Detroit Cultural Center V1

PRAISE FOR THE CULTURAL CENTER PLANNING INITIATIVE (CCPI)

Midtown Detroit, Inc. has been pleased to facilitate a planning process that has brought together so many public, philanthropic and institutional stakeholders in support of the region’s premier cultural campus.

The resulting plan incorporates visionary content; forward thinking climate and stormwater elements; a new mobility, parking and traffic model for the campus; and broad community engagement. It reflects a collective desire to engage more thoughtfully and intentionally with the public and each other to create a compelling and connected center of learning, art, science, literature, and history.

This new opportunity allows for each institution to continue to evolve and meet its own aspirations while adding the supportive framework that will allow them to leverage each other and their collective assets, audiences, infrastructure, and ideas. Perhaps, most importantly, this planning effort has built a new shared platform across all the stakeholders where working collectively is now a given and no longer an afterthought. This is perhaps the most affirming achievement to date.

Susan Mosey, Director Midtown Detroit Inc.

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The Cultural Center Planning Initiative that will unfold before your eyes on the following pages presents a transformational plan for Detroit’s cultural center for all who will visit the district in the future as well as for the institutions themselves. The plan provides places for people to linger and experience the natural beauty of the landscape as well as manages stormwater runoff, creates new parking, and increases pedestrian-safe experiences. It provides the opportunity for our institutions to collaborate and curate exciting new public programs and art experiences. In sum, we transform this neighborhood center of culture and education into a world-class attraction that serves people of all ages and backgrounds.

On behalf of my colleagues among the 12 partner institutions, I want to recognize and thank Midtown Detroit, Inc., the William Davidson Foundation, The Erb Family Foundation, The Ralph A. Wilson Foundation, Hudson Webber Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The Knight Foundation, The Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan, The City of Detroit, MDOT, SEMCOG, and all the partners in the Cultural District for their stewardship and continuing

support of this master planning effort. Also, I would like to recognize the CCPI project management team led by Susan Mosey, MDI’s Executive Director, who has been tirelessly raising funds and supporting this planning effort with ongoing collaborative programming and projects that have demonstrated the district’s commitment to working collaboratively now and into the future. We also wish to thank Xavier Mosquet; Partner of BCG/Detroit; The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation; Rocket Community Foundation; technology consultants rootoftwo; as well as lead designers of this fabulous master plan Olivier Phillipe of Agence Ter, and Anya Sirota and Jean Louis Farges of Akoaki.

Salvador Salort-Pons, Ph.D. Director, President and CEO Detroit Institute of Arts

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I continue to be inspired by the ambition, collaboration, and level of community engagement that has characterized this long-term planning effort for our cultural center in Midtown Detroit.

Home to more than a dozen iconic cultural and educational institutions, the area already welcomes millions of visitors and residents of all ages and backgrounds annually to Midtown and Detroit generally. We have an opportunity now to celebrate and elevate the history and creativity of each individual institution, while enabling an even more connected, vibrant, and accessible experience for future generations.

Even more important to me than the physical transformation of the space envisioned in these pages are the connections and relationships that have formed over the course of the last several years. Plans for new collaborative programs are underway. A shared set of services for the area is in development, including highspeed WiFi and security and safety measures. Initiatives across institutions are unfolding in new and exciting ways.

My thanks go out to all the outstanding partners who are leading, enabling, and advising this effort. We will continue to make this path by walking together, and the William Davidson Foundation has been proud to join everyone on this journey.

Darin McKeever. President and CEO William Davidson Foundation

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DETROIT CULTURAL DISTRICT

DETROIT CULTURAL DISTRICT

Above: Detroit Square model from the competition phase displayed in the storefront on Cass Avenue Next Page: Design team presenting at the Detroit Institute of Arts for DIA Plaza | Midtown Cultural Connections international design competition.

Where We Began

Before it was the Cultural Center Planning Initiative (CCPI), it was the DIA Plaza | Midtown Cultural Connections international design competition, which began with the idea that animated public spaces have the power to bring people together and make a community stronger. This is what the leaders of the Detroit Institute of Arts felt was missing. They desired an arts and cultural district for Detroit that is home to not just the Detroit Institute of Arts, but to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Detroit Historical Museum, the Detroit Public Library, the Michigan Science Center, and other valuable organizations. The effort to realize a public space that enforced democracy, harmony, and connections, started with a grant awarded to the Detroit Institute of Arts for a plaza. The Institute understood that the area holds potential for so much more if it could be transformed into a broader revitalized district. To get the ball rolling, the Detroit Institute of Arts partnered with Midtown Detroit, Inc., a not-for-profit community and economic development organization, to implement a design competition.

The Detroit Institute of Arts Plaza | Midtown Cultural Connections

competition centered around enhancing and enlivening the Detroit Institute of Arts’ exterior campus. It sought an outstanding integrated design team for developing an urban and landscape design strategy and connection framework. In April of 2018, the competition kicked off with a formal Request for Qualifications, to which forty-four teams submitted and, from those, eight were selected to interview in Detroit. Three finalists were chosen and invited to submit a proposal to the final stage of the competition.

On August 22, 2018, the Detroit Institute of Arts and Midtown Detroit, Inc. announced the design team consisting of Agence Ter, Akoaki, rootoftwo, and Dr. Harley Etienne as the winner. This marked the beginning of what is now the Cultural Center Planning Initiative, an 18-month planning process en route to a re-imagining of Detroit’s arts & cultural district. The CCPI’s aim is to create a vibrant, more connected space for community stakeholders, as well as more accessible and approachable for all.

How Far We’ve Come

From a single concept for a plaza to an international competition for a district plan and now an expansive two-year planning process, the project has developed into a new paradigm for inclusive urban design. It has taken many steps and people to make this vision a reality. This publication is designed to share the process and outcomes with project partners, residents, government, and those interested in supporting the initiative over time.

The design for CCPI was organized in three phases: Discovery and Analysis; Framework and Concept Development; and Masterplan and District Strategies. In the first stages of the project, the design team gathered and reviewed data; researched and synthesized the program; established a foundation for the framework and concept development to evolve; and created modes of representation for participatory stakeholder engagement. This required launching robust parking and mobility studies, producing a survey of site conditions, and analyzing the historical context.

Using the conclusions from the analysis, the project explored solutions that improve the District’s physical qualities, enhance interactivity in all its forms, connect institutions, engage the public, and offer a sustainable landscape for all Detroiters to enjoy. The design team, working in close collaboration with institutional partners, addressed strategies for blurring boundaries between institutional interiors and

the landscape while strengthening the distinguishing features of each stakeholder institution.

In the final phase, the design team united the individual institutions and their respective aspirations into a cohesive whole, while ensuring the final plan aligned with the results from the feasibility studies. The outcome is a plan that preserves Detroit’s global influence by embodying the arts and cultural organizations of the city, many of which coalesce in the cultural center.

Sue Mosey Executive Director, Midtown Detroit Inc. (MDI)

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It’s a very good time for institutional participation in this district plan. Of course, identifying and establishing connections is a substantial challenge that takes investment, cooperation, and the ability to prioritize collective projects over individual interests. Working together, however, will solve many of the challenges that institutions face, and present opportunities at the same time.

Above: Detroit Square community engagement model used to spark conversation at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Input from residents was integrated into the design team’s planning.

Next Page: Jo Anne G. Mondowney speaking at the Detroit Public Library to announce Agence Ter and Akoaki as the winners of the international design competition.

A GUIDING

The Detroit Cultural District

CCPI will create a District that is approachable and enticing: full of possibility, stimulation, and dynamism. It will anchor Detroit communities with a sense of stability, build on local legacies, and shine with distinctiveness.

The District will help sponsor communication and networking, ensuring ease in connections, interactions, and movements. It will form a bridge, making the outside world more accessible and interiors more engaging. The District will ensure that people

feel part of a bigger, extensive, and inclusive environment, while creating a place to self-improve, seek inspiration, learn, and reflect.

The best public places are diverse and provide a rich register of experiences, from the profound to the mundane. They offer choices and opportunities to engage. They accommodate visitors of varying resource levels and provide wide ranging programs and amenities that reflect the essence of the city. To ensure the District’s success, the

physical fabric and public realm will meet all of the conditions for civic life in its breadth of moods, scales, and cultural sensibilities.

The District will provide balance between spaces that are vibrant and tranquil. It will encourage mixing and togetherness, yet create room for isolation and safety. Some features will be utilitarian and routine. Others will be extraordinary and moving. Above all, the District will have a clarity of purpose,

and will know its goals. It will seamlessly blend infrastructure, cultural programming, and economic activity with collective stewardship and organization to improve human life.

In its resolve to create a great public space for the City of Detroit, CCPI has advanced a holistic approach. It combines insights and expertise around tangible matters like climate, mobility, and parking with intangibles such as culture, art, atmosphere, and belonging.

CCPI will reinvent a distinctive urban commons for Detroit, one that connects and inspires.

The result is a plan that integrates the triumphs and dilemmas of our time – directly addressing issues of equity, environmental distress, urban vitality, and collective engagement.

THE CHARLES H. WRIGHT MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

OF MICHIGAN

The Detroit Public Library opens for services on March 25, 1865. The 5,000 book collection is located in one room of the old Capitol High School on Griswold Street.

Wayne State University is established as an innovative urban center of higher learning when a group of Civil War doctors established the Detroit Medical College, forerunner of the Wayne State School of Medicine.

The Detroit Institute of Arts is founded and opens its doors on Jefferson Avenue. The museum would move to its current location in 1927.

The spatial and organizational evolution of the Culture District is long and storied. Each institution developed independently over time, offering the city essential cultural infrastructure in response to a breadth of public interests. Starting in 1913, a series of plans have attempted to unite the cultural parts into a clear and unified whole. These efforts were met with various levels of enthusiasm and resistance, contingent on the social, political, and economic forces shaping the city at the time of their inception. This timeline traces the continuing evolution of the District through the establishment of its key institutions, punctuated by planning initiatives over the past decade.

A group of local civic leaders, inspired by the English Arts and Crafts movement, forms the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts which will later inspire the creation of the College for Creative Studies.

The Scarab Club is founded by a group of Detroit artists as a way to socialize with one another and share their ideas and passions while also hosting festive events and educating the public.

The International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit is founded by a group of YWCA volunteers seeking to assist legal immigrants with integration into U.S. society.

1906 1919

1907

MOVEMENT.

1913

AND LETTERS TO ALIGN WITH

DETROIT’S CENTER OF ARTS

DEVELOPS A PLAN FOR

LED BY EDWARD H. BENNETT

IMPROVEMENT COMMISSION

THE LOCAL CITY BEAUTIFUL DISTRICT TIMELINE

After five years of construction the Detroit Public Library opens its doors at 5201 Woodward Avenue in an Italian Renaissance style building designed by Cass Gilbert.

In 1928, the Detroit Historical Society establishes the Detroit Historical Museum to ensure that the history of our region is preserved. Their permanent building would be completed in 1951 by William Kapp.

The District is enhanced with the completion of the Horace H. Rackham Educational Memorial building. Designed by Harley, Ellington, and Day, the building originally housed the Engineering Society of Detroit and the Extension Division of the University of Michigan.

1921

Dr. Charles Howard Wright, a successful Detroit physician and civil rights activist, establishes Detroit’s first International Afro-American Museum that would later become the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

The Michigan Science Center founded in 1970 by Dexter Ferry in a storefront at 52 E Forest Avenue, moves to its current location in the Cultural District.

A major benefactor provides the funds to purchase the former Children’s Museum of Detroit at 67 E. Kirby for the Hellenic Museum of Michigan. -

Building on a solid legacy of community service, the Arts League founded the Carr Center. In 2019, it moved from Downtown to its Midtown location.

4,000,000

3,000,000

2,000,000

1928 SCARAB CLUB 1933 WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY 1958 COLLEGE FOR CREATIVE STUDIES 1941 RACKHAM BUILDING 1951 DETROIT HISTORICAL MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE 1921 DETROIT PUBLIC LIBRARY 1927 DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS 1,000,000

5,000,000 0

Improvement Commission 1948 Cultural City Plan

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1913 Detroit City Plan and

1965 Cultural Center Plan

This timeline positions the District’s prior planning initiatives in relation to the city’s evolving demographics, helping to visualize the socio-political contexts in which projects were developed.

1978 DETROIT SCIENCE CENTER 2019 THE CARR CENTER 1997 CHARLES A.WRIGHT MUSEUM 2009 THE HELLENIC MUSEUM

1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 1989 Detroit University Cultural Center Plan

services.

Akoaki engaged for design

Detroit Inc. Agence Ter and

Initiative led by Midtown

2018 Cultural Center Planning

Metro Area Population Forecasts Metro Area Population

City of Detroit Population Forecasts population

Above: View from the Detroit Public Library’s terrace. Next Page: Urban marker at the Detroit Historical Museum’s renovated Legend’s Plaza welcoming visitors entering the district on Woodward Avenue.

Values & Goals

A sense of possibility lends public spaces their promise and dynamism. Successful examples offer all visitors an ease of mobility, a feeling of collective vitality, and, perhaps most importantly, an invitation to participate. It is an ethos of promise that’s nurtured within each one of us when we feel capable of influencing the social, political, and cultural fabric of the city. In this model, the public domain enables rather than controls. It sets the guidelines for how things work, ensures a tone of conviviality, while encouraging everyone to participate with imagination to move things forward. CCPI is made possible through the support and collaboration of each stakeholder institution, each project partner, and each Detroit resident who has generously offered perspective and feedback. The result is an adaptive plan for Detroit’s Cultural District that embraces productive diversity and models how the city’s leading institutions can cooperate for the greater good.

Through a myriad of conversations, both formal and informal, the project has revealed a series of collective goals that guide CCPI’s decisions and structured a pathway to evaluating opportunities. Some of the stated goals are broad and aspirational, while others are more directive. Most importantly, they help set benchmarks for achieving the common good.

“Ensuring a environmentwelcoming for all is at the heart of this plan. This means fully embracing the diversity of the institutions, their unique contributions to the vitality of the whole, and creating a plan that benefits everyone equally.

Anya Sirota Principal, Akoaki

1. Creating a Sense of Place

Place matters. Despite accelerating global movements and the allure of places across geographies, people feel the need to belong, to be grounded, to be welcomed in places they return to with ease, affection, and friendly certainty. Appealing, culturally-rooted places comfort through predictability, while ensuring opportunities for change, reinvention, and choice.

A well-conceived commitment to place builds collective pride, encourages people to give back, and develops responsibility for the city. That commitment can find many forms and lead to a breadth of outcomes: expressions of social unity, collective stewardship, civic engagement, volunteerism, protection of heritage, philanthropy, economic investment, and perhaps most simply, a shared feeling of well-being.

Renewing the sense of place afresh is not easy. It requires sensitive observation, deep engagement, good design, as well as knowing which existing aspects to elevate or when to start fresh. In this scenario, ambitious programming can help to enhance existing energy, build the

infrastructure to revive and catalyze activity, while centering the goal of enriching that sense of belonging and identity for all.

2. Connecting Institutions to Each Other and the City

Public spaces are where we connect, communicate, and exchange. They work best when connectivity is augmented and works smoothly one-to-one, in groups, and virtually. CCPI focuses on the need to create gathering places that encourage conversation, reciprocity, and networking between people and institutions. This requires institutional infrastructure and mobility systems that connect stakeholders and the district to neighborhoods and the region beyond. Connectivity requires technology and open access to wifi. It also involves spaces that relate one destination to another, ensuring smooth transition between multiple interior and exterior spots throughout the project. Enhancing the networking capacity of the district, the initiative becomes a connected accelerator for collective opportunities.

3. Inspiring the City and the Region

The cultural district needs to inspire, to give us hope, to make us think, to provoke us to strive. Inspiration can be triggered in many ways. From beautiful design to association between a historical past and a projective future, a carefully designed cultural experience identifies what makes us individuals and what universally makes us human. Inspiration happens when we are faced with the thoughtful and the unexpected. Inspiration comes from a richness of experience that both startles and offers opportunities for reflection.

CCPI sees Detroit’s Cultural District as a living work engaging with residents, visitors, students, and artists to inspire by providing a generous civic space that reflects back on the achievements of the city. The arts, in this framework, have a special role to play. They nurture our emotions, give symbolic order, anchor identity, create contrast between lived experience and aspiration. They broaden our understanding of the world, critically address our lived experiences, and sometimes they simply bring pleasure. The CCPI project consciously seeks

space to inspire residents of Detroit, the Metropolitan region, and visitors from beyond.

4. Catalyzing Collective Experience

The Cultural District aims to catalyze collective experience by creating a public platform for the city’s intellectual, cultural, and artistic endeavors. In many ways, the Cultural District already demonstrates the power of collective experience through successful programming such as Dlectricity and Noel Night. CCPI builds on those achievements and ensures cultural events and programs at all scales may be delivered on a more regular cadence and with greater efficiency.

