| In United States, due to the augmented rate of development pattern, urban areas are now undergoing urban sprawl, in which the cities begin to extend into surrounding areas as low-density development. Despite the fact that there is a great concentration of people in urban areas in United States, many cities are reported to be losing population. This is more evident in many older cities that were developed during the early 1800's and 1900's. Since 1950, Detroit has lost nearly half of its population. Revitalization of these urban centers is essential to sustain valuable urbanization. As development occurred in these major cities in the early urban era, most of the existing building stock, a vital component of the built environment, are now aged and are in dilapidated condition.; The goal of this research is to identify and demonstrate the potential of promoting urban revitalization through rehabilitation of old, vacant and underutilized building stock adopting the new Michigan Building Rehabilitation Code in the City of Detroit and to expand the existing urban revitalization models by incorporating this new component called the built environment along with the existing social, economic, political and cultural factors. For this purpose, a case study building was identified in Detroit and a comprehensive code-based rehabilitation cost analysis was performed to identify the potential savings of using the new rehabilitation code. Based on the identified impacts, an expanded urban revitalization model was developed to achieve successful urban revival. |
