rogueHAA is pleased to announce the next event in its 2011-2012 panel discussion series: Provocations: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse

PANEL DISCUSSION 05: “archiCRITICAL: Evolving Detroit’s Architectural Criticism”
January 26, 2012 – Panel Discussion: 6pm-8pm, Reception to follow: 8pm-9pm
Tech Two (formerly known as Dalgleish Cadillac)
6160 Cass Ave, Detroit

Architectural criticism is a productive and creative literary practice, challenging the architectural profession to consciously examine itself while simultaneously guiding its evolution. Bound in a mutually constructive association, architecture and architectural criticism contribute to each other in reactive and proactive ways.

But what is the function of architectural criticism (and architecture) for societies consumed with economic, social, and environmental crises, which may or may not be directly related to the built environment?  Should architecture (and architectural criticism) focus solely on the built environment, or more actively engage the societies that inhabit and/or fund them?  How does architectural criticism react to a practice (and public) shifting from a desire for superstarchitecture towards socially conscious, equitable design?  Can this symbiotic relationship be more productive towards this end goal?

archiCRITICAL brings together six distinguished architectural critics to expound upon these difficult questions.

Participants:
Frank X. Arvan – President, AIA Detroit
Jennifer Conlin – Contributor, New York Times
Sarah F. Cox – Editor, Curbed Detroit
Michael Hodges – Fine Arts Columnist, Detroit News
Karrie Jacobs – Writer, Architectural Critic, and Editor, Design Observer and Metropolis Magazine
Reed Kroloff – Director, Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum
Melissa Dittmer – Event Moderator, rogueHAA

Following the panel discussion we will post a video and written summary of the event.  We will also provide an open comment board for others to share their thoughts on the dialogue.  As always, this event is open and free to the public.

rogueHAA would like to formally thank TechTown for their contributions towards this event.  More imformation on TechTown can be found on their website, http://techtownwsu.org/.

rogueHAA is pleased to announce the next event in its 2011-2012 panel discussion series: Provocations: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse

PANEL DISCUSSION 04: “INCENTIVES – Funding Advocacy”
November 15, 2011 – Panel Discussion: 6pm-8pm, reception to follow
Cass City Cinema at The Burton Theatre
3420 Cass Avenue

Detroit’s deep history  of commercial innovation and industrial production has created innumerable stories of prosperity and devastation.  From this spectrum of aspiration and consequence has emerged a fertile environment that gives root to new creativity and opportunity, while establishing a remarkable legacy of philanthropic and institutional support. This environment has created a sophisticated network of resources, where large scale national foundations, anchor institutions, and influential local leaders work alongside small scale arts groups, community development coalitions, entrepreneurs, and development advocates to cultivate locally focused programs. 

In the space of this network, numerous projects are underway, and many more are yet to come.  Our discussion will catalogue these efforts, discuss their impact, and outline new and innovative strategies for grants, incentives and other programs in the future. 

Participants:
Melinda Anderson – Detroit Creative Corridor Center
Heather Carmona – Woodward Avenue Action Association
George Jacobsen – Kresge Foundation
Rishi Jaitly – Knight Foundation
Sue Mosey – Midtown Detroit Inc
Dan Kinkead – Event Moderator, HAA

Following the panel discussion we will post a video and written summary of the event.  We will also provide an open comment board for others to share their thoughts on the dialogue.  As always, this event is open and free to the public.

lecturesHAA is pleased to announce the second event in its 2011/2012 series: PROVOCATIONS: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse. This bi-monthly lecture series began in June and will continue through the end of 2012.  Each panel discussion will invite local, regional, and national figures to discuss what makes Detroit provocative.  Set in a variety of under-utilized, contested, and historically charged spaces throughout our city, each event seeks to challenge the participants through candid discourse and direct engagement of the built environment.  It is the aim of each panel discussion to explore new urban strategies that promote social equity and advocacy.  We believe good design (and good design discourse) is a proactive and critical act, toeing the line between conflict and resolution.  While each event exists for only a moment, the entire series will provide a lasting catalogue of constructive dialogue, informing Detroit’s shared creative consciousness.

