Interrobang was an ephemeral public event staged on the rooftop of Detroit’s Packard Automotive Plant, a site infamous for its dereliction and, at the time, impending sale at auction. The project invited visitors into a precarious space, initiating a conversation about the site’s potential futures—a space long relegated to distant observation through media coverage. The intervention asked a simple question: Could basic design moves inject life and transparency into a place that had become synonymous with Detroit’s failures?
For a brief moment, Interrobang transformed the Packard plant into public space. The sheer scale and instability of the site made any visit feel risky, deterring most from direct engagement. We cleared a path through the debris, creating a trail that led visitors into the building and up to a rooftop installation along East Grand Boulevard. There, they encountered a temporary gallery with an interactive exhibit, including a 16-foot architectural model that charted the state of each parcel on the 40-acre complex. At the center, a flexible seating area invited informal gatherings of varying sizes.The project’s title reflects the reactions elicited by the site—equal parts astonishment and inquiry. But Interrobang aimed beyond shock or fetishization of decay. It suggested that, through public engagement, even spaces like Packard—sites of near-total ruin—might still inspire collective visions for the future of urban space.
2013
Packard Automotive Plant, Detroit, Michigan
Scale:
20,000 SF
Client:
Autonomous
Research & Production:
Gorham Bird, James Chesnut, Razieh Ghorbani, Erika Lindsay, William Martin, Hannah Hunt Moeller, Catharine Pyenson, Christopher Reznich
Principals:
Anya Sirota, Jean Louis Farges
Catalog:
Link