5. Advancing a Campus for Lifelong Learning

A City that offers residents of all ages opportunities to learn ensures investment in the most important of urban resources - people. Understanding the Cultural District as a campus for lifelong learning, with

Next Page: The Square

Above: Proposed children’s wing for the Detroit Public Library creates an interior playscape with stronger connections for children and families to the outdoors.

will connect the College for Creative Studies with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History creating space for public art and play along an interactive water mirror.

partnering institutions co-creating forward-looking adaptable curricula, CCPI seeks to engage individuals from all walks of life with a diversity of high quality, formal and informal, learning opportunities.

6. Engaging Great Design

Timeless, adaptable, legible, and embedded with contextual, cultural values, well-conceived public spaces take many considerations. At its core, an outstanding public space requires a supreme level of balance and deliberation: adjusting the functional demands of a site against the needs for iconically distinct solutions, offsetting directed programs with opportunities for serendipity, valuing cohesion without the trapping of uniformity.

7. Raising ConsciousnessEnvironmental

Environment management requires investment and the necessary infrastructure to make a positive impact. Sustainable design requires more than the introduction of an efficient system. It invites us to change perception, to become sensitive to the effects of our choices, and to

empathize with our planet. This is why CCPI couples public amenities with environmental design. The approach makes the case that infrastructure can be beautiful. By incorporating runoff mitigation, drainage, and filtration into bio-dynamic landscapes, the investment benefits the city and its citizens.

The City of Detroit is located in the Southern Great Lakes Forest ecoregion—one of the most heavily impacted regions due to human activity on the continent, according to the World Wildlife Federation. As extreme weather events increase in frequency, improving our water management systems could not be more urgent.

8. Including All

Inclusive design means creating spaces that everyone can use and where everyone feels welcome. It is a design methodology that intentionally removes the barriers between people, be they economic, physical, social, or otherwise. At the same time, inclusive design acknowledges and accommodates diversity and difference while offering people and institutions choices and flexibility of uses.

The District will be composed of four landscape elements and their interactions: The Square, The Band, The Ecotone, and The Necklace. Each of these are designed to be adjusted through stakeholder and public engagement. The elements will define the District in distinct ways by offering varied perspectives, engaging experiential sequences, and architecturally legible points of entry. The elements will also unify by bringing together a site that was formerly residential and

divided by streets or small plots.

Focusing on what will be shared, CCPI merges the district parts into a generous whole.

A pedestrian framework defines the boundaries of the district by transforming a network of auto-centric streets into a people-focused pedestrian experience. It welcomes the possibility of shared infrastructure while offering institutions generous spaces for outdoor programming and public amenities. CCPI’s adaptation offers a democratic foundation for an urban plan where each institution, big or small, connects equitably to public space and the District’s amenities.

A series of open green spaces highlights the historic axis of the Cultural District and creates adaptable eventscapes for daily exceptional activation. The surface parking lot on Brush is transformed into a Great Lawn by consolidating cars below grade. On Woodard Avenue, an ephemeral plaza emphasizes the well-proportioned relationship between the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Public Library, opening possibilities for seasonal happenings. Connecting the College for Creative Studies and Wayne State University, the Band integrates open spaces that unite the venerable campuses on both the east and west sides of the plan.

The Ecotone

The Ecotone incorporates nature into the city by merging infrastructure with the beauty of an inhabitable landscape, reimagining engineering and ecological requirements as a public attractor. In the form of two green zones bracing the District’s open plazas, the Ecotone addresses climate adaptation, provides valuable solutions to urban overheating, augments biodiversity, mitigates noise/air pollution, and introduces stormwater management at a district scale.

A meandering pathway that links the District with unique programming opportunities. If the Square is the destination, then the Necklace is the journey. The walking path connects smaller sites and experiences: sculptures, places for play, climate gardens, and other discrete activities, while offering moments for quiet reflection. A tool for navigating the District in an open-ended or theme-driven way, the Necklace creates distinct atmospheric experiences by facilitating intimate encounters with art, culture, and landscape.

The Square at the intersection of Farnsworth Street and John R Street looking west highlights a shared street that privileges pedestrian activity and creates space for commercial programs to activate the public life of the District.

Social Equity Guiding the Plan

social equity framework guides the planning process in order to arrive at fair and just outcomes for all institutional stakeholders and Detroit residents. Social equity can mean different things to different people. At the core, it is about equality and flexibility. It makes space for, and accommodates, different people’s needs and experiences in society. It also requires participants to collectively define the values and principles to which actions adhere. Working through a social

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equity lens, CCPI asks that the social and economic conditions of all participants be taken into account and that possible impacts on residents and neighbors be evaluated with great care. This method of thinking and designing provides access and is attentive to how people and spaces come together.

Designing a Cultural District through Five Points of Equity

1. Civic Engagement

CCPI invites people of all backgrounds into public life as stewards and advocates to shape their city’s future. The plan also incorporates the needs of each institution to ensure democratic representation in the shaping of the district. This project evolves through robust community engagement efforts, organizational involvement, and cooperation with local and state government agencies.

2. Socio-Economic Mixing

Creating shared experiences for people of all backgrounds, and a place where everyone feels a sense of belonging are CCPI’s top priorities. The district plan ensures a breadth of public, culturally-inviting, open spaces that are not contingent solely on economic transactions.

CCPI is committed to creating public spaces that are diverse and provide a rich register of experiences for everyone. The diversity of user groups is ensured by providing numerous opportunities for civic engagement,

different price points for consumer activities, varied free and affordable amenities, and access to wide ranging cultural facilities.

3. Universal Access

The idea of universal access comes from the concept that everything we make and build should have aesthetic and usable value where the greatest number of people can benefit, regardless of their age, ability, or status. It is a concept that’s contingent on creating barrier free environments in every sense of the word. Universal access is central to CCPI’s mission and helps shape its many networks: mobility, technology, and public spaces.

4. Value Creation

This project takes into account the interest of all stakeholders and offers spaces for economic regeneration across a city’s neighborhoods. Highquality public space design and infrastructure improvements are vital, well-tested strategies to create

better standards in living and work environments. The success of cultureled regeneration projects, of course, depends on the quality of the built environment and its capacity to include opportunities for diverse groups of people to benefit.

5. Sustainability

CCPI offers a districtwhere both cultural and biological diversity are respected, and equal access to institutions and resources for individuals to grow and thrive is possible. The environment in this regard is more than just the preservation of natural resources. It is a direct link between economic, environmental, and health issues and a safe, clean community.

The Necklace on the southern lawn of the Detroit Public Library combines spaces for art and ecology.

Proposal for the ‘People’s Lounge’ at the Detroit Public Library creates a space for Detroiters to share personal stories. Contemporary installations provide opportunities for Detroit-based artists to showcase their work.

Impacts

One of the foundational principles in urban design is that you can’t improve what you can’t measure. Designing good public spaces requires us to think strategically, to set goals, and to analyze the possible consequences of implementation on the environment and people affected. For the Cultural District plan, we have explored impacts in three distinct categories: environment, learning and civic engagement. Both quantitative and qualitative measures help us make informed decisions and consider the value of projected results against our collective goals. In this way, metrics encourage us to make considerate and informed decisions when exploring the urban environment both on the neighborhood level and on a broader urban scale.

The Cultural District plan, aware of the ambitious scale and scope of the project, reflects consistently on the resources and impacts of each design decision, while creating benchmarks to appraise its target goals and future prospects. The approach admits that public space projects have a responsibility to forecast the value of the design and to assess possible outcomes. We intuitively understand why measurements are necessary - it helps us decipher a current reality. But they also encourage us to strive to do better.

Beyond exploring possible outcomes, the central reason why the plan measures impacts is to allow for greater transparency and more engaged stakeholder participation when making decisions about what matters and how to chart a way forward. Impact assessments instigate collective discussion and ingenuity. They can address both the tangible and intangible aspirations of a project.

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Some urban data is relatively accessible and tangible. We can track attendance, traffic accident risk, pollution exposure, rainfall, etc, and we can seek to improve or mitigate the issues we measure. Other impacts are more ethereal, but equally valuable: pride in place, sense of belonging, iconographic identity, the desire to return. CCPI takes both into account.

Jean Louis Farges Principal, Akoaki

Proposed rooftop cafe at the Detroit Institute of Arts creates an overlook in the District.

The CCPI transforms a district originally designed to accommodate car culture into a human-centered and ecologically responsible destination. The plan reduces environmental impact by:

Transforming 16 acres of paved surface into lush landscape; Increasing the amount of pervious surface in the district by more than 40%;

Treating an additional 15.6 million gallons of stormwater runoff; Decarbonizing the landscape with a 60% increase in the tree canopy;

Reducing the heat island effect by 7 degrees on average; Creating empathetic spaces of encounter with biodiverse landscapes that bring nature back into the urban environment.

Proposed ‘Climate Machine’ garden for the Michigan Science Center transforms an above-ground parking lot into an immersive bio-diverse learning environment.

Creating a cohesive landscape around the District’s cultural assets and promoting free and open programming indoors and out, the District plan will dissolve the barriers between the universities, institutions, and everyday Detroiters to introduce a civic commons by:

Creating a dynamic and inclusive arts overlay for theater, installation, sculpture, music, and science education; Facilitating gatherings and activities that benefit public health;

Delivering region-wide eventscapes with adaptive lighting, open plazas, and interactive technologies;

Offering increased efficiency in delivery of services to city residents;

Activating spaces of collaboration & shared programming for local artists, students, and residents;

Creating a framework for collective stewardship of public space and programming.

The Common Green proposed for the District transforms the Detroit Institute of Arts’ visitors parking lot into a shared open space for leisure and programming.

The Cultural District plan will unify a network of essential cultural resources open to all Detroiters, facilitating lifelong learning and increasing efficiency in the delivery of resources and services to all by:

Reducing barriers to cultural assets;

Sharing programs centered on crossgenerational learning;

Creating outdoor engagement through classrooms, pavilions, and greenspaces;

Technologically enabling landscape with open access to broadband and interactive media; Enlisting Detroit- based talent to lead in cultural programming; Nurturing, fostering, and promoting Detroit-based artists;

Strengthening connections between residents and institutions.

IMPACTS

The Children and Family center proposed for the ground floor of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History will connect new programs to the outdoors.

CHARLES H. WRIGHT MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

Social Institutions & Urban Transformation In Conversation With Harley Etienne

Harley Etienne is a noted author, researcher, professor, and consultant with a keen understanding of the way social, cultural, and political contexts intersect with public institutions to facilitate urban neighborhood change. Since joining the CCPI design team in 2018, Etienne has played an integral part in strategic planning and public engagement. Jean Louis Farges, principal of Akoaki, sat down with Professor Harley Etienne for a tête-àtête.

Jean Louis Farges (JLF): Tell us about your first encounter with Detroit’s Cultural District. L’amour at first sight?

Harley Etienne (HE): In 1999, I made my first trip to Detroit to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with a friend and his family. One point of pride that this friend made a point to highlight was the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. I was both delighted and astounded by the “And Still We Rise” exhibit experience, and, from that point on, I thought fondly of Detroit and my visit there. Flash forward a dozen years and I joined the faculty at the University of Michigan. At the suggestion of many, I made my first visit to the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA), where I found myself dumbfounded that Detroit had so many notable works that I somehow never knew were here.

Resonant as that experience was, as an urbanist, did you observe any room for improvement?

During that second visit in 2012, I decided to walk around the DIA, since it was clear that there were other institutions nearby. To my surprise, the museum that had first placed affection for Detroit in my heart was directly adjacent to the DIA, and I had not been aware of the proximity. Years later, when I joined Akoaki and Agence Ter on the design competition team, I was delighted to participate and to directly address this issue.

As an urban planner there are few opportunities such as this to fulfill a century’s old dream and create a unitary experience of some of the flagship cultural institutions of a major U.S. city. However, as the Cultural Center added institutions over the years that benefitted from proximity to the others, circumstance, fate, money, social change, and other historical accidents have inhibited what could have been.

Addressing discontinuity, fragmentation, and inequity in the urban realm comes across as solid urban ambitions. But in a city with a breadth of needs, how do you justify investment in the cultural district?

Throughout the project, I would constantly get asked by Detroiters and colleagues about the value of this project. In a city where there are so many competing and more urgent needs, why this? My answer has always been consistent and simple. Detroit needs and deserves both: bread and roses. The city leadership, civic leaders, philanthropists, and every day citizens must attend to the needs of Detroiters. And there are many organizations that are working tirelessly to build decent and affordable housing; grow and distribute food through urban agriculture projects and cooperative markets; educate the youth; or work to reduce the disparate impacts of environmental pollution and crime.

At the same time, Detroit has never survived on bread alone and never will. Anyone who ever sang along to a Motown song or danced to techno music knows about the many roses that have bloomed in Detroit. There is great dignity to be found in seeing your story reflected in exhibits at the Charles Wright, Detroit Historical Museum, or Hellenic Museum. There is immense value in the learning and human advancement that happens at Wayne State University and the College of Creative Studies. The Detroit Public Library is a palace of the people where the architecture of the building and vast collections makes any everyday user royalty viewing a publicly owned collection of irreplaceable valuables. The love of science that is ignited in the minds of Michigan’s youth at the Science Center has paid extraordinary dividends in the past and will in the years to come. The art and culture that the public has access to at the DIA, Scarab Club, Carr Center, and

HE International Institute are virtually incomparable because of what they are, what they do, what they possess, and how close they are to one another.

These are not incompatible goals. We can and must provide the bread and roses that make life possible and full.

JLF JLF

HE HE

But the roses blooming here are so exceptionally diverse. Given the embedded differences, how can an urban design balance between the sensibilities and postures of existing institutions and the universal conditions necessary to unify them?

Each of the institutions of the Cultural Center has a public-facing mission and a collective spatial arrangement that inhibits the full manifestation of their collective existence. While our team’s appreciation for each institution has grown substantially through this project, we have been clear that the true magic is in how they are connected to one another - through unity and strength. That informed each aspect of our designs. As each institution provides opportunities for enrichment, reflection, enlightenment, and deliberate civility, a unified experience can be calibrated that crosses institutional boundaries, affinities, and personalities. By recasting how the institutions relate to each other spatially, we are attempting to rewrite the script of how visitors experience the Cultural Center as I did in 1999. My wonderful first experience with the Cultural Center would not have been diminished by knowing about the fullness of nearby offerings. Rather, my experience would have been immeasurably enhanced. All of my prejudices of Detroit erased and my mind appropriately blown. The positive impression permanently made.

Let’s weigh in frankly on the experience of working with the design team.

It has been my distinct privilege to work with Akoaki and Agence Ter on this project in the hopes that Detroit will one day have a cultural center that is the envy of arts districts around the country and world. And, while the increased attention for the institutions of the Cultural Center and the City of Detroit is a clear goal and benefit of this project, the primary task is to provide Detroiters with a place to enjoy the artistic, cultural, and educational treasures of the world in their own city.

Environmental Regeneration

The paradox of infrastructure is that it requires significant investment, while typically going unseen. CCPI’s approach to water management is founded on a different philosophy: infrastructure can be beautiful and visible. By incorporating runoff mitigation, drainage, and filtration into bio-dynamic landscapes, the investment in water management will become an investment in the living ground of the city and an enhancement of the urban experience.

In addition to being a tactical and cost-efficient approach to infrastructural remediation, the plan will offer greater biodiversity and will buffer the impact of climate change in the city by reducing the heat island effect. The design models environmentally just and ecologically salient solutions that directly address pressing challenges in the built environment.

Weathering The Storm

The City of Detroit is located in the Southern Great Lakes Forest ecoregion—one of the most heavily impacted regions due to human activity on the continent, according to the World Wildlife Fund. As the average annual precipitation in the region increases and extreme storms occur more frequently, it is imperative that existing and future urban developments in Detroit implement various forms of Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSIs).

Everyone in the city of Detroit—and the entire Great Lakes watershed region— will benefit from this project’s green infrastructure. By transforming 16 acres of paved surface into lush landscape, the District will become an ecosystem responsive to climatechange vulnerabilities. The plan is designed to collect and manage 15.5 million gallons of runoff annually, alleviating sewage overflow during rainfall events.

The average yearly temperature in the Great Lakes basin increased by 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit from 19802016, while the average temperature change within the United States was just 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Projections for annually-averaged temperatures show an increase of 5.810.1 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century, depending on future greenhouse gas emissions.

A warmer atmosphere is able to hold more moisture, causing an increase in the intensity and frequency of wet weather events. Until now, this increase in wet weather has arrived in the form of unusually large events. Moving forward, these events will re-distribute across the seasons. Overall, the Great Lakes Region can expect to see wetter winters and springs while summer precipitation decreases by 5-15%. In areas with impervious surface area, these events

expected to cause more frequent

and damage homes, roadways, and other infrastructure.

also place a greater amount of

on stormwater handling systems, overloading water treatment infrastructure, and polluting water sources.

