One of our choices for the subtitle of the book was "Detroit Through the Eyes of a Stranger". The first time I visited Detroit was in 1999. I remembered the impression I got, when my husband, a native Detroiter, drove me through downtown. Expecting busy street scenes that you are used to see in the American movies, I was surprised: "Where were the people? What happened in this city? There was beautiful architecture everywhere, but half the windows were boarded up."

A few years passed. In this time I learned about Detroit’s history, it’s specific challenges as one of the "chocolate cities", and the politics that drove people from downtown into suburbia. But even given all its problems, I was stunned by the fact that there is so much beautiful architecture in the city, and that much of it is left to decay. Having studied architecture in France and England via pen and paper, I started portraying the city according to its potential. I met people who shared my point of view and helped me gather information. To make things a bit more interesting, we also included some odd historical stories. After all buildings are like people. They are not just born and die (sooner or later), but they all have their own stories, which gives them personality. There are many, many more buildings and sites that should have been included in the book, but we do not claim completion in any kind of way. You should however be able to find representative buildings of each sort in it. It would be a shame, if Detroit doesn’t find the resources to preserve its architectural heritage, since what is torn down will never come back!

Excerpt  "Images in Stone - Detroit. The First 300 years"