see with my own e

I say "again" because the eulogies for Detroit have come steadily for years. Published accounts of the city's four seasons hotel new york epic rise and fall practically constitutes a literary sub-category, with documentary films, coffee-table books filled with intriguing four seasons hotel new york ruins that are both beautiful and heartbreaking, and almost daily reports that things are only getting worse.
Walking four seasons hotel new york through the downtown area, you'll see dozens of building permits, SOLD signs and new construction.  Local developers are buying up dozens of properties.  But you won't read much about any of that in the national press, as it doesn't fit the established narrative.
But here's the thing: If you enjoy  some of the world's finest four seasons hotel new york art ,  beautiful parks ,  magnificent architecture ,  stunning museums with singular collections ,  evocative and interesting restaurants four seasons hotel new york  and bars , artisanal craft and indefatigable four seasons hotel new york creativity, and a citizenry that is friendly and welcoming, then you really, really need to visit Detroit.
Detroit has problems, of course. But the people of Detroit are rising with a spirit. There's a palpable excitement here, intelligence and creativity. People who choose to live here are writing upon the blank pages of Detroit four seasons hotel new york and creating new chapters, redefining their city in defiance of the critics.
Stay at  The Westin Book Cadillac Hotel  right in the heart of Downtown Detroit, and get your first experience of this great city reinventing itself.  Built in 1927 in a grand Neo-Renaissance style, the 31-story Book has a history of bouncing back from adversity. It was still new when the crash of 1929 sent the city, and the nation, into a prolonged tailspin. The hotel changed hands multiple times and was vacant for decades before a $200 million renovation brought it back to vibrant life in 2008. The reanimated hotel now includes a spa, an indoor pool, and two restaurants — the inviting Spa 1924 Grille, and Roast, a steakhouse owned by Cincinnati-based, Food Network celebrity chef Michael Symon. There is also an upscale coffee shop, and a mezzanine-level lobby bar that serves as a great place for an after-dinner cocktail. The Westin Book Cadillac makes a comfortable and appropriate home base for an exploration of a great city amid its rebirth.
Detroit's downtown has a relatively compact center, so you can walk to the pleasant new  Riverwalk  in just a few minutes. You'll pass some wonderful architecture four seasons hotel new york as well as bountiful urban gardens that were empty lots not too long ago.
Greektown ,  the theatre district , and such nightspots four seasons hotel new york as  Cliff Bells  jazz club lie within an enjoyable walk from the Book's door.  Comerica Park , home of the Detroit Tigers, four seasons hotel new york is only half a dozen blocks away, too. But one of the simplest, smallest, and most charming ways you can begin to turn your assumptions about Detroit on their head is by walking over two blocks to  Camp Martius Park  to enjoy their beach. Yes — beach.
The 2.5-acre Camp Martius Park, a tree-lined intersection of six streets at the very heart of downtown, is regularly home to concerts, theater performances and a youthful neighborhood crowd. The Woodward Fountain splashes coordinated geysers four seasons hotel new york of water into the air. A forest of green umbrellas and café tables surround  the Fountain Bistro.  Most remarkably, this downtown urban park includes a white sandy beach dotted with colorful beach chairs. The beach concession stand sells ice-cold Michigan beers, wines and tasty light fare. Moms park themselves in the multi-colored lounge chairs while their little ones make castles in the sand. This incongruous beach is a brilliant and simple idea, and it works. They dumped a couple of tons of pure white sand into a civic plaza, threw in a few dozen beach chairs and—presto—a new living room blossoms amongst the skyscrapers. And in winter, the fountain is transformed into a skating rink, for four seasons of enjoyment.
Dozens of buildings in the downtown area are getting snapped up by developers and remodeled. One block away, on Woodward toward the river, Foran's Grand Trunk Pub , a former ticket office four seasons hotel new york for the now-defunct Grand Trunk Railroad, offers one of the best selections of Michigan beers in the city. They also do excellent sandwiches, including a fantastic four seasons hotel new york heart-attack Rueben that would be a perfectly valid last meal for any discerning death row inmate. Sinfully delicious.
Also nearby on Woodward Ave. is the  Hudson Café , an airy and warm modern breakfast place that opened two years ago. They have a stone fireplace, big windows, high ceilings and a friendly four seasons hotel new york vibe. While I await what will turn out to be a decadent yet light stuffed french toast with fresh berries, waitress Kathy Smith cheerleads for her city. She tells me how a few years ago she got laid off from her construction job and picked up waitressing shifts four seasons hotel new york to make ends meet. Her old construction company called four seasons hotel new york her back last year, and now she has more work than she knows what to do with. But she loves the waitressing job so much she can't bear to give it up. It's a nice problem to have.