Olivier Philippe Principal, Agence Ter

“

Modern cities often use an excessive amount of impervious surfaces, a trend designed to expedite progress. Contemporary times have taught us otherwise. It is now our responsibility to remediate and reimagine past efforts so that future generations can thrive.

are

flooding

This will

stress

Water management infrastructure is fully integrated into the landscape and provides opportunities for institutions such as the Detroit Historical Museum - pictured here - to enjoy an ecologically functioning and beautiful design as they take their programming outdoors.

OAKWOOD-NORTHWEST INTERCEPTOR [ONWI]

NORTH INTERCEPTOR EAST ARM [NIEA]

DETROIT RIVER INTERCEPTOR [DRI]

Midtown Cultural Center

¹ “Detroit WWTP NPDES Fact SheetState of Michigan.” Detroit Water and Sewage Department.

Waste Water Treatment Facility

In Detroit

Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) are points where the contents of a combined sewer system overflow occasionally and discharge excess wastewater directly to nearby streams, rivers, or other water bodies. These overflows contain not only storm water but also untreated human and industrial waste, toxic materials, and debris.

Stormwater runoff from impervious areas is a major cause of water pollution in urban areas. In Detroit, it is most notably the cause of combined sewer overflow released into the Rouge or Detroit Rivers. However, even in separated sewer areas (where the sanitary and stormwater systems are not combined), stormwater runoff carries trash, bacteria, and heavy metals into our natural waterways. In addition, peak discharges from heavy rains cause flooding in urban neighborhoods that damage stream habitat, property, and infrastructure.

It is clear that capturing and treating stormwater runoff is critical for all urban areas and not just those serviced by a combined sewer. Green stormwater infrastructure uses vegetation, enhanced soils, water harvesting/reuse, and other elements to mimic natural processes such as infiltration and evapotranspiration to reduce runoff. This lessens the demand on existing “gray” infrastructure (conventional concrete pipes and wastewater treatment facilities) but also creates healthier urban

environments by improving air quality and beautifying the neighborhood.

Green stormwater infrastructure includes: bioretention cells, bioswales, vegetated roofs, cisterns, permeable pavement, constructed wetlands, among others. Another reason to integrate green stormwater infrastructure into urban environments is to improve resiliency. Climate change has caused an increase in extreme weather events and also caused urban temperatures to rise. Green stormwater infrastructure is effective at diminishing increased rainfall intensities while mitigating the urban heat island effect. Promoting the integration of green stormwater infrastructure in urban environments

improve the health and welfare of all Detroit residents.

Untreated combined sewer overflow coming from the City of Detroit and surrounding communities average 1-3 billion gallons per year.

95% of total runoff is caused by weather events with less than 1” of rain.

The current Cultural District footprint is 40% impervious.

will

City of Detroit Planning and Development Department

In Conversation With Dan Rieden

Sarah Carter (SC): Let’s talk about your role as lead landscape

Detroit.

Dan Rieden (DR): To serve the City of Detroit is a great honor. I believe my role is centered on listening and delivering access for the residents of Detroit to be heard. Detroiters told us that they want to see a cultural center that is welcoming to all; embraces opportunities to be represented and celebrated within the programming of the cultural center; and allows all ages access to a place that feels safe, inviting, and easy to navigate from institution to institution. Detroit has world-class, rich cultural resources in its museums, libraries, and universities. They have a wonderful opportunity to coordinate their efforts, open their doors to the public spaces outside, and co-create more interaction between public and private spaces that allows more synergy in this public square. So the role of a landscape architect is that of bridge-builder: to facilitate a dialogue between the public and private, and between professions - architects, engineers, planners – to bring this discussion into reality such as those ideas we are generating around the Cultural Center Planning Initiative (CCPI).

architect for the City of

Dan Rieden is a Lead Landscape Architect at the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department. A self-directed, innovative urbanist, Dan has been a bridge between the City of Detroit and the CCPI Initiative from the project’s inception.

He brings deep and resonant expertise in master planning, landscape ecology, and site design coupled with a genuine consideration of Detroit neighborhoods and communities. We connected with Dan to discuss his contributions to the project and his penchant for catalyzing and sustaining creative collaborations.

Landscape architects are also responsible for creating boundaries around scope creep, or the physical boundaries of a space. Regarding the initial discussion of the boundaries of the CCPI, our department believed that we should delineate a space large enough to be visionary yet tight enough in its scope to have real impact. By staying within the immediate collection of institutions in this area, potential solutions can be represented and extended outward.

Landscape is physically the space between these institutions, but, professionally, landscape architecture can be the facilitator for all these different disciplines to come together and discuss. We’re trained as landscape architects to talk between the lens of science and art. How can we address hydrology? How can we address systems of civic space? How can we design streetscapes, circulation, and all the interaction between different urban layers? What are the different elements of analysis that go into the design of this type of space? Landscape is everything visible on the surface of our built environment and extends down into invisible systems below grade.

What is the city’s responsibility in the context of a project like this?

We envision the City acting as a guide throughout this process. I see the City as responsible for creating a space to have productive discussions. We do not want to get our hands into the project too much, but we do want to help establish boundaries. Unfortunately, we have limitations on resources. Staffing and budget are vying for attention while the city is dealing with COVID and other concerns that Detroit communities have.

That said, we understand the value of CCPI’s longevity and its impact. The City has helped to set the geographic boundaries of the space and guidance on the conversation itself. We need to be mindful of the context that we’re working in at this point of history in the city. We also need to be mindful of the strong feedback we have gotten from communities. People are interested in how we are creating more accessibility in the context of the pandemic and how we are addressing drainage issues in the district and beyond. The City is helping to make sure this project is connecting with the public, and, as design moves forward, we’re not isolating ourselves from the pressing concerns of today.

This project aims to combine cultural and recreational spaces with water management infrastructure. It offers outdoor public spaces that have proven to be so crucial during the recent pandemic. Does this project feel timely? Ambitious? Relevant?

Absolutely! We have to ask ourselves why is this project different? Why is this unique? I think the timing of COVID, in some ways, has been instructional. COVID has taught us how to bring indoor spaces outside in a very efficient way, right? For example, how can we create social spaces outside that are safe? That’s a good thing, and it’s right in line with the mission of this design.

If I could, I would like to step back a minute and talk about the history of this context. Detroit, for years, has had a history of insulating itself. As we’ve had population drain from the city our resources have dropped. Ultimately, with the bankruptcy, a lot of institutions and communities have had to fend for themselves. These circumstances created a condition of fortification, if you will. This mode of insular thinking is visible in the architecture and design of the district’s buildings. Today, Detroit is in a more optimistic time - we can take the bars off the windows, take the fences down, open up ourselves to the neighborhoods, and create a more inclusive space for our institutions. These institutions are starting not to think of themselves as isolated, but really to think of themselves as a collective. This shift is so important to Detroit as a whole. Thinking of ourselves collectively is how we put ourselves on the map as a city.

So getting back to your question - what’s different about this project? The way the design team handles the social context. The integration of the city’s social fabric into all aspects of the design is truly unique. Integrating the cultural and material reality of place into the design process ensures a more inclusive, more open, and more compelling collective future.

CCPI focuses on making the common space around and between the institutions more desirable, safe, well lit, and technologically enabled. The plan offers a series of welcoming thresholds for all of the institutions with the potential for cross pollination, shared audiences, and the creation of a sense of belonging.

Exactly. I think another unique layer that this design team has introduced - as a potential model for the city - is lighting. The lighting design is phe nomenal. It ties in really well with the idea of social fabric we talked about while considering seasonality and time of the day. Detroit gets fairly dark for four or five months of the year, and people tend to avoid being outside. This plan introduces an everyday potential experience where people can feel safe coming to the district. It’s not always about blaring bright lights but creating an atmosphere of interest.

Earlier you talked a little bit about being a bridge builder, and I wonder if you would like to go into any more detail about what it means to create a space or a project in partnership with civic and private institutions. Also, how

SC do we balance the interests of funders, stakeholders, end users, and the city?

I think one of the big successes that we can celebrate today is this collective conversation that we’re having with all these institutions. This is the first time all these institutions have really worked together on one vision, and that’s a huge accomplishment. The city can play a role in bringing this conversation to an even larger audience and encouraging the networks within each of these institutions to share their experiences nationally and internationally outwardly.

I also appreciate that the design team has looked at not only the potential impacts, but the potential cost savings for the City. The stormwater management proposal for this plan is right on point with what the City of Detroit is looking for, and it’s timely as we explore other potential opportunities to handle stormwater in light of climate change.

With national resources potentially aligned, this project feels timely.

The strategic thinking behind green stormwater infrastructure is crucial in this proposal. With recent flooding events wreaking havoc, Detroit residents are now seeing the importance of water management. This project, in particular, illustrates how a landscape designed to mitigate damaging overflow events can also be beautiful and inviting. The design offers a functional biodiverse solution right in the heart of the city. I can already imagine the lush gardens hosting birds and butterflies that make a more enjoyable outdoor environment.

Anything we’ve missed?

There’s so much to celebrate. We finally have a vision that I think is very strong and it touches on so many layers: stormwater, streetscape, cultural programming, pedestrian safety, architectural plugins, inclusivity, and access. We also need to celebrate the success of the institutions. They have a shared goal, and they are already modeling ways to share resources for operations.

I always say you may leave Detroit, but Detroit will never leave you. There’s something about the city that has a bit of soul and will always stay with you, no matter what you do. I really feel that this team has done such a superb job. The design team came out of a large international selection, and has really made significant contributions to this collective vision.

SC SC

DR

DR DR

Proposed ‘Climate Machine’ garden for the Michigan Science Center transforms an above-ground parking lot into an immersive bio-diverse learning environment.

Cooling Oasis

Beyond stormwater infrastructure, the plan increases the tree canopy by 60%. The introduction of a denser planting strategy reduces temperatures in the district by up to 7 degrees, illustrating how cities can adopt a more resilient climate change strategy.

The plan is designed to sponsor a range of landscape conditions with both wet and dry environments. Efficient drainage is engineered into the elements, ensuring the mitigation of swampy patches or boggy fields and control over flora and fauna.

The Square’s levee design creates efficiently draining micro-wetlands and a multi-level natural environment that is easy to maintain. The landscape is designed to accommodate a variety of ground conditions, native plants, and inviting environments for visitors to occupy.

The Science Center Garden educates about micro-climates by demonstrating how water cycles,

atmosphere, and ecosystem design work at the scale of the project and the planet. Here, the science behind the project merges seamlessly with exhibitions and inhabitable environments. In this instance, a parking lot is transformed into a climate machine that serves to change paradigms about landscape in the city.

“

Green stormwater infrastructure has clear applications when handling runoff. We sometimes forget all of the secondary benefits that help alleviate and temper our urban environments.

Don Carpenter Principal, Drummond Carpenter, PLLC

The Role of the Ecotone

The Ecotone inserts a native, biodiverse landscape into the heart of Detroit. This introduction of a resilient ecological system will filter urban runoff, slow the flow of stormwater, temper the warming effect of development and improve local air quality. In the process, the Ecotone will serve as home to resilient vegetation while helping accommodate and introduce local and migratory wildlife species. For residents and visitors, this landscape element will produce spaces for passive recreation, environmental education, and respite.

This strategy plugs into the Southern Great Lakes Forest ecoregion, which includes sweeping interior wetlands, major staging areas for migrating birds, and sand pits hosting unique plant communities. This region serves as an extension of the Midwestern prairies. Agricultural and urban development are the predominant land uses here. Remaining patches of wildlife have been diminished significantly with little to no connectivity in many areas. In many areas, this region has no protected areas larger than 500 square kilometers.

Given the region’s ecological challenges, our watershed impact is all the more critical. The Huron-Erie Corridor, including Lake St. Clair, the St. Clair River, and the Detroit River, makes various contributions to the overall health of Lake Erie. This corridor contains near shore, stream, and extensive coastal wetland habitats (the Detroit River has over 4,000 acres). More than 65 species of fish, 16 of which are threatened or endangered, use the Huron-Erie Corridor. This area is also part of the central Great Lakes flyway for millions of migratory birds.

The Ecotone is designed to offset the impacts of urbanization and human activity while making space for humans and non-humans to coexist in the city.

Don Carpenter Principal, Drummond Carpenter

The Necklace creates a new way to experience the grounds of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Access For All

The fundamental ambition of CCPI is to create accessible design that takes all users into account and reimagines universal accommodation as an integral and beautiful feature, not as an add-on or burden. By considering everyone’s needs, design becomes more, rather than less, appealing and inventive. It shows how space can sponsor activity across generations, social groups, physical experiences, and economic categories. Each design decision is based on an aspiration

to achieve flexibility, offer choices, guarantee welcome, create spaces for conviviality, and remove the barriers that keep us apart.

Above: Proposed ephemeral programming on the Band showcases the capacity of the lighting plan to support large scale events. Here, Woodward Avenue is transformed into a plaza.

Next Page: Lighting plan for the District by 8’18” Lumiere highlights CCPI’s landscape elements.

Light Up

Designed by Paris-based firm 8’18” Lumière, the lighting plan offers an adaptable, digital ecology for Detroit’s Cultural District that links all institutions with common lighting elements, while preserving and emphasizing the specificities, functions, and architectural qualities of each.

Enhancing existing conditions and activating new elements, the plan incorporates architecture, new structures, and diverse landscapes, while acknowledging the need for flexibility and adaptation. The design highlights functional lighting around the Square and atmospheric lighting along the Necklace. It offers lighting effects to highlight architecture, treescapes, and institutional thresholds. Lighting on the Band, with its series of flexible plazas, is designed to accommodate a breadth of events. Here the lighting offers strategies that can emphasize large scale gatherings or ensure safety and tranquility on ordinary days.

The lighting plan is seasonally responsive. Using adjustable lighting temperatures, the system is designed to accentuate the natural features of the canopy and ground vegetation, and to extend alluring visual qualities of dusk and dawn as they vary throughout the year. The design’s affection for flora and fauna is more than cosmetic, however. The lighting takes light pollution and bird migration into consideration, creating a modifiable system that is as

efficient as it is focused on mitigating ecological impacts.

The lighting plan operates by introducing intelligent fixtures, programmed to respond to changes in weather conditions, times of day, and the astronomical clock. Through the use of controlled photometry, the approach lowers energy consumption while amplifying visual and atmospheric effects. The system also integrates data transmission and ensures security. The lighting plan merges WiFi and LiFi technologies in order to link people to institutions, information, and each other. This is particularly meaningful in a city where

The lighting concept comes from the desire to create unobstructed views of the District. Seeking to link institutions and landscapes, while ensuring diversity of experience, the lighting plan considers existing architecture and projects a functional and adaptable future. It is a digital ecology designed to animate the district using modular parts that treat the city as a stage.

Remy Civitella Principal, 8’18” Lumiere

“

close to half of the population does not benefit from consistent access to the internet.

Integrating signage, sound systems, and video projection into the lighting scheme allows for an extra layer of interactivity. Light and sound accommodate an ever transforming cultural eventscape with a number of possible artistic inputs and environments. Dynamic lighting on the facades of buildings and ground surfaces is made possible by integrating projection mapping capabilities to activate key locations around the District.

The lighting plan is informed by the iconographic architecture of the District, and works to amplify the unique character of each building by highlighting the rhythms of windows and ornament. In this approach, familiar structures become dynamic urban markers welcoming visitors time and again.

“The lighting plan accounts for institutionalhuman, and ecological appropriation, taking people, animals, vegetation, and cultural production into account. In the process it offers comfort, adaptation, playability and ambiance, through a lighting scheme that highlights the best attributes of public space design. Beyond poetics, of course, the system integrates functional, material solutions to create the digital infrastructure necessary to access information, connect, and recharge.

Salome Loyer Project Manager, 8’18” Lumiere

Digital Strategy

The Digital Strategy Plan creates a vision and set of principles for the equitable development of digital capacities for the Detroit Cultural District, centered on digital infrastructure, digital transformation, and creative visitor experiences. Engaged by Midtown Detroit Inc., rootoftwo, the Detroit-based, civic future-making practice of Cézanne Charles and John Marshall, led the digital strategy. To ensure it was deeply rooted in Detroit art and culture, the team worked with the district institutions, residents, visitors, artists, stakeholders, partners and others.

Technology should be a point of inclusion. Detroit is one of the least connected cities and significantly, residents in Midtown also have low rates of access to broadband internet in the home. As a result of the digital strategy planning work with rootoftwo, MDI and Wayne State University formed a new partnership in collaboration with the institutions to establish reliable and fast outdoor Wi-Fi as a free, public amenity across the district.

rootoftwo led discussions with local, national and international thought-leaders to guide the digital transformation work - resulting in a set of rights & principles that

consider the impact of data collection, analysis, and distribution on our collective cultural, social, and ethical values. The strategy also identifies opportunities to build digital capacity and communications with the district institutions. Ultimately, the strategy highlights the Dlectricity festival produced by MDI and the work of several institutions in the district. Collectively, these projects provide compelling experiences, digital programming and new collaborations

activate the outdoor spaces

Charles & John Marshall Partners, rootoftwo

“

We envision the Detroit Cultural District as a place where artists, cultural and educational institutions, visitors, and residents can explore new pathways for digital storytelling,expression, and inclusion. The strategy aims to build resilient, equitable and inclusive models for digital transformation and infrastructure.