­Event 02 MOTIVATIONS: Design Instigators. In today’s trying economic and political climate it is often difficult to continuously produce thoughtful, provocative, and engaging design. Particularly in Detroit, which can be an equally frustrating and rewarding design environment, it is easy to question one’s creative motives. Yet as challenges mount, we have an opportunity to redefine our personal and civic means and methods, to refocus on why these creative initiatives have an even more important role to play.

For this discussion we ask our panelists to give us their motives, their reasons, and their hidden agendas as a way to foreground what inspires them to do what they do. We will focus on process over product, looking at the ways design can incite change through multiple trajectories. These are individuals who have, in one way or another, become catalysts for productive change in their communities and their City. Ultimately, we hope to uncover what their collective motives say about Detroit, its unique challenges, and how the City serves as a critical motivator for substantive dialogue within the City and beyond.

What’s your motivation?

What are your Ulterior Motives?

Panel Discussion

August 16, 2011

6:30 – 8:30 pm

2:1 Gallery

1480 Gratiot Ave, Detroit

Reception to follow

8:30 – 9:00 pm

Participants presenting in the “MOTIVATIONS” panel discussion include:

• Milton S.F. Curry Associate Dean/Associate Professor of Architecture U of M Taubman College
• Kate Daughdrill Artist /Co-Founder of Detroit SOUP
• Gregory Holm Artist/Photographer/2:1 Gallery
• Claire Nelson Owner of Bureau of Urban Living
• Stephen Vogel Professor of Architecture University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture
• Jamie Witherspoon Event moderator/rogueHAA

You can also follow all events through our Facebook page.

Hamilton Anderson Associates (HAA) is a multi-disciplinary Detroit design firm dedicated to improving the built environment through creative, contemporary design. The counterpart to HAA’s architectural practice is rogueHAA, a design and research studio based in our Detroit office. While HAA focuses on the thoughtful design and construction of buildings and landscapes, rogueHAA operates beyond the traditional practice boundaries to consider post-industrial strategies, branding, media, pop-culture, publishing, the facilitation of design discourse, and the promotion of urban advocacy.

Started in 2008 as an after-hours voluntary design forum, rogueHAA maintains one single goal:  To raise the level of design discourse in Detroit by challenging the public to practice critical, creative thinking.  As architectural advocates, we can provide more for our city’s design community by encouraging creative discourse than through the design and construction of any building type.  We have implemented two complementary efforts that have begun to instigate change within the Detroit community: www.roguehaa.com, an urbanism blog, and lecturesHAA, a multi-topic speaker series.   A third initiative, installationsHAA, is currently being explored by a multi-disciplinary collaborative team.

Our second initiative, lecturesHAA, is dedicated to creating broad, creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. Our inaugural lecture program (2009-2010) utilized a common theme: “CHALLENGING DETROIT: (Re)generating Urbanism” and resulted in nine bi-monthly lecture events.  The first six events featured Detroit artists (Design99, Sweet Juniper, Phil Cooley, Craig Wilkens and others) sharing their personal regeneration strategies.  As the events passed, we established quite a following; audiences grew from fifteen to two hundred.  Transitioning to panel discussions, in lieu of single speakers, extended our audience diversity beyond the design community into the community-at-large.  Each event was free, open to the public, and held within a different city space, raising awareness of forgotten sites, and those that illustrated adaptive reuse opportunities. A summary of these nine events can be found on rogueHAA.

lecturesHAA is pleased to announce its 2011/2012 program: “PROVOCATIONS: Challenging Detroit’s Design Discourse”. This bi-monthly lecture series will begin in June and continue through the end of 2012.  Each panel discussion will invite local, regional, and national figures to discuss what makes Detroit provocative.  Set in a variety of under-utilized, contested, and historically charged spaces throughout our city, each event seeks to challenge the participants through candid discourse and direct engagement of the built environment.  It is the aim of each panel discussion to explore new urban strategies that promote social equity and advocacy.  We believe good design (and good design discourse) is a proactive and critical act, toeing the line between conflict and resolution.  While each event exists for only a moment, the entire series will provide a lasting catalogue of constructive dialogue, informing Detroit’s shared creative consciousness.

