from “le détroit” · the strait
Detroit Public Schools Community District will raze the 1928 Cooley building in full this summer, dropping its partial-preservation plan. A $25 million sports complex follows.
Cooley High School is coming down, all of it.
Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has confirmed that the full building will be demolished this summer. A year ago the district planned to preserve part of the structure and tear down the rest. That plan is off the table.
"Due to years of public outcry regarding safety, arson attacks and blight tickets, the building will be demolished," Vitti said in an email.
Cooley opened in 1928 at 15055 Hubbell Ave. on the northwest side, a Mediterranean Revival building designed by Donaldson & Meier and named for Thomas M. Cooley, a former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. It closed in 2010 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year. At more than 321,000 square feet, it ranks among the largest vacant school buildings in the city.
The earlier preservation plan would have kept portions of the building for a locker room, weight room, and community gathering space, with a dedication to Cooley alumni. Vitti said that approach collapsed once real numbers came in. "Despite our initial intentions, once we started to understand specific costs for the actual project, the cost and timeline to preserve part of the building prevented our initial strategies," he said. Saving the front facade alone would have added about $2 million.
Demolition clears the way for a $25 million sports complex on the property, which Vitti expects to be finished by 2028. The first phase includes an outdoor football field, a track, green space, and updated parking. The complex is set to serve teams from nearby Cody High School and to open to the community and to district partners. DPSCD is putting $15 million in state funding toward planning, design, and construction. The DPSCD Foundation raised the remaining $10 million. The district says bricks, terra cotta medallions, entry archways, and the tower bell will be repurposed at the new complex to mark Cooley's history.
In 2023, DPSCD rejected a proposal from the nonprofit Life Remodeled. Then-CEO Chris Lambert offered $1 million in cash for the school and its 5.7 acres of athletic property, or $500,000 plus a pledge of $1 million later, to build a community hub with a pediatric mental health center and a vocational college. Current Life Remodeled CEO Diallo Smith has said the organization is glad to see the sports complex move ahead.
Ann Boucher, who taught English at Cooley from 1970 to 1977, told BridgeDetroit she would have liked to see the building converted to housing. "It was a huge building, so to see it being destroyed is really sad," she said.
The building held on for 16 years after it closed, through multiple arson fires and years of blight citations. This summer it comes down.
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