Cézanne

that

and connect to audiences across the city and region.

East Kirby Street lighting plan with integrated WiFi and technology.

The proposed Arts Vitrine and Welcome Center on Brush Street provides an engaging entry into the District for pedestrians or those arriving by car via the new underground car park. The space works like a switchboard, helping guide visitors on their journeys throughout the District. Exhibitions and events will be co-curated by the District’s stakeholder institutions and the governing entity.

Movement & Access

Getting to and moving freely around the District is a fundamental requirement for the plan. Yet how we get there, how we access the resources on site, and the affiliated costs of staying can be a hotly debated topic. Every resident engaged on the subject has strong feelings about arriving and connecting to the District. Impressions are often based on connections to transportation networks; available vehicles; fees for parking; access to services and commerce; and other perceptual considerations about comfort and efficiency.

Mobility, in this sense, is directly related to access and social inclusion. Appropriately, CCPI addresses questions of urban mobility and access in a holistic and comprehensive manner. The plan embraces the importance of providing access to culture and leisure so that everyone can enjoy the city’s resources.

CCPI’s approach to mobility planning is not considered in isolation, limited to a problem of public transport, engineering, or travel efficiency. It is integrated into a reflection on the urban totality, including its complexities and contradictions, and the inequalities that manifest themselves in the city. It considers Detroit’s intense climate, historical

affinity for the automobile, and embellishment of street proportions prior to evaluating the impacts of any urban transformation. It figures the coded requirements of universal access and the perceived convenience of connecting to thresholds.

Most importantly, urban mobility is not limited to the way people move or access the District. It includes the intangible aspirations of social mobility through programs, atmosphere, and spatial opportunities that invite interaction with a fairer city and a better society.

The Mobility + Access and Parking booklets take deeper dives into the statistical measures and attributes of the mobility and parking proposals, unpacking the numbers behind the robust feasibility studies accompanying the plan. Likewise, the publications look closer at the District’s connections to public transportation and future mobility networks. In this section, CCPI introduces the idea of strategic parking consolidation, creating access points in and out of the District by coupling art interventions and public programs with the efficiency of underground parking garages.

Proposed Brush Street Arts Vitrine and Welcome Center connected to the District’s new underground car park holds exhibitions, public programs, and outdoor gathering spaces on the public roof deck.

Twelve Institutions Plug In

Urban design is typically focused on shared and exterior spaces, so why investigate the internal workings of the participating cultural institutions to create the plan? Working intensively with each stakeholder institution, CCPI develops strategies that will make the interiors more accessible and the outside world more engaging. The approach surfaces public programs and commercial intrigue, while making institutional thresholds easier to breach. Each tailored approach considers

the circumstances, aspirations, and ambitions of participating institutions in order to maximize impact and develop plans for a phased evolution. By plugging in, everyone will augment visibility, improve audience engagement, and take full advantage of the infrastructural improvements that will be offered by the District plan.

Bottom: The proposed third floor ballroom creates an event space that supports future large scale events at the museum. The southern facade opens a view corridor down Woodward Avenue while the northern wall creates space for a contemporary fresco by Detroit-based artists.

Top: Proposed entry rotunda at the Detroit Historical Museum creates an inviting and flexible space for exhibitions while reactivating the original Woodward Avenue entry.

Detroit Historical Museum

Inviting the designers from Akoaki and Agence Ter to reflect on ways the institution might extend and amplify its programming, the Detroit Historical Museum offered a challenge: how can architecture sponsor experiences that highlight history as a living art, not a closed canon?

In response the design team, working in close collaboration with the museum’s staff and leadership, explored ways to create a more flexible and inviting strategy for the reconfiguration of a building constructed in 1951 and expanded in 1967. The resulting design gets to the bones of the matter – producing an analysis of the original structure and stripping away partitions and surfaces that encumber the spatial generosity of the original plan. In this proposal, obstructions are eliminated, galleries rearranged, commercial activities introduced to engage the Square, and a circulatory strategy is incorporated to provide a continuous flow through Detroit’s most compelling narratives and histories.

On the exterior, the design activates Legends Plaza by diminishing barriers to the Square and landscape beyond. A glass tower serves as a beacon and a highlight for the collection, ushering people across the threshold to explore the museum galleries in open-ended but clearly intuitive ways. A projection

surface provides a flexible venue to present rotating audio and visual content while leaving the lobby open and welcoming. Inside the reactivated Woodward Avenue entry, visitors are greeted by an open atrium and “rust belt” stair in homage to the industrial legacy of the city.

Revising the physical space of the Detroit Historical Museum, the proposal emphasizes the museum’s custodial role as keeper of Detroit’s historical record, and spotlights its contributions to authoring its future histories.

Historical Society

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The Cultural Center is designed to be a nexus that supports its neighborhoods. The District does not stand alone - it neighborhoods,encompassesschools, and the community. We are thinking about the District as a place of socio-economic mixing waters that create shared experiences for people of all backgrounds.

Elana Rugh President and CEO, Detroit

The Detroit Historical Museum In Conversation With Elana Rugh

Anya Sirota (AS): Someone clever once stated the obvious, “We study the past to understand the present; we understand the present to guide the future”? If that’s the case, how does the Detroit Historical Museum nurture an understanding of the city? Whom does it serve? Detroiters, visitors, everyone?

Elana Rugh (ER): A community cannot understand its current condition if it does not know its history. If we do not understand our place within the present, we will be unable to chart a path toward a positive future. The Detroit Historical Society and its two museums help visitors envision the future by presenting them with the critical moments of the past and helping them to interpret them in a way that creates context for their experience in Detroit today.

Our new tagline is “Detroit Starts Here.” We believe that every pilgrimage to Detroit, whether by a lifelong resident, or someone from another part of the world, should begin with a visit to the Detroit Historical Museum. We provide context for everything else one will experience in the city, and we are proud to play this important role.

We know history can be a powerful teacher, and we believe that our work during this time of such unrest is more critical than ever. We are the keeper of the Detroit region’s stories, but we also know that Detroit is a microcosm of the world, so what we do is as much for visitors from elsewhere

Elana A. Rugh is the President and Chief Executive Officer at the Detroit Historical Society. With thirty years of experience in nonprofit management and a remarkable capacity to galvanize local government, business, and community around common goals, she works tirelessly to invigorate the beloved, 100-year-old institution she now serves. Open, inspiring, with an insatiable appetite for experimentation, she sat down to share her thoughts about the future of the Detroit Historical Society and her plans to plug in.

as it is for Detroiters. People from around the world are fascinated with our city, our grit, our perseverance, our ups and downs. Understanding the link between past and present is basic for a good understanding of the condition of being human.

The pandemic and contemporary social movements have accelerated a call for change in the way institutions operate, whom they serve, and how they include a breadth of voices in the ever evolving conversation around human experience. In this transforming context, what is the future of the historical museum? What aspirations are top of mind as you reconnect with constituents and extend your audience?

This year, the Detroit Historical Society celebrates its centennial, and it has been a time of great contemplation for our Board and staff. As we navigate the significant economic struggles the pandemic has brought upon us, we also take very seriously our role in telling all Detroiters stories, as well as collecting stories about THIS time so that 100 years from now, people will be able to learn from this difficult time in our city.

Even before the current racial unrest, inclusion and social justice were on everyone’s mind. Most museums were founded by and were designed to tell the stories of the dominant cultural group – and in Detroit, the dominant cultural group is no longer what it was when we were founded in 1921, or even in 1951 when the museum was built.

I think it is important for people visiting cultural institutions, especially children, to see themselves represented fairly and authentically. Part of our new strategic direction, as we reimagine the DHM for the next 100 years and through the opportunity we have being part of Detroit Square, is to take a critical look at what stories are missing, what has been edited or excluded. We are committed to ensuring that we are engaging the right voices from the groups of Detroiters that are underrepresented currently so that we are representing the full measure of the Detroit experience in the stories we tell.

I think It comes down to this: cultural institutions need to reflect the audience we want to attract. We need to remove barriers to entry, and we need to intentionally produce programs, exhibitions, and events that invite the community in to engage people in meaningful conversation.

Your institution, early on, modeled the importance of bringing cultural programming to the outdoors with various events, such as Techno Tuesdays in Legends Plaza. Why is it important to breach that institutional threshold and bring activities into the public realm?

If there was any good that came out of the Covid 19 pandemic, it was the utter need to design new outdoor programming that felt safe to our visitors and staff.

Since the Detroit Historical Museum was built in 1951, our location and lack of extensive grounds has limited our plans to provide outdoor programming in midtown. Pair that with the decades ago closure of the original and very grand Woodward facing entrance, and we were challenged at the very least. The CCPI project showed us what would be possible in the future and became a catalyst for our team to try out new programming that would engage the local community of residents and businesses. Our previously underutilized Legends Plaza was the perfect venue for us to test out our ability to engage in this new way.

This Cultural Center plan ensures that there’s a breadth of free and open public spaces that are not contingent solely on economic transactions, and it ensures that these spaces- that are open for everyone to use are as engaging as the interiors of our institutions. The added benefit of intentional connectivity between the institutions through a planned and walkable landscape will promote collaboration on engaging public programming in the common areas. Free district wide wifi is one of the early project wins, and we were proud to be the first place it was installed.

AS Moving indoors, let’s talk about programs and exhibitions. Institutional collaboration seems key to increasing programmatic impact, sharing audience, diversifying user experience and activating the district. Your past successes with exhibitions and public programs that catalyze cross-institutional collaboration, Detroit 67 being a prime example, illustrate just that. Through this planning process, have you discovered new opportunities for coordinating resources, programs, and new initiatives?

While we are at the early stages of embarking on deep collaboration, I am encouraged and excited about the opportunity to partner closely with the 12 core institutions in the district in any way possible. We do believe that the collaboration we achieved with Detroit 67 provides a useful model for new collaborations to come and our entire team is very excited at the prospect of regularly working closely with our sister institutions, normalizing the extraordinary collaboration that was the hallmark of Detroit 67. This project gives us all the chance to think about ourselves differently and even more so how we interact with each other and those who visit. The CEO roundtable that formed as a part of the initial planning effort was a great example of the power of this project to bring us together.

Urban designers rarely infringe on architectural interiors. Yet, this design team did - exploring ways public space can interact more dynamically with the spatial organization of stakeholder institutions. Can you tell us a little about working with the design team on blurring the boundaries between inside and outside? How has the process inflected your thinking about the mission and capacities of the museum?

We had no expectation that the design team would delve into the potential reimagining of our interior, but quite frankly it has been the most catalytic and inspiring part of the project for our team. We came into this project anticipating inspirational but modest outdoor changes to the museum. The team’s discovery that the museum interior could be vastly opened up intentionally connected to the landscape and reimagined, as well as the designers’ willingness to take on a complete reimagining of our visitor experience, changed everything for us.

What aspects of the plan support, grow, and further develop opportunities for extended programming in the landscape? For improving visitor experience in the museum?

With nearly 300,000 artifacts in the collection, DHS is constantly looking for new and interesting ways to activate the collection through storytelling outside of the walls of our museums. Utilizing the landscape as a connective tissue between institutions and an extended canvas for displaying artifacts and telling Detroit’s stories is an exciting opportunity for us. By intentionally using the exterior opportunities to expand and enrich the stories that are well represented inside the museum, we can leverage this additional exposure to entice more visitors through our doors and into participation in our programming. By acting as a connector between institutions, the landscape will hopefully also act as a shared canvas for joint programming and storytelling by neighbors. We look forward to working toward this new way of considering our partnerships throughout the cultural district.

Anything else you would like to share?

One of the things I think we all love about the idea of The Cultural Center is that it is designed to be a NEXUS that supports its neighborhoods. This District does not stand alone – it encompasses neighborhoods, schools, and the community. We are also thinking about the district as a place of socioeconomic mixing waters that create shared experiences from people of all backgrounds, where everyone feels like they belong. As cultural institutions, we struggle with this. We all WANT to be inviting, accessible, and appealing to people who live in the neighborhoods.

Detroit Public Library

Beyond providing take-home resources, the Detroit Public Library serves as the city’s informal living room. The Main Library’s exceptional archival materials and collections serve as the source material for a series of interventions. New media and contemporary arts practices deliver a series of stimulating, technologically enabled encounters with the holdings that might otherwise go unseen.

The Lyric Lounge transforms the music collection through the installation of a series of ornery inhabitable disco balls that immerse audiophiles in the richness of the record archive. The photography collection is activated through an immersive projection pavilion. And the Arts Collection is transformed into the People’s Lounge,a place for Detroiters to engage with each other’s stories in a comfortable and stylish living archive. Finally, the Children’s Wing is invigorated with an interior playscape that combines spaces for reading with romping, and extends family activities to the outdoors. These interventions activate the Main Library’s existing spaces and provide a cornerstone for the cultural life and civic infrastructure of the city.

Jo Anne G. Mondowney Executive Director, Detroit Public Library

Moving outdoors, the Woodward Avenue terrace is restored and extended to sponsor public programs, reading kiosks, and temporary food stalls. The Cass Avenue entrance is improved with terraced landscaping that invites visitors to linger on the grounds that connect to the Wayne State University campus. CCPI builds on the well established legacy of the Main Library.

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The CCPI plan encourages us to connect to other institutions in a very intentional way on a regular basis. I think the district as a cohesive system allows people to expand their experiences as they come into this space, and that is in alignment with where we would like to be.

The proposed Lyric Lounge transforms the music collection through the installation of a series of inhabitable disco balls that immerse audiophiles in the richness of the record archive.

The Detroit Public Library

In Conversation With Jo Anne G. Mondowney

Anne G. Mondowney stepped into her role as Executive Director of the Detroit

Library in 2009.

made

Detroit Public

Harley Etienne (HE): One of the things that we appreciate about the Detroit Public Library is that it’s an essential destination, one so commonly frequented. How do you envision the library anchoring the cultural district by serving residents on a daily basis?

Jo Anne G. Mondowney (JM): Public libraries were once defined by a structure where you had to come to the library at least every three weeks to return your books, otherwise you were going to be charged a fine. So structurally, we had an advantage. Programmatically, we didn’t have to do anything to keep people coming - if you wanted new, different materials, you had to come in. Over the years, libraries have evolved from a place of just coming in and checking out books to a community hub for many neighborhoods. In Detroit, for example, the public library is often the only public place you could come to meet. At one point before we became electronically driven, the public library was the only place where you could get an encyclopedia and do your homework. More recently, public libraries have become known to offer other things like: music programs, plays, and events that engage the community more. But, it is, and has always been a

Jo

Public

Before serving the largest public library system in Michigan, she

her mark in the field as director of the Flint Public Library and serving in several positions at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. With Jo Anne’s energy, unflinching dedication to civic advocacy, and effervescence, the

Library provides residents diverse and dynamic pathways to literacy and learning. We met with Jo Anne to learn more about the role of the library in the district and beyond.

JM

place where people can come for a variety of different activities on a daily basis.

As the role of the library changes, we have more digital resources available and people may not need to come in to see the physical encyclopedia as they once did. What does the library become in that context?

The library started engaging communities more heavily when we recognized that you didn’t have to come into the physical building. We started aiming for 24/7 connectivity. Even though we compete with platforms like Google, we do offer resources that those databases cannot. Also, the library got into the download game with movies, books, and databases, while still maintaining a presence in the lives of its community.

We are going to be extending the wifi beyond the walls of the institutions to the entire cultural district. How do you think that might impact the library?

If you’re only thinking in terms of just connecting to wifi, that does not impact the library one way or the other. But, if you’re thinking about what you’re connecting to, then there is room for the public library to shine.

Technology has been a large topic of conversation in the context of the pandemic. It is widely known how many people are disadvantaged, and do not have connectivity. In my opinion, it goes beyond connectivity - it is about what you are connecting to and for what reason.

The Main Branch of the Public Library was the first building constructed in the district and may well be the most beautiful. It was the first anchor institution before everyone else showed up. What are your thoughts about the profile of the library in the district, and its importance to this project as an institution, as a building, and as an accessible place for the community?

Well, I always say: looks matter. People act and respond to beauty no matter where it is. Detroit has always taken pride in its public library, especially the main library, which turned a hundred years old this year. It’s [the main branch] a little frayed with his age, you know, after a hundred years, you can get worn out. But, it still is one of the most beautiful places you could be and people come from far and wide to appreciate how beautiful it really is.

