A year after Detroit school district officials announced plans to preserve a portion of the long-vacant Cooley High School building while demolishing the rest, the district is moving ahead with plans for a full demolition.
The historic school building, which opened in 1928, will be razed this summer, Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti confirmed to BridgeDetroit. He didn’t give an exact date for the demolition.
“Due to years of public outcry regarding safety, arson attacks and blight tickets, the building will be demolished,” Vitti said in an email. “Our last round of community engagement in the area about our plans for the building and land discussed the full demolition of the building.”
The news was first reported by HistoricDetroit.
Despite Cooley being razed, plans for a sports complex on the school site will move forward, Vitti said. He expects the $25 million project to be completed by 2028.
The Cooley sports complex will include a football field, outdoor track, and green space. DPSCD will use $15 million from the state for the planning, design, and construction for the outdoor football field track as well as the green space and updated parking lots. The DPSCD Foundation raised the remaining $10 million.
The project initially included plans to preserve a part of the building for a locker room, weight room, community gathering space, and dedication to Cooley alumni. It’s unclear whether that part of the plan will still come to fruition.
“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,” Vitti said. “This was communicated during our last round of community engagement.”
Preserving the historic front façade would have cost an additional $2 million, Vitti said.
Located at 15055 Hubbell Ave. on the city’s northwest side, Cooley became one of Detroit’s most storied high schools and was known for its Mediterranean Revival architectural style. The former high school is one of the largest empty public schools in Detroit, according to city documents.
The school closed in 2010. The following year, Cooley was listed under the National Register of Historic Places.
Ann Boucher remembers the grandness of the Cooley building, including its marble staircases. She taught English at the high school from 1970 to 1977, when there were at least 3,000 students walking the halls, Boucher said. She’s disappointed to hear the building is being demolished.
“I would like to have seen it turned into condos or apartments or something like that,” Boucher said. “It was a huge building, so to see it being destroyed is really sad.”
News of the demolition comes after development plans in recent years stalled for Cooley. In 2023, DPSCD rejected nonprofit Life Remodeled’s proposal to turn Cooley into a community hub. The organization, which aims to revitalize neighborhoods with the help and cooperation of neighborhood organizations, was planning to house various nonprofits at Cooley, including a pediatric mental health center, vocational college, and after-school programs.
Life Remodeled made two offers to the district: $1 million in cash, which included the school’s 5.7 acres of athletic property, and $500,000 in cash, with the assurance of an eventual $1 million donation to DPSCD, should it wish to build an athletic complex on its own, former CEO Chris Lambert wrote in a letter at the time to area residents, Cooley alumni, and community partners. The district rejected both proposals.
Vitti at the time said the Life Remodeled proposal raised concerns among some board members over whether the district was underpricing the property, and how future owners would use the site, specifically a football field that was to be gifted to a junior college. Vitti at the time noted that plans for the field weren’t explicitly stated in the proposal.
Life Remodeled CEO Diallo Smith said in a statement last year that the organization has a strong partnership with DPSCD and they are excited for the students and the residents who will benefit from the new sports complex.
Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.