Celebrating its grand opening in the Eastern Market area of Detroit on May 19, 2013, where visitors came from as far away as Berlin and Paris, FIRST CONTAINER, the first structures for a planned 36-unit boutique hotel and community space that is being built from upcycled shipping containers has garnered national attention as the “most important hotel in America.” Collision Works is being made possible by funding from a Kickstarter campaign and partnership with the Detroit Collaborative Design Center and Eastern Market Corporation.
FIRST CONTAINER is constructed from two shipping containers. One container will host retail space and the other is a “mini hotel lobby” with free Wifi, areas for gathering and working, and a stage. Designed to build community through story-telling activities and events, it will remain at its current site for six months before it is integrated into the permanent hotel site.
While the Kickstarter campaign that was initiated by Shel Kimen raised $40,000, enough to build FIRST CONTAINER, an additional $4 million is needed to complete construction on the entire hotel, for which she has already presold 35 rooms at prices ranging from $250 to $275 per night.
Current participants in the project include KOOP AM Architects (schematics, design, and technology consulting), IBG Detroit (construction build project leader) SG Blocks (providers of boxes and engineering), Spirit of Space (filming and documentary production), RecoveryPark (community relations), and TechTown (administrative and operations support).
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