After the Great Fire of 1805, Campus Martius (from the Latin for Field of Mars, where Roman heroes walked) was the focal point of Judge Augustus Woodward's plans to rebuild the city.

This led to calls to rebuild Campus Martius, the site of the Civil War-era Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, located across from the new Compuware Headquarters.

The new Campus Martius Park was dedicated November 19, 2004 and includes two performance stages, sculptures, public spaces and a seasonal ice skating rink.

Since its opening the rink has been operated by Magic Ice USA, Inc. Campus Martius Park is the home of the annual Motown Winter Blast, an event that has drawn more than 450,000 people to the downtown area every year and it has become the site of the city's annual Christmas tree lighting celebration, held the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Designed by architect Anthony Caradonna and patterned after the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the contemporary steel and glass 24-story skyscraper complex to be located on Campus Martius Park, was planned to begin construction in the fall of 2009,[8] but was indefinitely postponed by the city in October of that year when the developers failed to meet key agreements with the city.