Northland Center: The Idea Becomes Ground
Victor Gruen arrived in Detroit in 1948 with a plan that few could imagine. He proposed building a suburban center around a Hudson’s store.
At the time, Hudson’s ruled downtown Detroit with a 25-story flagship that covered an entire city block. The suburbs were still open fields.
Gruen believed a new kind of shopping place could serve the growing families leaving the city and driving along Eight Mile each morning…