MotorCity Casino

Located in Detroit, Michigan, MotorCity Casino and entertainment center is emblazoned with the city’s nickname, which is a salute to its automotive legacy. Finding a way to honor this legacy determined the design for this high-profile hospitality project. NORR’s design team worked with a well-known car designer to incorporate distinctive design elements of classic American cars of the 1950s and 60s.

We meshed these automotive elements with the architectural features of the 1915 Wagner Baking Company building that already stood on the site. Famous for Wonder Bread and Hostess cakes, the building’s historic brick exterior was preserved and integrated into the curved facade and undulating ribbon roof elements of the new hospitality building. Sleek stainless steel, tinted glass and aluminum give this dynamically themed building its retro automotive flair. NORR designers used Building Information Modeling (BIM) and CATIA, a program familiar to the automotive design industry to clearly communicate our design intent. MotorCity Casino celebrates Detroit in its heyday and serves as a catalyst for future urban development.