From our side, we take a lot of pride in providing an environment that is beautiful, but that contains lifelong learning for people where everybody is welcome.

HE HE HE

JM

JM JM

HE JM

HE JM

We have this impression that the public library is a place of comfort and it’s also a black space - either intentionally or unintentionally black. It’s one of the places where African-Americans are probably most comfortable in the district. Historically, there is a tendency to deny black people access to information, and to comfort. How does the library respond to that?

I think that people feel welcome, you can’t just create welcome. Folks who come, they just feel welcome because of the energy we put out to people and the positivity we exude. That’s not to say everybody has the same experience because you have to bring something to the process. I think part of the advantage we have is that we are represented throughout the city of Detroit. So, if you have the experience of going to a neighborhood branch, more than likely, that will be a continuum when you come into the main library space.

The Burton Collection has a big role in establishing the library as a place where people come to learn about Detroit’s history and its memory. Can you talk more about how the DPL is this conservator of the city’s record and memory?

We are fortunate for Charles N. Burton, who collected and contributed materials for that collection. The Burton Collection turned a hundred years old in 2015. It is extensive. It is just absolutely one of the most outstanding historical collections in Detroit, and I would say in the world. Most notably, the Burton Collection has the responsibility for maintaining the national auto history collection, which is the largest in the world.

Turning back to CCPI, how has this design process been for you? Is there any way that this project has helped you take stock or appreciate your own institution differently?

It has been nice connecting to others in the cultural center and getting to know my colleagues in a different way. This project has created an imaginative space for us to look beyond our current situation, and has enabled others to look at us in an imaginative way. So, it has been an internally-focused as well as an externally-productive process.

How does what we’re proposing and working on align with where you think the library might go? Are there places of alignment, or some places where it may be not so aligned?

The plan encourages us to connect to other institutions in a very intentional way on a regular basis, not just around Noel Night or Dlectricity. I think

HE HE

JM JM

JM

HE JM

looking at the district as a cohesive system allows people to expand their experiences as they come into this space, and that is in alignment with where we would like to be. Detroit 67 is a perfect example of what we can all do to expand the experiences of others. I think that is something to continue to build on.

What is the key takeaway that you want people unfamiliar with the Detroit Public Library to know about its possible future?

We are a lifelong learning institution that does not begin with preschool and end in high school. We are the people’s university. You can always learn something here or be connected to others. The library is one of the most democratic institutions in this country - it allows for points of views to be expressed in safe ways and nurtures respect for others. As a country, we are right now in a divisive environment. In the Detroit Public Library, we always try to cultivate a space to have and respect different opinions. We are a neutral space that allows for various points of views to coexist.

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is a symbol for African-American cultural life in the city - which is, of course, the essence and majority of Detroit. The institution needs no help in cementing its relationship to and representation of Detroit’s legacy; what new construction and participation in CCPI can offer is a bridge to the future of African-American art and experimentation.

To support the vanguard cultural production of contemporary and emergent African-American artists, the Charles H. Wright Museum invited Agence Ter and Akoaki to reimagine the interior configuration of its entries, exhibition spaces, eventscapes, and connections to the outdoors. The process looked to enhance spatial efficiency, circulatory legibility, and access to flexible spaces for programming, while enabling the museum to better serve children and families. Beyond renovation and organizational strategies that consolidate key functions, the team tested possibilities for expansion, modeling an addition to house new media exhibitions, immersive environments, and production spaces.

Outdoors, the Charles H. Wright Museum is already modeling ecologically sustainable strategies for the management of its architecture and grounds. The design team builds on that momentum, contributing additional water management infrastructure, public art amenities and performance-based activities.

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The notion of a safe gathering place where the exchange of ideas and cultures is really attractive to me and I think it would be to a lot of people - particularly at this moment. Where does culture gather? Where can we begin to intentionally live together and learn about each other together?

Neil Barclay

President and CEO, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

Top: The proposed exhibition hall with an interactive technology overlay will engage visitors in a renewed experience of ‘And Still We Rise’ , a comprehensive look at the history of African American resilience.

Next Page: Community event space on the ground floor is reimagined and connected to outdoor gardens.

CHARLES H. WRIGHT MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN

CHARLES H. WRIGHT MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

The Charles H.Wright Museum of African American History

In Conversation With Neil Barclay

Harley Etienne (HE): What is the importance of the Charles H. Wright Museum to Detroiters and black Detroiters, more specifically. Zooming out, how does the Charles H. Wright register at the city, region, state, nation, and international scales?

Neil Barclay(NB): The Charles Wright is one of the oldest and largest of the state’s preeminent American institutions, and it’s one of the few that is focused specifically on African-American culture. I think those elements make the institution important, certainly locally and statewide. The museum was established right after the rebellion. The current building we’re in started the movement to create the institution. So, the Charles Wright is symbolic to a lot of people, representing a certain kind of African-American empowerment. It also has been a place where a number of prominent African-Americans have laid in state to allow the community to say their goodbyes, whether it’s Judge Keith, Aretha Franklin, or Rosa Parks, all of whom have laid in state in our rotunda.

I think the Charles Wright’s national import comes from being the largest encyclopedic museum of African-American history other than the Smithsonian. Even then, I would say it’s the only replicable model of an African-American museum in the country. Meaning, if someone wanted to build an African-American museum today, they wouldn’t be looking at the Smithsonian as a model. They would really be looking more to the Wright and what’s possible - particularly because it was built out of a public/private partnership.

Neil Barclay is the President and Chief Executive Officer at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. With more than three decades of experience in managing art and cultural institutions, he aims to engage a global community in exploring and celebrating the perseverance and achievements of African Americans. Professor Harley Etienne, planning consultant for the design team, connected with Neil Barclay to discuss how the Charles H. Wright plugs into the District.

NB

HE HE

NB

The building is monumental. It logically offers a gateway into the district. What are the ways the Charles Wright is thinking about enhancing its position in the District?

I really liked where the visitor center was positioned in the latest designs, because of its proximity to the Wright. I also think my instinct about making the Wright a media driven center is an opportunity for us to draw people coming into the cultural center directly into the Wright, because of the exhibitions that it would offer. As I envisioned it, the exhibition would be similar to the Immersive Van Gogh installation with endless possibilities for sound design, visual design, et cetera. My goal is to make the media attraction a must-see. There are always going to be attractions pulling people into the district, so we are trying to think a lot about how this experience is going to be different from the DIA, DHM, or any of those other experiences.

These ideas are part of a larger initiative that the Wright is exploring with a number of funders around the use of technology and museums. How we can increase interactivity and incorporate new technologies is going to become more and more a part of what we do. Even what was done for Dlectricity - video mapping on a building - is more of the direction we’re going towards. We’re not likely to collect art objects but more artifacts and archival material. Our visual arts presentations are going to be more akin to public art or larger scale public displays of history and culture. Does that make sense?

It does. I’m curious about the complementarities between the Charles Wright, the DPL, and some of the other institutions along this avenue of new media and exhibition. How are you envisioning that? Has this project helped you see more opportunities for those kinds of collaborations and connections?

It has not, to be honest. I don’t think the project invites - yet - the institutions to think more about collaborations, other than providing a potential space for them to do so. I think that the work of determining what that would be, has yet to be frankly discussed. That could be just where we are in the planning.

As it relates to the library and the historical museum though, I feel like a lot of the materials that are in the archives they have could be an important source for the exhibitions that we want to create - particularly the immersive ones about Detroit neighborhoods and Detroit streets. So this notion of pulling from archives about black Detroit around the city, could be a very fruitful one for us.

HE NB

Along that vein, we asked Joanne Mondowney [director of the Detroit Public Library] about the comfort and the importance of the Public Library for blackness in the district. I think it’s pretty explicit with the Charles Wright given its mission’s history, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on the Charles Wright as a place of welcome in the district on a daily basis.

Well, in a lot of ways it was designed as a town square. The conceit of the rotunda is that people come in from all different directions into the central place. Even the way the acoustics run, you can hear each other speak as if they were in your mind. So that was certainly part of the impulse to create the building itself.

I would say that in recent years the Wright has really tried more to live up to its reputation as a cultural institution and not as much as a community gathering place. I don’t think that is intentional in the sense that we did one or the other. My feeling about the Wright when I came in was there was a lot we needed to do as an institution before we could be taken seriously as a museum and a cultural institution - the state of the archives, budget, staff, etc.

Moving forward, our hope for a takeaway from the CCPI project is to be more welcoming and more of a destination. We want to have more places where people can come see themselves and feel comfortable. For example, even in the Agence Ter - Akoaki remodel, we’re thinking about the whole bottom floor as a place for children and families to come together and look at African-American culture from the perspective of younger people. This provides parents an opportunity to give their kids a sense of their own cultural identity. HE NB

Which part of this project has excited you the most?

Well, the whole idea of it thrills me. Frankly, the notion that we would have this central campus for culture that has the beauty and the utility that you all have described is amazing. It’s fabulous. It’s also a very expensive proposition in a city that does not have a lot of resources. So, it’s going to be interesting to see if we can realize that.

It’s also been thrilling to have my colleagues around the table, and to have us thinking about something together. I think that’s really significant. I have not seen that in many cities that I’ve been in. If nothing else happened, if we could learn how to work together and collaborate, that would be amazing. There’s usually competition among these kinds of organizations, typically for donors or visibility, but I don’t feel that in this group.

HE HE

NB NB

HE NB

Is there anything about the design in particular that you really like?

I love the new visitor center. I thought that was really a genius idea. The look and feel of the open space created is going to be really inviting for people, particularly when we think about what content might be seen as people are coming out of the garage. I’ve loved all of the landscaping and lighting work. I think it’s outstanding. It’s going to be really, really beautiful.

Do you see the potential for particular experiences coming out of this project for artists, African-American artists in particular, and how they engage with the space? Do you see any potential for that?

Well, certainly my vision for the Wright building is about giving artists the tools they need to innovate for the 21st and 22nd century. My belief is things, like objects, are not going to be the subject of art making much longer. I mean, we’ll still have painters and so fourth. But that work will be able to be animated and utilized in so many different other ways. I want our artists to be able to think about our museum as a place for them to actually do it and to actually realize that level of ambition. The Wright has been just about history, somewhat about culture, but rarely about contemporary art.I come from the contemporary art world. I’m keen to give opportunities to artists working here to show their work, to be a catalyst for their work, and to garner them more regional and national attention. The Mario Moore exhibition we just did and the catalog that goes with it was really an attempt for us to give him the tools and things needed to be taken seriously nationally and internationally. I think we will do that with all the artists that we present moving forward.

What do you think that the rest of the cultural district can learn from the Charles Wright?

They can learn that there is something significant about allowing an African-American museum to have prominence in a cultural sector of a predominantly black city.

There is nothing wrong with our colleagues being everything that they are, and yet respecting the fact that there is a museum where that’s our mission. I do think that there is a tacit notion of first choice institutions contrasted with the way we’re positioning ourselves. That might make us feel a little foreign to a lot of people attempting to understand that there is a difference. It’s the difference between a culture speaking about themselves and a culture commenting on another culture from their perspective. Those are both important, but they remain two different things. In this moment, the piece that is missing is the piece about the lived experience.

Historically, larger, more mainstream organizations around the world, often give very little respect and attention to BIPOC organizations within their community. Seldom do they balance the fact that they have an institution that’s totally focused on culture with one who lives in a community that they want to be servicing . That has not ever been well negotiated. I think it’s something we might be able to accomplish with the cultural district project.

Ultimately, how important is it to Detroit for this project to come to pass? Given our demographics, the Wrights imprimatur is an important one. And I say that to think about the project without the Wright is inconceivable.

HE

NB This is an incredibly important point. Thank you for saying what you just said, and for being that candid. This came up a little bit when we talked to Joanne Mondowney right before you. We told her that we thought that the DPL was kind of one of the underrated stars of the district. Is there a place where the Charles Wright and the DPL are conceived as co-stars?

NB NB

Absolutely. I think we could do a lot, and I’m glad you are talking about Jo Anne because I haven’t talked to her in a long time. I think that the Wright and the library system could be huge partners in this, and in Detroit. I think that we could bring a lot of resources to residents, and possibly to each other. I’m not familiar with the holdings of the library, but my suspicion is that there’s a lot that they could help us amplify. Also, we could work together on the creation of things that are more outward facing. In a city that is dealing with literacy issues, low reading levels, and access to technology, there is a story there that’s really significant about us working together. Right?

HE We also asked Jo Anne about the ways in which culture and literacy in particular have been denied to AfricanAmericans, and how this project could be one way to create gateways into these institutions and bring even more people in. Do you have any thoughts? One of the phrases we threw around with this question was deliberate civility, a place where people come to get calm and are civil in a way that they’re not in the larger world and where they can absorb information and appreciate art and culture in particular ways. I just wanted to see if you had any reactions to that idea about deliberate civility and the denial of information and culture to African-Americans.

I’m kicking around whether civility is the right term. Our history is such that sometimes being what people would consider ‘uncivil’ has been the reason that we have survived. So, that word doesn’t strike me, in terms of the African-American experience of being particularly apropos.

NB The notion of a safe gathering place where the exchange of ideas and cultures exists is really attractive to me and I think it would be to a lot of people - particularly at this moment. Where does culture gather? Where can we begin to intentionally live and learn about each other together and not apart? Going back to the notion of trying to bridge the lived experiences of black and non BIPOC people - that disconnect is so severe right now. If we can’t get over that, we’re really not going to survive.

I think it’s a really interesting idea. You’re an urban planner, so you know the town square is not a new idea. In this moment, that’s particularly compelling when you think about the different kinds of the divides, right? The fact that we all have different town squares, or different gathering places - the district could be a gathering place where everybody comes. They start there. So they learn about Detroit, that’s where they really sink their teeth into what this place is about. That’s a huge possibility of the project.

HE Absolutely. One last question - how has it been working with us?

NB Well, we appreciate it. Thank you, Neil.

Y’all are okay. No, I’m just kidding - I love working with you guys! I have to say, I find working with you very inspiring. I think you listen well. I appreciate how well the ideas that we’ve expressed together show up in the renderings, and the things that you do for us. I think that’s been spot on. I think you all are incredible. I really do. I’m not just saying that.

HE

Top: A test fit to reimagine the Woodward entry in a strategy that proposes radical flatness and intentional horizontality on an extended plaza.

Bottom: The Woodward Avenue entry amplifies the grand lobby to welcome visitors from the proposed plaza. The triple-height space offers opportunities to exhibit three-dimensional works.

Detroit Institute of Arts

For the venerable Detroit Institute of Arts, Agence Ter and Akoaki created a set of simple interventions to leverage existing assets. These spatial mediations are designed to make navigation intuitive and access more welcoming. In the process, the proposal considers the possible futures of an encyclopedic institution as it works to expand, embrace, and engage new generations of Detroiters.

Interventions explored by the design team center around entry experiences, exhibitions, childrens’ learning, and commercial activation. The goals include: unifying the existing threeentryway layout on the ground floor by way of a central ticket counter, bringing commercial activity to the southern facade, creating an addition at the John R entry that extends exhibition, consolidating educational programming in a stacked children’s wing, and extending the public programming to a roof garden and cafe.

The design also examines strategies to humanize the grand stair and institutional entry on Woodward Avenue. Offering options with different topographies that are more playful, inclusive, and contemporary,

the proposal intentionally subdues the reverential aspects of the architecture to create an interactive, approachable, and programmable space for civic engagement.

These modifications help define the central ephemeral plaza on Woodward Avenue, an urban connector between the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Public Library. Terracing, integrated lighting, technology, and infrastructure are combined to host large-scale events when Woodward Avenue is temporarily shut for cultural events.

Institute of Arts

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Detroit is an incredibly vibrant city, in constant evolution, and there’s no place else I would rather be. The Detroit Institute of Arts strives to be a reflection of our culturally rich communities, and we want to continue to create programs, exhibitions and experiences that mirror the powerfully diverse society we serve.

Salvador Salort - Pons Director, President and CEO, Detroit

The Detroit Institute of Arts In Conversation With Salvador

Salort - Pons

Sarah Carter (SC): The Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA) under your leadership was a leading force and a conceptual catalyst behind the entire CCPI project—could you share how this project came about, and how your relationship to the project has evolved over the course of the planning process?

Salvador Salort-Pons (SSP): As a child growing up in Madrid, the plaza (or public square) occupied a central place in my early life. It was where friends played soccer and other games. It was a place where many gathered for coffee and conversations. It was where neighbors lounged with books and newspapers. It was the commons, the community space, a place where life unfolded slowly and happily under the warmth of the sun and the music of the birds.

Upon my arrival in Detroit in 2008, I spent my first year in the city walking up and down Woodward Avenue to my new job at the DIA. And in this big industrial city, built with the hands of workers from every corner of the world, I wondered how those individuals would spend their time in public spaces. On my walks and explorations of the city, I looked for its community heart in the urban space, where the art of living occurred.