An onslaught of recent international catastrophes and dogged economic strife has begun to teach the broader design community empathy, compassion, and perhaps, selflessness.  These reactions have bettered a majority of the profession and fundamentally transformed recent design graduates.  Not coincidentally, the market for super-starchitecture is waning. The profession has gravitated toward social equity, conscientious investment, and advocacy.

An alternate mode of practice is on the horizon.  Current moods are shifting towards a more aggressive “public”.  One that passionately argues or fights for what they want, for what they believe in.  Instead of waiting for a catalytic trigger to better their environment, the public is forcing our hands and demanding to be heard.  Egypt…  Tea Party…  Robocop statues…

The design profession is following suit by becoming less reactive in the name of the “public” and more proactive towards producing socially-conscious design.  Sometimes provocative discourse wavers between conflict and solution, but the found space in between can foster a unifying trajectory, allowing everyone to take control of our shared design destiny.

So, we ask you…who’s looking for a fight?

Centered on this theme, we will host nine panel discussions; each event will focus on a provocative sub-theme.

June 2011:                            “AWAKENINGS: Who are you fighting for?”
August 2011:                       “MOTIVATIONS: Design Instigators”
October 2011:                     “DEFIANCE: Designing towards Disobedience”
December 2011:                “INCENTIVES: Extorting Design Funds from a Post Industrial City”
February 2012:                  “CHALLENGES: Designing the Intentional Conflict”
April 2012:                            “TEMPTATIONS: Design as Decoy”
June 2012:                            “FRENZY: Hysterical Detroit”
August 2012:                        “FUEL: Nourishing Urbanism”
October 2012:                     “PROVOCATIONS: Closing Commonalities”

Our inaugural panel discussion is titled, “AWAKENINGS: WHO is Detroit’s design public?  WHO are you designing for?  WHO are you fighting for?” Our panelist invitations are always very specific, and deliberately diverse, in hopes of garnering different perspectives on the issues.  In addition, our panelists and their interventions will range in scale and scope.  Whether exploring creative population strategies, to regional discourse initiatives, to the artistic curation  of a post-industrial city… all perspectives are valued.

EVENT 01 – AWAKENINGS:

Panel Discussion
June 28, 2011
6:00 – 8:00 pm
2:1 Gallery
1480 Gratiot Ave, Detroit

Reception to follow
8:00 – 9:00 pm

Participants presenting in the “AWAKENINGS” panel discussion include:

·  Margarita Barry, Founder + Publisher of I AM YOUNG DETROIT, Founder of 71 POP
·  Matt Clayson, Director of Detroit Creative Corridor Center
·  Eleanore Eveleth, Community Development Program Manager of Data Driven Detroit
·  Megan Heeres, Art Curator + Community Garden + Arts Program Manager of Compuware Corporation
·  Sarah Szurpicki, Director of Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE)

We have updated our website, www.roguehaa.com, by posting lecture videos and summaries of all of our previous events. You will note that the comments portions of all event articles are open to the public, as we welcome the continuation of any public design discourse.  You can also follow all of our events by becoming fans of our Facebook page.

October’s panel discussion marked the end of the 2010 LecturesHAA program: Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism. Please stay tuned for the release of the upcoming 2011 series topic and event schedule. The LecturesHAA team would like to thank everyone who helped make this year such a great success and we look forward to continuing the dialogue next year.

October 5th marked the last in the 2010 LecturesHAA series: “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” The ninth and final event for this year brought together a panel of distinguished artists from around the city to discuss art as a catalyst, strategy, intervention, and regenerative enterprise in Detroit. Hosted by Willy’s Overland Lofts, The event aimed to thicken the discourse surrounding urban art as well as establish greater understanding for the breadth of artistic possibilities specific to Detroit.

