“In Detroit, transportation governs production”. (Munger, 1920) “Flexibility, mobility and speed made Detroit an international model for industrial urban development. Those very qualities rendered the city disposable”. (Waldheim, 2002) “Strengthening our city will take a long term strategy for how we use Detroit’s 140 square miles more productively. The harsh reality is that some areas are no longer viable neighborhoods with the population loss and financial situation our city faces. But instead of looking at our land as a liability, we need to begin to think creatively about how it can be a resource as we rebuild our city… This is about determining what areas of our city are best suited for residential use, commercial and industrial businesses, parks and green space… We have lacked a true vision and viable plan in Detroit for decades”. (Major Bing, State of the City, 2010) Montage. Ambassador Bridge under construction holding a view of downtown Detroit in 1930
NET+WORKS > “BUILDING GROUND” ARCH 552_FALL 2011 Tu / Fri 12.30-6.30 pm “The flow of goods, services, and capital between the United States and Canada is the largest bilateral trade relationship between any two nations in the world. The DetroitWindsor Gateway is one of the busiest commercial land border crossings in North America and has historically handled over 28% of all US/Canada border crossing traffic. Truck traffic carries $52 billion worth of trade each year in 4.7 million truck crossings”. “A total 70 percent of the Canadian trade is with the US. Firms have integrated supply chains: a third of Canadian trade is intra-company, and another one within established supply chains”. “The average vehicle built in this area essentially crosses the border-from its smallest component until it emerges as a finished vehicle- six times”. “More than 40 percent car-drivers crossing the Ambassador Bridge or the Detroit Windsor Tunnel report travelling alone and above 50 percent are work related trips”.
Studio Instructor > Maria Arquero de Alarcon (marquero@umich.edu) Course Description Challenging biased notions that infrastructure must be governed solely by efficiency, “Building Ground” will explore “the civic” as the main constituent in the design process of the NITC. *1 In an attempt to attract the billon private investment partnership needed to move this state-of-the-art project forward*2, this studio will speculate on the design opportunities derived of the incorporation of the Midwest High Speed Rail Line*3 to the project. To further test the opportunistic civic nature of this infrastructure, the once thriving neighborhood of Delray in Southwest Detroit has been selected as the site of study. Bounded by three major infrastructural lines- the Detroit and Rouge Rivers, and the Fisher Freewaythis district can be read as a palimpsest containing the physical traces left by 100 years of Detroit’s insatiable geopolitical ambition. As a result, Delray contains today an amalgam of on-going industrial and logistic activity, vanishing residential pockets, and an ever-expanding infrastructural network in one of the most highly polluted urban areas in the State of Michigan. The semester will be structured around four research and design phases. The first half will be comprised of an investigation of the regional flows and local site ecologies through the development of thematic cartographies. The second half will focus on the development of urban design proposals for the district of Delray, including the architectural definition of the Integrated Detroit Terminal*4, and the design of the pertinent environmental mitigation strategies. _______________
*1 New International Trade Crossing, formerly known as DRIC, Detroit River International Crossing. *2 Estimated cost about $3.6 billion (including roadwork and plazas, $1 billion for the bridge). A public authority would call for bids on a project to be publicly owned but financed, built and operated by a private contractor. *3 Midwest High Speed Train Line connecting Chicago and Detroit. (http://fra.dot.gov/rpd/downloads /HSIPR_Midwest_South_Region_Investments_072811.pdf). Studio-wise, this will be the US portion of an international line to Toronto. *4 Integrated Detroit High Speed Rail Terminal, Bridge Landing Plaza and Customs Facilities.