I was unable to discover that place. I wondered then if the DIA could function as the gathering space for everyone, serving as a catalyst that helped structure the design of a plaza that could play an important role in the life of the citizens of Detroit and our region. For some years the idea was simmering inside and when I was elected Director of the DIA in 2015, with the Board’s approval, it became the new vision for the organization as we defined the role the museum could play in our society moving forward.

Since becoming Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2015, Salvador Salort-

Pons has worked to make one of the largest and most significant art museums in the United States feel more like a town square. Community interest and accessibility remain a top priority for this SpanishAmerican museum professional, who shared his aspirations for the District with the design team.

SC SSP

While the DIA initiated this effort we made it an early priority to bring all of our neighbors in the cultural district as partners in the project, including the Detroit Public Library, Detroit Historical Museum, The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and the Michigan Science Center as well as the University of Michigan, Wayne State, and the College for Creative Studies to ensure that this process was collaborative and that we were all functioning as equals. This is why it was important that Midtown Detroit Inc, under Susan Mosey’s leadership took over the oversight and management of the process in the early days. She has been an amazing and effective steward of representing everyone’s interest fairly and equitably. We owe her much for her insights and the depth of experience she has brought to this process.

Our contemporary social climate has questioned what role encyclopedic museums and other venerable institutions play in the construction of culture, and what responsibility they bear in creating equitable and inclusive environments. Detroit has a high percentage of residents who are people of color. Please talk about the process behind the development of the CCPI.

I’ve lived in many different places throughout the world, and Detroit is an incredibly vibrant city, in constant evolution, and there’s no place else I’d rather be. The DIA strives to be a reflection of our culturally rich communities and we want to continue to create programs, exhibitions and experiences that mirror the powerfully diverse society we serve. We continually seek input from all our stakeholders and meet with local advisors and artists to ensure our programming and our art display meet the needs of those we serve. All the work that we do internally and externally is implemented through the lens of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access, which we are ingraining in the DNA of the organization.

To secure a transformative vision for the district campus, a design competition was launched in 2018 that attracted designers and firms from more than 50 cities/countries around the world. The competition featured a jury made up of diverse national experts in landscape and urban design including Julie Bargmann of the University of Virginia Maurice Cox, who currently serves as Planning Director for the City of Chicago; William Gilchrist, Planning Director of Oakland, CA; Jonathan Massey, Dean of the Taubman School of Architecture at the University of Michigan; and Mario Moore, an artist from Detroit, who joined together with leaders of the district institutions to select a winning team and design direction after input from the community. The Paris-based landscape architects Agence Ter were joined by the Detroitbased design firm Akoaki to be selected by the competition’s 12 jurors to formalize their compelling design proposal.

It is a truism to say the DIA is a cultural and architectural gem. That position can be intimidating for some. How does the DIA invite visitors to breach its venerable threshold? How does it engage the common ground?

This is why the CCPI is so essential for our future and why we are investing in the plan. This project offers us the chance to bring the inside of the museum outside for audiences. It offers us the possibility to make the building more inviting. We do offer outdoor programming when the weather permits, but the current infrastructure –or lack thereof – is challenging and is not ideal for the kinds of engagements our curators and public programming leaders would like to offer. We have also made it a priority to take programs out into the community, in order to meet people where they are, which makes the museum more accessible in the long run, including our long-running Inside|Out program and our public art initiative.

The emerging landscape design of the winning Agence Ter/Akoaki plan promises to transform 16 acres of paved surface into lush landscape, incorporating native plantings, landforms, and pathways which add interest and elevate comfort for Cultural Center visitors and staff. Areas for programming have also been carved into the landscape along the proposed necklace pathway as COVID-19 has underscored the value of parks and public spaces and how they support public health and wellbeing.

What kind of relationship does the DIA have with its neighboring institutions? How often are collaborative exhibitions like Detroit ’67 undertaken, and are there plans for more collaborative programming opportunities in the future?

We are always looking to collaborate with our neighboring institutions as was demonstrated with Detroit ’67 and other important programs from the past, including ongoing internship programs and other collaborative activities with Wayne State. I also participate in meetings with my partner CEOs in the district to discuss current topics, challenges, and opportunities. But of course, our main focus is driven by the desire of all of us to improve and design more engaging visitor experiences on the campus which we see as being the vital outcome of the CCPI plan.

The Cultural District already attracts 2 million people a year. Does the DIA plan to grow its audience, and how?

We are always looking to grow the audiences that we serve, always striving to be more relevant to our communities and to invite even more people to visit. In the wake of the pandemic, which sent shockwaves across the museum world, we also learned a lot through our efforts to reach our

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audiences during the short time we were forced to be closed. We are now developing plans to put more resources and efforts behind our digital and online initiatives, including videos and live-streaming of programs, all of which have the potential to play a critical role in expanding our engagement with the public. Of course, growth in our in-person audiences is always a top priority and to keep relevant to them is a crucial aspect of our work.

Typically, encyclopedic museums are introverts. They need climate control, safety, security, calibrated lighting, and security in order to preserve culture for posterity. Despite this fact, can you see DIA programming activating the outdoors?

Of course. Absolutely. Outdoor programs and experiences have always been a priority for us, especially in the warmer months here in the Midwest. We know our audiences also love experiences and programs set outside the building. But we are limited by the infrastructure as it currently exists. This is why we are so excited for the opportunity that the CCPI plan offers. In my eyes, the team’s proposed design for the campus will result in a transformational experience for all who visit the district as well as for the institutions themselves. The plan provides for places for people to linger and experience the natural beauty of landscape as well as help manage stormwater runoff, provide new parking, and safe pedestrian experiences. It provides the opportunity for our institutions to curate new public programs and art experiences. In sum, it allows the world-class centers of culture and education that make up this neighborhood the opportunity to bring the inside out for people of all ages and backgrounds.

We know you are not supposed to play favorites, but currently what is your favorite work in the DIA?

Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry murals. It is simply the heart of the DIA, America’s Sistine Chapel, a lasting image of how Detroit changed the history of the world.

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Rooftop cafe and event space at the Scarab Club.

The Scarab Club

Celebrating the contemporary while preserving and paying tribute to the past is a balancing act for The Scarab Club, an artists’ hub, gallery, and studio space that has been a nexus for creative activity since 1907. In the CCPI plan, the design team tests opportunities to extend and evolve the legendary art club’s footprint. A proposed new addition honors its singular architecture by mirroring the building over the adjacent parking lot using new materials. Such an extension would double the Club’s available exhibition, workshop, and studio spaces furthering its mission as a center for artistic production and experience in the District.

The proposal also works to enhance the Scarab Club’s outdoor programming. Its rich history of welcoming visitors to the enclosed garden finds new possibilities through an enlargement of the garden space along the north

wall, which would include space for sculpture.

Historically, the Scarab Club has been an anchor for area artists who work, gather, learn, and share through exhibitions and events. Today, the Scarab Club is perfectly poised to build upon a legacy of artistic excellence and inclusion with an addition that furthers its mission to advocate for the arts, embrace experimentation, and sponsor emergent programming to strengthen its cultural legacy.

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The CCPI plan democratizes the cultural landscape by treating institutions big and small with equal consideration, recognizing ways in which we all contribute. The Scarab Club promotes correspondences between those who make art and those who love art, and we are excited by the prospect of a bold new direction for our historic building.

MaryAnn Wilkenson Executive Director, The Scarab Club

Michigan Science Center

Since 1978, the Michigan Science Center has grown and expanded into the dynamic institution it is now: a place that aims to inspire visitors of all ages with active learning environments that demonstrate how our world works. The building’s incremental evolution, through a series of additions, poses certain organizational and ecological challenges. How can the existing architecture and landscape be updated to better align with the innovative scientific, technological, and engineering content housed within?

In response, the design team explored ways the Michigan Science Center’s aggregate parts might be unified by deploying sustainable technologies to activate the building facade. The approach envisions the architecture operating as a machine for learning that demonstrates best practices and new building methods. Photovoltaics, wind energy, solar gain, vegetable shading, and water management systems are among the deployable strategies explored in this phased approach.

Beyond sustainable engineering, CCPI offers an opportunity to augment the Michigan Science Center’s visibility in the District. Lighting effects activate the dome on Warren Avenue, transforming the architectural element into an urban marker. Projections on the building’s east elevation contribute

to District-wide events or announce new programming. On a daily basis, the proposal clarifies the entrances, improves the sense of welcome, and makes recommendations for easier navigation.

The Michigan Science Center’s outdoor experience is where significant transformation is possible. The plan reimagines the Center’s shared surface parking lot as a series of outdoor classrooms, temporary exhibitions, and demonstration gardens capable of hosting a breadth of formal and informal programming for a cross-generational audience. Here rocket installations co-exist with inflatable performance spaces and climate machines that illustrate environmental cycles at scale.

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Detroit is a very proud city and deserves an intervention representative of that pride. I would like to see a design for the district that celebrates the accomplishments and influences of the city.

Christian Greer President and CEO, The Michigan Science Center

In this proposal, the surface parking lot is transformed into a public garden designed to host a range of temporary installations and programs for the Michigan Science Center.

The Michigan Science Center

In Conversation With Christian Greer

Anya Sirota (AS): Let’s start with an establishing shot. For someone coming to the Michigan Science Center for the first time, what would that visitor encounter and what is the mission of the institution that you direct?

Christian Greer (CG): We have a more official mission, but our value proposition is we put you at the center of science and STEM learning. Our focus and reach extends far beyond childhood audiences to include a full gamut of family experiences and intergenerational learning opportunities.

For example, earlier this year, we opened an exhibit that addresses weather phenomena called ‘Earth, Wind and Weather.’ The exhibition invites audiences of all ages to interact directly with material experimentation with water, providing displays that actively splash, form clouds, and even simulate an avalanche!

When this level of interactivity is possible, we’re clearly not operating as an art museum, nor a history museum. We’re something very different. When you walk in, you can see artistry in the curation of our space. We make science active by encouraging trial and error.

Anya Sirota (AS): Traditionally science centers are educational venues, and yet you’re talking about the Michigan Science Center as being intergenerational and focused on diverse audiences interested in understanding how the world works. How do you ensure that the interests of such a broad audience are met?

Christian Greer serves as President and CEO of the Michigan Science Center, a popular educational destination that connects with audiences and communities through innovative onsite, offsite, and online programming. Greer brings a unique passion for science and learning to everything he does. From his office on John R, he shared how hands-on learning inspires people of all ages and shapes public programming.

We start by learning from childhood interactivity. Kids don’t need permission to try something. They run up to an exhibit and intuitively press all of the necessary buttons. That’s how they engage. As we get older, we begin to restrain ourselves by questioning if this is something we should do. By intentionally creating the right environment, all that disappears and everybody becomes a curious learner. When we get that ambition right, as in the exhibition of a 12 foot tornado, people want to engage immediately and intuitively.

Kids are typically the first ones to interact with an exhibit and that automatically creates a pecking order. We design our exhibits in such a way that audiences in the back can still engage. For example, when children are interacting with an exhibit up close, there’s also a screen above so that teens, parents, grandparents, and others can also see what’s going on. Intergenerational learning is important because families that learn together, grow together. They are more inclined to teach each other, and they respect personal knowledge gained over the years.

Ultimately, we want to encourage human curiosity.

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CG We’re witnessing science centers across the nation becoming platforms for serious conversations that touch on collective health, climate change, pollution in our oceans, the role of technology, and building civil society, to name a few. As the director of an institution that foregrounds play, interactivity, and joy in the experience of the exhibits, how do you position the institution? Does the Science Center participate in these pressing conversations?

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There’s a difference between science centers and science museums. A science museum has a rich collection of scientific objects and cultural objects related to science or technology - each one of those objects tells a specific story that shapes our society in ways that are more than just having fun with your family. Science centers, on the other hand, offer a creative, dynamic, and interactive way of teaching science.

I think science centers are starting to feel like they need to be more like science museums and provide a platform to host some of these conversations. As an institution we are ready to discuss topics like pollution, vaccination, and climate change by demystifying them from a neutral, objective position.

I think the Science Center should take things out of your daily life and teach you a little bit more of the science behind it. I believe we can not demystify the realities of everyday life if we’re preaching dogmas. Instead, it is our responsibility to provide accessible and intelligent tools for people to develop informed opinions about top of mind issues.

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We’re seeing institutions more engaged with outdoor programming and outdoor exhibitions. How do you imagine the Science Center activating public space? Do you imagine that it’s possible to take some of that energy currently housed within the museum and bring it outdoors?

If we consider the cultural district design - the Necklace element gives us ample opportunity to reconceptualize outdoor exhibitions. The design of the public space invites us to dream big, even to extend beyond the footprint of the district to engage Detroiters more broadly. Imagine, for a moment, activating Woodward with a scale model of the solar system. The sun could be located downtown, and then we could measure the entire distance of the solar system. Distances and proportions could be perceived at the scale of city blocks. How amazing is that?

Absolutely. The topics of exploration germane to the Science Center do not need to be contained in the institution alone. Gravity, for example, works uniformly indoors and out. Activating outdoor space with science and learning would support our mission of growing awareness about the mechanics of everyday life.

Science continues to play a role in the development of this planning initiative. We have been working with scientists, engineers, and consultants to find imaginative ways that the landscape can introduce ecology, biodiversity, and water management into this urban public context. Would the Michigan Science Center have an appetite to install exhibitions in the landscape to make the systems more legible?

That would be fun! I think all the institutions in this district need to get out of their four walls.

In Constructivist learning theories, which envision learning through direct action, no two people discern knowledge in the same way. New information is coupled with a full repository of prior knowledge and contributes to one’s unique cognitive framework. Once you learn how to read things, you just don’t see it the same way. And that perspective is singular and remarkable.

As an aside, I once traveled west with the famous paleontologist Paul Serino. It was a great opportunity for me to witness a true dinosaur hunter, one who could literally “sniff out” dinosaurs. Suffice it to say, that experience shifted my perspectives and inflected the way that I understand paleontology and geology. We work to deliver that level of captivating, direct learning experience in all of our exhibitions.

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Taking that energy to the outdoors, I would love to see the Necklace deployed as a teaching opportunity. Imagine carefully curated outdoor exhibitions that introduce visitors to the region’s native ecology. How fantastic would it be to know how to read leaves on your way from point A to point B in the district.

If we were to harness your inspired imagination and ask you about what you would like to see on the CCPI grounds, whether that’s adjacent to your institution or somewhere else, what would that be? No idea is too outrageous.

Detroit is a very proud city and deserves an intervention representative of that pride. The world may have influenced Detroit, but Detroit also has influenced the rest of the world. I would like to see an intervention in the district that celebrates the accomplishments and influence of the city.

I like to work backwards. I explore successful projects in cities and institutions around the world and ask myself: how did that happen? How can we reimagine these strategies for the Detroit context? Video conferencing, for example, is, to a large extent, ubiquitous. But at the right scale and with connections to partnering institutions around, visitors to the district could experience an unprecedented, radical sense of connectivity across time zones.

Connection is important in my mind because there are so many people in Detroit that have not had the luxury or privilege to travel regionally or globally. So the idea of installing a live interactive portal to other places on earth is particularly meaningful here.

On the flip side, organizations in the district have world renowned collections, and sponsor exhibitions of a very high caliber. It would be equally beneficial to broadcast our activities out to the world.

There has to be an exchange, and the cultural district should be at the center of this exchange. Detroit connects to the world, and the world connects to us.

AS You’re saying that the Cultural District is ready to step onto an international stage?

CG Absolutely. We have to be ready for that. The Cultural District is unique in the city, and well poised to help Detroit shine on an international stage. What would people from other places come in and see? How would everyone feel welcome? When I think about the existing assets and the future urban design – Wow, it could be great!

College for Creative Studies

The College for Creative Studies’ unique and architecturally significant campus illustrates the District plan’s adaptability as it works to unite this educational institution with its neighbors while maintaining the integrity of the Walter and Josephine Ford campus.

The proposed campus connection to the District plan will be light and wellconsidered. Continuity will be made possible through the integration of water management infrastructure. upgrades of the hardscape; urban furniture improvements that match the materials and sensibilities introduced in the Necklace; and the integration of lighting and technology to offer a playable landscape for events and projections.

Integration of the campus will allow for the college to extend its reach and visibility beyond the boundaries of its immediate footprint. An axial sculpture garden along the Square will extend to Warren Avenue and connect to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The space creates an opportunity for temporary installation of student and faculty work. The John R above ground parking lot transformed into the Common Green will offer students a quad experience in the heart of the city. Additionally, the Brush Street

Arts Vitrine and Welcome Center will create extended opportunities for exhibitions and public engagement.

The campus’s current operations are retained and improved. Student shuttle drop off, delivery access, as well as space for sculpture and exhibitions, remain central to the continuation of current campus functions. Proposed connections invite the College for Creative Studies to expand its presence and programming by activating newly available public space with innovative design generated by the institution.