While much is new and noteworthy in Detroit, the city is stuffed with grand remainders of its glorious past. Especially for a short visit, be smart and retain the services of a guide who can not only make sure you see the highlights, but give you the context four seasons hotel new york that will make the sites meaningful.
On the enthusiastic recommendation of a Detroit native, I took a tour with Professor Michael Farrell of  Art House Lectures Tours . Michael is like the favorite professor you had in college; warm, brilliant, funny, and with an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject. He and Art House manager Marc Herrick make a delightful team, and they can put together a tour custom-tailored to your interests.
They showed me the incredible  Fisher Building , one of the finest extant examples of Art Deco in the country. I also saw Wirt Rowland's  Guardian Building , an exuberant downtown combination of Art Moderne and Native American influences (really) — my favorite building four seasons hotel new york in Detroit.
I learned the stories behind the buildings. Why they mattered, beyond what I could see with my own eyes. And we drove into less-visited areas of the city to plumb the hidden histories four seasons hotel new york of neighborhoods. four seasons hotel new york We also drove down the reanimated Woodward Ave. My guides proudly pointed out all of the new growth, the success stories, and the rescues of older gems. The Art House tours will win you over with a love for the city of Detroit, old and new.
Make sure your tour includes Farrell and Herrick's own home, the Art House, with its gob-smacking collection of paintings, rare antiques, astonishing collection of decorative silver, Asian treasures and more. The house itself is a stunner, a gorgeous Victorian manse constructed on spec by a wealthy four seasons hotel new york lumber baron. It serves as a proud portfolio of the woodworker's art.
As I marvel at the craftsmanship of the Art House, Michael points out holes drilled into the grand doors for deadbolts installed when the place was a down-at-the-heels boarding house in the bad old 70′s. Will they patch the holes?
Of course they are. I learned to see all of Detroit through this lens during the rest of my stay. The flaws, the old wounds, the gaps are all part of the city's history. Detroit has earned her hard scars. And for those who know how to look, they are the telltales, the vital part of the patina that gives the city its character.
Another way to reconnect with the city's grand past is to include a visit to  the Henry Ford Museum  and adjacent Greenfield Village. While the museum does of course include a brilliant collection of classic cars, the focus is much broader, displaying many different triumphs of invention, with a huge assortment of trains, planes, generators and important milestones four seasons hotel new york in the history of mechanical and technical innovation. That sounds dry, but walking in the museum is thrilling, and kids love it.
The museum also features the only existing  Dymaxion House , Buckminster Fuller's 1946 Home of the Future. With World War II suddenly over and factories that produced warplanes suddenly idled, Fuller proposed to turn assembly lines to building gleaming new aerodynamic aluminum homes for the emerging middle class. four seasons hotel new york Fuller's dream never found funding, but the home is visionary, with technical innovations that many modern homes still lack.
Adjacent  Greenfield Village  is in many ways even more impressive. Ford's staggering wealth made possible the collecting of not only iconic products, but of the buildings where those new ideas were born. Most Greenfield Village structures were moved from elsewhere. You can tour the two-story brick bicycle shop where the Wright Brothers built their first flying machine. A few streets over, an entire city block holds the complex of buildings called Menlo Park, where Thomas Edison invented much of the 20th century, perfectly preserved four seasons hotel new york with their original contents intact. There is a carousel, train yards and depots, and re-enactors in period four seasons hotel new york dress demonstrating 19th-century art and craft. You could easily spend a day in Greenfield Village alone and not exhaust what it has to offer.
The  Detroit Institute of Art  is one of the top 10 art museums in the country and worth the drive from Milwaukee all by itself. The museum boasts a glorious collection four seasons hotel new york that includes Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, an important American collection and a trove of Dutch masterpieces. Look with wonder on the magnificent four seasons hotel new york Diego Rivera mural that wraps around all four walls of the central atrium. The mural celebrates the interconnectedness of all the participants in Detroit's industry, emphasizing that all of them are important. And it is beautiful.
Plan to dedicate at least half a day to exploring this magnificent temple to art, making sure to spend time in the three-story, glass-ceilinged Kresge Court, newly remodeled just last month and more impressive than ever. If you have time, consider venturing four seasons hotel new york out to stroll the sculpture garden. If it's a Friday in summer, head into the courtyard to