RAM Construction Services

Scope Of Work

The Detroit Media Partnership (DMP) building, at 615 W. Lafayette, also includes a nine-level parking garage and two surface lots, totaling about 600 parking spots. Built in 1917, the 404,000 square-foot DMP Building (formerly the Detroit News Building) was designed by Albert Kahn.

RAM Construction Services was hired to perform a historic restoration on the DMP Garage to bring this structure back to its original state. Our team replaced large pieces of limestone that had deteriorated over the years, re-pinned some of the stones that developed cracks, tuckpointed all of the open mortar joints and replaced over 8,000 damaged bricks. We also treated the window lintels, patched broken capstones, installed limestone dutchman, replaced broken concrete walkways, restored precast window sills and replaced large areas of debonded concrete on the vertical columns. Some of the challenges on this project included matching the old historic brick, working around the garage traffic for the first half of the project, and maintaining constant coordination with the historic architect, engineer, construction manager and the owner. Collectively the entire team worked hard towards this “much needed” restoration and in the end, it was a successful project.