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A really important part of the experience has been learning more about the challenges and opportunities facing the other institutions in the cultural center area. This is especially true for the smaller institutions.neighboring The process has created a regular jumping off point for other collaborations.

Don Tuski, President, College for Creative Studies

The Walter and Josephine Ford campus is a natural hinge in the plan with its sculpture garden and outdoor spaces for encounters with the arts. CCPI connects to the College for Creative Studies through light touch interventions that retain the spirit of the campus.

The College for Creative Studies In Conversation With Don Tuski

Anya Sirota (AS): Tell us about your experience collaborating on the CCPI plan to date?

Don Tuski (DT): CCS has been involved from the beginning of the process, with our former president Rick Rogers participating in the initial steering committee helping to choose the consultants. Since I have taken over as president, I have sat on the steering committee, and a variety of senior staff have been engaged in work groups and in other ways.

A really important part of the experience has been learning more about the challenges and opportunities facing the other institutions in the cultural center area. This is especially true for the smaller neighboring institutions. The process has created a regular interaction and been a jumping off point for other collaborations.

Anya Sirota (AS): How do you think the CCPI can support the mission of your institution?

A three-time college president and Michigan native, Don Tuski leads the College for Creative Studies with his spirit of inquiry across disciplines and creative collaboration. An unwavering advocate for the value of an art and design education, Tuski is driven by the opportunity to build on the College for Creative Studies solid foundation to propel them into the future. We caught up with Don to learn more about his thoughts on the CCPI plan.

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As a small institution, CCS can sometimes be overshadowed by its neighbors. The planning process continues to grow awareness of CCS as an integral part of the cultural center and hopefully in the future, bring new visitors. The initiative also offers meaningful ways for our students, faculty, staff, and programs to connect to other institutions for even greater impact. Our entire campus community benefits as the surrounding district becomes more vibrant and responsive to their needs.

What opportunities do you see in expanding programming to the outdoors? In sharing resources with neighboring institutions?

CCS is investing in experiential learning as a core component of its educational process. Our cultural center neighbors are often exploring contemporary issues that connect to our curriculum or have the types of jobs that our students seek post graduation. We can expand the relevant experiential learning opportunities available for our students by sharing resources with these neighbors. For many of our students, this type of experience is the most valuable part of their education. In addition, the outdoors provides a canvas and a space to not only raise awareness of student and faculty work to a much larger audience, but also to experiment. The outdoors can become a neutral space to encourage collaboration across our institutions.

How can the CCPI plan support the broadcast and exhibition of CCS’s creative outputs - both faculty and student-centered?

CCS looks forward to seeing many members of the campus community involved in the implementation of the plan. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni can all play a part - either by producing new works that can be exhibited in outdoor spaces, supporting the implementation of specific projects through their creative expertise, or developing and participating in new public programming. As more visitors are attracted to the district, the opportunities for a broader community to see and experience CCS’s creative outputs increases. CCS is especially excited about the opportunities relating to digital technologies and sustainability. We support the intersections offered within our academic programs, including Communication Design, Entertainment Arts, Film, User Experience, Design for Climate Action, and many others.

Above: The World Cafe along the Square.

Next Page: The proposed renovation for the International Institute of Metro Detroit brings the World Cafe to the ground floor to connect the interior life of the organization to the outdoors. The architectural facade is updated with contemporary materials to signify the safety of a quilt and engage the sun to create new signage with shadows.

The International Institute of Metro Detroit

The International Institute is already a place brimming with heart, legacy, and hidden gems—from immigration advocacy to English language immersion classes to affordable eats. But these assets are tucked behind a mid-century envelope that belies the welcoming nature of the institution and the multi-cultural offerings within. To broadcast the compelling work of the International Institute, the design team proposes to connect the interior life of the organization to the outdoors, both as a visualizing political action and an invitation for people to engage.

The proposed International Institute renovation participates in a symbiotic relationship with the district plan: harnessing pedestrian traffic, while helping to activate the street. Appropriately, the International Institute’s World Café is upgraded and moved from the basement to the ground floor. In addition to the efficiency gained by sharing a kitchen with the Institute’s Hall of Nations, the commercial programming adds discernibility to the building’s southern facade.

Food, as we know, is the connective tissue of culture. Currently, the International Institute’s portion of the shared parking lot adjacent to the

building is underutilized on weekends. The addition of landscaping and water management infrastructure will form an aesthetic buffer and help temporarily transform a surface lot into a site for food trucks. Not only can these enterprises serve as opportunities for first-generation businesses, they will improve access to food in the District.

The plan brings a taste of the International Institute’s diverse constituency, and their social mission, into partnership with the cultural institutions in the District.

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We are dedicated to working with low-income, foreign, and native born populations in an effort to establish a more inclusive, equitable, and just society. The Detroit Cultural District is the perfect space to convene the diverse, multi-cultural population that we serve.

Wojiech Zolnowski, Executive Director, The International Institute of Metro Detroit

Transformation of the Hellenic Museum’s Courtyard into a shared event space.

Hellenic Museum of Michigan

Small but mighty institutions make excellent neighbors. The Hellenic Museum of Michigan, dedicated to preserving the rich heritage of Greek music, art, literature, philosophy, and language moved to the District in 2009. It is an example of a modest organization with an overabundance of energy, collective imagination, and appetite to connect with new and old friends nearby.

An early contributor to piloting the CCPI project, the Hellenic Museum is creating a courtyard for outdoor cultural programming, which the organization intends to share with the adjacent Carr Center. The suggested improvements made to the outdoor space in conjunction with the addition of apertures to the museum’s historic carriage house improve the organization’s curb appeal, draw interest, and offer the Hellenic a destination-worthy space for private events. Additionally, the Hellenic Museum is working to enhance the

building’s south facade by opening shielded windows to reveal public programming within. On a small scale, the Hellenic Museum demonstrates the pragmatic advantages of networking to steward shared cultural infrastructure and the activities it sponsors.

Jim Andriotakis, President, The Hellenic Museum of Michigan

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Our museum is dedicated to sharing the richness of Hellenic heritage and its contributions in shaping our world. In many ways the CCPI offers Detroit an agora for diverse audiences to come together and participate in the civic life of the city.

The Carr Center

Building on the Carr Center’s mission to preserve, promote, and develop African-American arts traditions within Detroit’s multicultural community, CCPI recognizes that cultural programs are as essential to the vitality of the District as the public spaces that sponsor them. The Carr Center has a strong reputation for creating African-American cultural experiences that challenge, inspire and educate by nurturing and amplifying excellence in the arts. In this capacity, CCPI welcomes the Carr Center’s numerous compelling programs into the outdoors.

In the first stages of the project, the Carr Center will share the Hellenic Museum’s refurbished courtyard to stage public programming. Temporary installations by Detroit-based and international artists on the Square will provide signals that the public is welcome to enter and participate.

As CCPI takes shape, the Carr Center stands to benefit from the outdoor cultural infrastructure designed to host

Ragsdale, President, The Carr Center

music, theater, dance, experimental performances, and installations. Likewise, the District will be energized by the Carr Center’s high caliber of artistic excellence and commitment to elevating African-American arts for all.

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CCPI promises the provision of space for each institution’s needs. The outdoor cultural infrastructure developed in the plan will deliver on the promise of creating collective benefits. For the Carr Center, which has a tradition of opening up to the world in new and exhilarating ways, the relationship to the District will be symbiotic.

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The Carr Center is renowned for sponsoring outdoor programming and installations. This inflatable event archway, is an example of a deployable installation to signify activities open to the public in the adjacent courtyard of the Hellenic Museum.

Wayne State University

Wayne State University is an esteemed neighbor to the Cultural District, with nearly 25,000 students, 200 plus acres, and over 100 research and education buildings comprising its historic urban campus. The exceptional mutual benefits of Wayne State’s direct adjacency to CCPI cannot be overstated. Through a reciprocal relationship between the academic and cultural campuses, each plan extends reach, grows its daily audiences, broadens its public assets, and increases access to a breadth of cultural amenities. CCPI works intentionally and symbiotically with Wayne State’s recent master planning effort to actualize distinct and compelling connections, bringing landscape elements from the Cultural District’s design into the university’s grounds. At the same time, CCPI extends street improvements along major arteries in order to create an urban continuity with the Wayne State plan.

Specifically, CCPI proposes to expand the Necklace, the District’s walking path, into Wayne State University’s footprint, interlacing the many architectural treasures on campus with the cultural institutions to the west. The Square, the District’s pedestrian framework, engages Prentiss Hall and its ground floor vitrines, perfectly poised to broadcast the university’s many cultural programs and achievements. At this important intersection between the educational and cultural campuses, the lawn of the Detroit Public Library is terraced for

public occupation, creating a mixing ground for students, faculty, staff, library patrons, and visitors.

Ashley Flintoff, Director of Planning and Space Management, WSU

In addition to facilitating lingering, CCPI is focused on improving the pedestrian experience, creating more visible, safe, and efficient crosswalks, providing shared streets for people, cyclists, public transportation networks, and strategically easing the presence of automobiles in order to make room for people.

With a few acts of integration to blur the lines between master plans, Wayne State University can claim the wider Cultural District as an asset for its campus—a benefit that few, if any, other public research institutions can share.

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The beauty of our urban campus, stitched into the very fabric of the city, is the fluidity it provides; effortless connections with CCPI, its cultural institutions, Midtown, and the region beyond - ensuring our institutional thresholds are easy to traverse and inviting for all remains top of mind.

The Detroit Public Library’s landscape on Cass Avenue is terraced along the Band to meet Wayne State University. The subtle urban gesture transforms an underutilized space into an inhabitable attractor for students and visitors to the District.

Making compelling public spaces is a complex art. There is no simplistic step-by-step formula that can guarantee positive outcomes. But there are solid foundations that will send us on the path to success. These include: integrating distinctive local cultures into the essence of the project, staying open to innovative and emergent influences, involving those affected by the plan in decision-making, determining public-good objectives with project partners and sharing

progress as the collective efforts evolve. An inclusive, participatory, and responsive framework for engaging with stakeholders, specialists, communities, and government is needed to move a bold vision for the Cultural District forward. The process challenges us to look beyond architecture, landscape, and engineering to include the voices and perspectives of people

who understand the dynamics and cultural ethos of the city.

The Storefront + Digital Engagement

In the design team’s experience, some of the best conversations about the future of the built environment happen around a physical model. People often have trouble empathizing with the fixed perspective of architectural drawings, which necessarily limit their scope of interaction with the project. A physical model facilitates interaction with the proposals and creates a sense of agency for the public. The design team loves the directness of models; they are accessible, legible, and often trigger immediate feedback, like it or not.

Sharing evolving models of the CCPI project with the public was always the plan for Akoaki and Agence Ter. The Storefront, which the design team opened on Cass Avenue shortly after winning the competition, was intended to house the in-progress work and spark conversation with the public and stakeholders. But, like so many projects rolling out in a landscape impacted by COVID-19, the team was thrown a major plot twist. Now unable to present a physical model for public interaction, the design collaborative asked: How can people navigate, explore, and give self-informed feedback in a digital space, especially when the project is complex, multi-layered, and includes many stakeholders?

In response, the design team developed CCPI.online, a navigable digital platform that models the entire 80-acre plan. Features include links to constituent institutions; information about the proposed greenscape; mobility and parking studies; and space for the public to share feedback. Zoom in close enough and users find the simulated thickness of paper in the lines of the modeled buildings and trees rendered like they are cut from Plexi with sharpied edges. The digital model simulates precisely how the design team makes models for physical presentations.

It’s important to admit that architects rarely show work in progress. However, with 12 stakeholder institutions, the City of Detroit, government, foundations, and the general public, the project requires a way to communicate with constituents as matters develop. Appropriately, CCPI.online serves as a virtual pin-up board that reveals the process and facilitates a collective vision. Sharing research, the team is able to show symbiotic relationships between institutions, the street, and public space.

Top: Axonometric view of the digital model hosted on CCPI.online and built with a candid affinity for aughts Bing Maps. A toolbar allows the map to rotate and zoom into points of interest.

Bottom: Clickable information cards allow users to explore themes of interest, and provide feedback.

Next Page: The design team’s Storefront at 4161 Cass Avenue in Midtown Detroit.

Above: Digital Presentation by Anya Sirota Next Page: Digital Engagement Session

Model Citizens Akoaki

“In our experience, some of the best conversations about the future of the built environment happen around a physical model,” says Anya Sirota, architectural designer, Associate Dean at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and founding principal of urban design studio Akoaki. In Sirota’s view, people often have trouble empathizing with the fixed perspective of architectural drawings, which necessarily limits their scope of interaction with the project. “A physical model facilitates interaction with the proposals and creates a sense of agency for the public,” says Sirota. “We love the direct instrumentality of models; they are accessible, legible, and often trigger immediate feedback, like it or not.”

Sharing the model with the public was the plan as Akoaki collaborated with Paris-based Agence Ter on the Detroit Cultural Center Planning Initiative (CCPI) —an intensive, 18-month project that sought to ideate a flexible urban greenscape linking twelve major cultural institutions in Detroit’s bustling Midtown. But like so many projects rolling out in a landscape impacted by public health concerns, the team was thrown a major plot twist. Now unable to present a physical model for public interest and interaction, the design collaborative asked themselves:

How can you give people license to navigate, explore, and give selfinformed feedback in a digital space?

“Compelling landscapes address multiple datums at once, carving the matter beneath our feet as well as shaping the living and ethereal layers above,” says Olivier Philippe, founding principal of award winning international landscape and urban design firm Agence Ter. “Using a full range of planimetric and sectional strategies to inflect the beauty and functionality of public space, CCPI attends to the diverse needs of users by creating a series of distinct and interconnected outdoor experiences.” The desire for interactivity, tangibility, and accessibility are values baked into the project foundations. Communicating the logics and aspirations of such a multivalent effort in ways that cut across class and identity barriers is a design challenge in itself.

“As urban designers, we are always looking for that representational sweet spot,” says Sirota. “An inclusionary vantage point that clarifies the layered thinking contributing to design decisions without obscuring what matters or overwhelming others.” In order to capture the clean, low-res feel that offers open access into the project,

SARAH ROSE SHARP

the design team obsessively rendered a virtual environment that emulates the tactile qualities of their traditional models.

The result is CCPI.online, a navigable digital model with a candid affinity for Bing Maps that presents the entire 80acre district plan. Features include its constituent institutions, like the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Main Branch Detroit Public Library, Wayne State University, College for Creative Studies, and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Also, it includes the proposed greenscape; traffic plans; walking paths, and public conversation about the myriad of issues that shape the project. Additionally, the lush bioswales contain green water management features that help to decongest aging city infrastructure overwhelmed by rising rainfall in the Great Lakes. But zoom in close enough and you will find the simulated thickness of paper in the lines of the modeled buildings, and trees rendered like they are made of extruded Plexi cut by a 1992 laser cutter with sharpied edges. The qualities of this model in the digital realm simulate precisely how the design team makes models in the physical presentation.

“I believe that the pervasive use of handheld mapping apps is changing how we understand maps, in particular in our relation to self,” says Oliver Popodich, the web designer who took on the practical considerations of implementing this vision. “These mapping apps track position, always updating the representation of the world around one’s self. As this

becomes our increasingly common way of interacting with maps, we lose our dissociation from the abstracted representation of maps, and instead begin to understand it as a more literal representation - a kind of omnipresent birds-eye-view of self.”

Over the course of a month, the web team modeled every component of Midtown – the site conditions, landscape, building masses, details, and design interventions. In order to meet the strict limitations of the web and further limitations of mobile, everything was modeled relatively low poly - using as few faces as possible to create the essence of the object’s form. More complex objects, like buildings, were broken into segments based on the amount of detail. This allowed for different versions to load easily, catering to both low-powered mobile devices and more powerful computers.

Architects very rarely show work in progress, because they typically have a single client with a single concern to address. But the CCPI has 12 institutional clients, plus the city, in addition to the general public that the space will serve. CCPI’s digital presentation becomes a virtual pin-up board that reveals the process, in order to facilitate a collective vision. In the mixing and matching of painstakingly researched offerings, the team is able to show symbiotic relationships between institutions, the street, and public discourse. “It gives liberty to each stakeholder to understand the moving parts for themselves and come back to the table ready to negotiate and collaborate,” says Sirota.

These negotiations come at an especially critical time, where we see shared outdoor spaces as the current sole venue for public engagement and experiences. While emphasis on a unified cultural district landscape was already the preCOVID aim of the project, it’s become the essential worker of urban design during pandemic times, as public space becomes indispensable public infrastructure. Creating a sensibility that is tangible and physical at a time when so much has become abstracted because of COVID is yet another layer of approachability in the model. It grants the gift of imagined futures, to all of us trapped in our homes ready to

plan the “next next” when we can get back out into the world.

And it seems to work! Longtime Park Shelton resident Joe Lewis, age 70, has been following the project with great interest, and jumped at the chance to navigate the proposal. “I’m excited to see a vibrant, accessible and coordinated plan,” says Lewis, who hopes that the effort will unify Detroit’s treasured cultural institutions, “to better serve the local public and draw visitors from near and far.”

Top: Susan Mosey of MDI speaking at the Detroit Public Library during a CCPI presentation. Bottom: Members of the CCPI design team engaging with Detroit community members at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History during a design workshop hosted by MDI.

Community Engagement

MDI and the CCPI design team have had to reinvent what community engagement looks like in the age of COVID-19 and developed CCPI. online, an internet-based platform to share the evolution of the design and research, and solicit feedback from the public. Prior to the pandemic, MDI hosted a large design workshop with the public at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History that attracted more than 200 people. In addition, over 1,000 comment cards were submitted by the public on the proposed design as part of an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Public Library Main Branch.

Since the pandemic began, MDI has hosted numerous Zoom meetings with the residents of the Park Shelton, the Arts Center Neighborhood, with Detroit artists and city-wide arts organizations, and just recently hosted a large metro area meeting to gain feedback on the plan. MDI has interfaced with over a dozen residentbased organizations throughout the city, including church groups, block clubs, and recreation-based organizations to elicit feedback.

In addition, 12 public panel conversations and one symposium have been held around topics of arts and cultural programming,

sustainability, digital engagement, institutional resiliency, COVID-19, and more.

Additional Zoom meetings and panel discussions are planned for the remainder of 2022 and 2023 with other Detroit Neighborhood residents, arts and cultural stakeholders, and key public sector agencies. We also seek input on programming ideas both for the District and potential partnerships that could extend the Cultural Center programs into the neighborhoods.

Who We Are

CHARLES H. WRIGHT MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

Stakeholder Institutions

1. The Carr Center

Established: 1991

Location: 15 E. Kirby Street, Detroit Director: Oliver Ragsdale Website: thecarrcenter.org Contact: 313.965.8430

The Carr Center is a multi disciplinary arts organization, founded in 1991, that leverages the essence of the African American cultural experience to inspire, entertain, challenge and educate. We accomplish this through three core programs: the Carr Center Presents, the Carr Center Arts Academy and the Artists Hub. The Carr Center Contemporary, located on the first floor of the historic Park Shelton includes the Carr Center Gallery and the newly renovated Performance Studio.

2. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

Established: 1965 Location: 315 E. Warren Avenue Director: Neil Barclay Website: thewright.org Contact: info@thewright.org

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History was founded in 1965.The Wright Museum’s mission is to open minds and change lives through the exploration and celebration of African American history and culture. And Still We Rise: Our Journey Through African American History and Culture is the museum’s 22,000 SF immersive core exhibit and the largest, single exhibition surveying the history of African Americans. The Wright Museum houses over 35,000 artifacts and archival materials.

3. College for Creative Studies

Established: 1906

Location: 460 W Baltimore Street Director: Don Tuski Website: collegeforcreativestudies.edu Contact: 313.664.7400

Founded in 1906 as the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, CCS plays a key role in Detroit’s cultural and educational communities as a private, fully accredited college with more than 1,400 enrolled students.

4. Detroit Institute of Arts

Established: 1885

Location: 5200 Woodward Avenue Director: Salvador Salort-Pons Website: dia.org Contact: 313.833.7900

The Detroit Institute of Arts, one of the premier art museums in the US, is home to more than 60,000 works that comprise a multicultural survey of human creativity from ancient times through the 21st century. From the first Van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum (Self Portrait, 1887), to Diego Rivera’s world-renowned Detroit Industry murals (1932–33), the DIA’s collection is known for its quality, range and depth. The DIA’s mission is to create opportunities for all visitors to find personal meaning in art.

5. Detroit Public Library

Established: 1865

Location: 5201 Woodward Avenue Director: Jo-Anne Mondowney Website: detroitpubliclibrary.org Contact: 313.481.1300

The Detroit Public Library is the largest library system in the state of Michigan. The Main Library and its 21 neighborhood branches make it one of the most valuable and accessible public institutions in metropolitan Detroit. The Detroit Public Library enlightens and empowers people by providing diverse and dynamic pathways to literacy and learning.

7. Hellenic Museum of Michigan

Established: 2009 Location: 67 E. Kirby Street Director: Jim Andriotakis Website: hellenicmi.org Contact: 313.871.4100

The overall mission of the Michigan Hellenic Museum is to present, promote and teach about Hellenic culture, heritage and history. As part of its overall mission, the museum also chronicles the struggles, accomplishments and many contributions of a vibrant Greek immigrant community’s journey to Michigan.

6. Detroit Historical Museum

Established: 1928

Location: 5401 Woodward Avenue Director: Elana Rugh Website: detroithistorical.org Contact: 313.833.1805

Since its founding in 1921, the Detroit Historical Society has been dedicated to ensuring that the history of our region is preserved so that current and future generations of metro Detroiters can better understand the people, places and events that helped shape our lives.

8. International Institute of Metro Detroit

Established: 1919 Location: 111 E Kirby Street Director: Wojciech Zolnowski Website: iimd.org Contact: hello@iimd.org

The International Institute is dedicated to working with low-income foreign and native-born populations in an effort to establish a more inclusive, equitable and just society. The agency fosters community engagement and believes that a variety of cultures significantly contributes to the richness of our great city.

9. Michigan Science Center

Established: 1970 Location: 5020 John R Street Director: Christian Greer Website: mi-sci.org Contact: info@mi-sci.org

The Michigan Science Center (MiSci) inspires over 200,000 curious minds of all ages every year through STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) discovery, innovation and interactive education in Detroit and across the state of Michigan. As the STEM hub of the state, MiSci focuses on developing and introducing expanded education programs, exhibits, and initiatives that empower and enrich all children and all communities with STEM.

11.

University of Michigan

Established: 1817

Location: 100 Farnsworth Street Director: Mark Schlissel Website: umich.edu Contact: 734.764.1817

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that was founded in Detroit in 1817.

10. The Scarab Club

Established: 1928

Location: 217 Farnworth Street Director: MaryAnn Wilkinson Website: scarabclub.org Contact: 313.831.1250

The Scarab Club (SC) is a unique venue for visual art, music, and literature, founded in 1907 by a group of prominent artists and arts enthusiasts. Housed in a historic Arts & Crafts-style building in the heart of the Cultural Center, the SC’s program of changing exhibitions, workshops and classes, and events ranging from dance performances to poetry readings brings together members and the public to experience the extraordinary creativity of the Detroit and regional arts community.

12. Wayne State University

Established: 1868

Location: 42 W Warren Avenue Director: M. Roy Wilson Website: wayne.edu Contact: 313.577.2424

Founded in 1868, Wayne State University is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. WSU’s main, 200-acre campus in Midtown Detroit is home to nearly 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students from across the United States and 70 countries.

Steering Committee

Neil Barclay, President and CEO, C. H. Wright Museum of African American History

Ann Beck, Vice President for Administration and Finance, College for Creative Studies

Valeria Bertacco, Vice Provost for Engaged Learning, University of Michigan

Annmarie Borucki, Director of Arts and Culture, Midtown Detroit, Inc.

Alex Bourgeau, Manager, Modeling and Mobility Group, SEMCOG

Robert Bowen, CFO, Detroit Institute of Arts

Antoine Bryant, Director, Planning & Development Department, City of Detroit

Melanca Clark, President and CEO, Hudson Webber Foundation

Robert Davenport, Associate Vice President, Facilities Planning and Management, Wayne State University

Jasmin DeForrest, Director of Community Sponsorships, Rocket Community Fund

Kathryn Dimond, Executive Director, Hellenic Museum of Michigan

Joshua Edmonds, Director of Digital Inclusion, City of Detroit, Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT)

Sue Gott, Campus Planner, University of Michigan

Christian Greer, President and CEO, Michigan Science Center

Neil Hawkins, President, Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

Danielle Jackson, CEO, University Prep Schools

Wendy L. Jackson, Managing Director, Detroit Program, The Kresge Foundation

George Jacobsen, Program Director, Southeast Michigan Economic & Cultural Vitality, William Davidson Foundation

Sam Krassenstein, Deputy Director, Office of Mobility Innovation, City of Detroit

Darin McKeever, President and Chief Executive Officer, William Davidson Foundation

Felicia Eisenberg Molnar, Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives, Detroit Institute of Arts

Jo Anne G. Mondowney, Executive Director, Detroit Public Library

Susan Mosey, Executive Director, Midtown Detroit Inc.

Xavier Mosquet, Sr. Partner Emeritus, Boston Consulting Group

Frances Mueller, Assistant Vice Provost, University of Michigan

Oliver Ragsdale, President and CEO, The Carr Center

Dan Rieden, Lead Landscape Architect | Historic Preservation Team, Planning & Development Department, City of Detroit

Rochelle Riley, Director, Arts and Culture, City of Detroit

Victoria Rogers, Vice President, Arts, Knight Foundation

Elana Rugh, President and CEO, Detroit Historical Society

Salvador Salort-Pons, Director, President and CEO, Detroit Institute of Arts

Michael Shaw, Program Director, Hudson Webber Foundation

Ned Staebler, Vice President, Economic Development, Wayne State University and President and CEO, TechTown

Tara Tuomaala, Program Officer, Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

Don Tuski, President, College for Creative Studies

Nate Wallace, Director, Knight Foundation – Detroit Carol and Pete Walters, Walters Family Foundation

Andrea Wilcox, Projects and Contracts Administration Engineer, Michigan Department of Transportation, Detroit Transportation Service Center

MaryAnn Wilkenson, Executive Director, The Scarab Club

Greg Yankee, Senior Program Officer, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

Wojciech Zolnowski, Executive Director, International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit

ARE

WHO WE

“Man,” a 40-foot sculpture created by Australian artist Amanda Parer, was illuminated outside the main branch of the Detroit Public Library for 2022 Dlectricity.

Project Management Team

Annmarie Borucki, Director of Arts and Culture, Midtown Detroit, Inc.

George Jacobsen, Program Director, Southeast Michigan Economic & Cultural Vitality, William Davidson Foundation

Felicia Eisenberg Molnar, Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives, Detroit Institute of Arts

Susan Mosey, Executive Director, Midtown Detroit, Inc.

Dan Rieden, Lead Landscape Architect | Historic Preservation Team, Planning & Development Department, City of Detroit

Michael Shaw, Program Director, Hudson Webber Foundation

Tara Tuomaala, Program Officer, Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

Design Team

Agence Ter

Agence Ter, founded in Paris more than thirty years ago by three landscape architects, Henri Bava, Michel Hössler, and Olivier Philippe is an urban planning and landscape design studio working throughout the world. The practice develops an urbanism of living environments, imagining the city as an interaction of ecosystems combining urban functionality, human dynamics, and respect for non-human living systems. It defends the citynature cohabitation as a productive dialogue; the source of project inspiration is a response to climatic challenges and the associated ecosystemic services: sustainable water management, biodiversity, climatic comfort, pollution reduction, and the well-being of all inhabitants. Considering the living also means integrating sociological issues into our conception of the city; It means taking into consideration the values of inclusion, citizenship, and cohabitation based upon sustainable shared public space.

Agence Ter has received many distinctions, including, in France, the ‘Grand Prix National de l’Urbanisme‘ and the ‘Grand Prix National du Paysage’. Its work ranges in scale from territorial master plans covering thousands of square miles to the renovation of residential neighborhoods or the public gardens of private foundations.

Akoaki

Akoaki is a practice of architects and urban designers specializing in public space and cultural infrastructure. That’s a shorthand explanation for what we are truly passionate about: creating physical environments that inspire positive societal engagement, spur cultural evolution, and enable diverse and meaningful collective experiences. Admittedly, our goals are lofty. Yet they drive every aspect of the studio’s research and development processes – revealing ways culture and design can strengthen the civic life of cities.

Since establishing our Michiganbased studio in 2008, we have operated with a deep contextual rootedness, while maintaining a global awareness. It’s a balancing act that helps us remain locally sensitive and attentive to history, while ensuring an intellectually open approach that generates options for a dynamic future.

To spark original outcomes, we start with what’s there. Whether working with existing structures, organizations, living grounds or people, we carefully establish an understanding of what’s at stake. Next, we decode the confluence of matters that shape the collective vision and sense of purpose. Throughout the process, we remain cognizant that the built environment is anything but static. Appropriately, we produce adaptable strategies designed to transform over time.

Competition model by Agence Ter and Akoaki

Collaborators

313 Creative

313 Creative is a purpose-driven planning and design practice focused on catalyzing urban projects and place-based development strategies. 313c works as a ‘bridge’ between future-oriented investors, design professionals and key stakeholders to maximize the benefit of participatory design collaborations.

8’18” Lumiere

8’18” Lumiere tackle remarkable, large scale lighting projects. 8’18” understands light, measures it, without pretending to domesticate it and shapes it in unique, sensitive and intelligent ways that express desire.

Arcadis

Designing and delivering complex solutions by combining their technical, consulting and management skills to provide exceptional and sustainable outcomes for clients across all phases of asset investments; from planning, through to creation, operation and possible redefinition.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Represented by Xavier Mosquet, BCG is a global consulting firm that partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities.

City of Detroit Planning and Development Department (PDD)

PDD is charged with providing a participatory model of urban planning, design and development services that encourage population growth within the city and ensure that every neighborhood has a future. Its mission is to provide professional advice and technical expertise that promotes well-designed physical, social, economic, and environmentally healthy development within the city that enhances the quality of life for its residents, businesses and visitors.

Dr. Harley Etienne

A noted author, researcher, consultant and teacher with a keen understanding of the way social, cultural and political contexts intersect with public institutions to facilitate urban neighborhood change.

Drummond Carpenter & Associates

Specialists in environmental and water resources, technical services, and applied research.

HR&A Advisors, Inc.

HR&A is a real estate, economic development and public policy consulting firm with more than three decades of experience supporting complex implementation planning for neighborhood, cultural district and open space-anchored revitalization initiatives.

KAS

KAS Estimating Services provides high quality pre-construction services that support client and design team decision-making.

Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT)

MDOT is responsible for Michigan’s 9,669-mile state highway system, comprised of all M, I, and US routes.

Rich and Associates

One of the nation’s leading parking consultants, providing expert parking planning and design services.

RomoGIS

GIS professionals using a variety of products including open source software, web mapping, and GIS applications for Urban planning.

rootoftwo

rootoftwo, the civic future-making practice of Cézanne Charles and John Marshall, uses participatory design methods to facilitate people to imagine and shape collective actions for more just transformations. Engaged by Midtown Detroit Inc. to develop the digital strategy plan, rootoftwo works at the intersection of design, technology, and culture.

SmithGroup

SmithGroup is an international architectural, engineering and planning firm.

The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG)

SEMCOG supports local planning through its technical, data, and intergovernmental resources. The work SEMCOG does improves the quality of the region’s water, makes the transportation system safer and more efficient, revitalizes communities, and spurs economic development.

Acknowledgements

“Detroit Square” Team, DIA Plaza | Midtown Cultural Connections Competition. From L-R: Sarah Carter, Akoaki; Jean Louis Farges, Akoaki; Olivier Philippe, Agence Ter; John Marshall, rootoftwo; Cezanne Charles, rootoftwo; Mark Dennis, Arcadis; Anya Sirota, Akoaki; Don Carpenter, Drummond Carpenter PLLC; Jon Watkins, Akoaki; Dr. Harley Etienne, University of Michigan (Sumpter, Dori. 2018).

Akoaki, Architecture and Urban Design

Anya Sirota, Principal

Jean Louis Farges, Principal

Sarah Carter, Architectural Design + Project Managment

Ian Donaldson, Architectural Design

Liz Feltz, Architectural Design

Ibiayi Briggs, Architectural Design + Programming

Jonathan Craig, Architectural Vizualization

Valeria de Jongh, Architectural Design

Abirami Nachammai Manivannan, Architectural Design

Ishan Pal, New Media

Agence Ter, Landscape and Urban Design

Olivier Philippe, Principal

Pilar Llop, Landscape Design (Barcelona)

Marina Daviu, Landcape Design (Paris)

Kevin Marand, Visualization (Paris)

Marie Saalburg, Landcape Design (Paris)

Etienne, Urban Planning

Dr. Harley Etienne, Principal

Frank Romo, Research + GIS

rootoftwo, Digital Strategy

Cezanne Charles, Principal

John Marshall, Principal

Drummond

Carpenter, PLLC, Water Management

Don Carpenter, Principal

Rachel Pieschek, PE Water Resources Engineering

Elizabeth Vander Veen, Research

THE CULTURAL CENTER PLANNING

HAS BEEN FUNDED BY:

INITIATIVE

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

Hudson Webber Foundation

Ralph C.Wilson,Jr. Foundation

Rocket Community Fund

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The Kresge Foundation

University of Michigan

Walters Family Foundation

Wayne State University William Davidson Foundation