The presenters included Jim Boyle, Co-founder of Public Pool Artspace and Vice President of Integrated Marketing at Lovio George, Chazz Miller, Director of Public Art Workz, Dan Pitera, Executive Director of Detroit Collaborative Design Center, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, and Noah Resnick, Principal of uRbanDetail and Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. From a panel diverse in both artistic background and expertise came a lively discussion which focused on the fact that Detroit offers a unique landscape for imaginative, daring, and wildly creative acts which would prove difficult, or even illegal, if attempted elsewhere.

This opportunistic attitude is one that has gained recognition in the national media of late, and the panelists offered both their excitement and concern for how this type of coverage typically provides only a narrow read of what is a complex, diverse, and well established, artistic heritage in the city. The panelists also stressed the importance of community involvement in the inception and execution of urban interventions. At every scope and scale, facilitating an open and collaborative artistic environment has proved critical to each panelist’s work.

The event concluded with a reception and continued discussion at the Re:View Contemporary Gallery. It was an opportunity to reflect on the night’s topic, but also on a year of discussions which have attempted to frame and foreground regenerative strategies in the city and to identify the social, economic, and environmental attributes that define it. By providing a platform for these conversations, we hope to facilitate participation in the thoughtful and creative regeneration of Detroit.

lecturesHAA would like to thank everyone who participated in making this year’s series a success. We look forward to continuing the dialogue in 2011.

lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.

The 2010 program for is titled, “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program provides an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.

The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please visit our facebook page or return to rogueHAA for post lecture discussions, future topics, and dates.

EVENT 09: Panel Discussion
“THE URBAN ARTSCAPE : A (Re)generation strategy”

Detroit’s Urban Artscape has recently received an assortment of national media attention.  This event aims to expand current dialogue on this topic, moving beyond the most recent media publications that skim over the true multi-dimensional, catalytic power of artistic interventions within a struggling urbanscape.  The panel will be asked to consider how certain social, economic and geographic factors impact their work, including the ways in which the scale and scope of artistic interventions are informed or modulated by the city. Lastly, the panel will evaluate the short and long-term effectiveness of such interventions as devices for urban regeneration.  Whether describing a single urban intervention, an academic analysis of Detroit’s urban artscape, the public aspect of urban art, or the implementation of a larger, ephemeral artistic festival…how effective are these interventions when viewed from an ever-widening perspective?

October 5th, 2010 from 6 – 8 pm
Willy’s Overland Loft
444 West Willis Street, Detroit
5th Floor

Participants presenting in the “URBAN ARTSCAPE” panel discussion include:

• Jim Boyle, Public Pool Artspace Co-Founder, Vice President of Integrated Marketing, Lovio George
• Melissa Dittmer, Hamilton Anderson Associates
• Chazz Miller, Urban Muralist, Director of Public Art Workz
• Dan Pitera, Executive Director of Detroit Collaborative Design Center, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture
• Noah Resnick, Principal uRbanDetail, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture

Reception to follow from 8 – 9 pm
Re:View Contemporary Gallery
444 West Willis Street, Detroit
Ground Floor

Deconstruction Detroit: A [RE]generation Strategy from HAA on Vimeo.

Last week, over 150 people gathered at Recycle Here! for the most recent installment in the lecturesHAA series. The event brought together representatives from Architectural Salvage Warehouse, C3LL3C, Recycle Here!, University of Detroit Mercy, and Design Evolution Workshop to discuss Deconstruction as an approach to managing Detroit’s many vacant and abandoned buildings. Each panelist began with a brief presentation framing his specific role in and approach to the deconstruction process. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion which both affirmed the position of Deconstruction within Detroit, as well as exposed the challenges facing the industry here and elsewhere.

The conversation ranged from the techniques and tactics involved in dismantling structures, to its economic feasibility and related public policy. The dialogue exposed the negative ecological impact of traditional demolition practices and demonstrated how Deconstruction and recycling techniques offer a sustainable alternative. Yet it also exposed the obstacles facing the Deconstruction industry as it competes with demolition. Because it is a labor intensive process, Deconstruction generally takes longer and is therefore more costly than traditional practices. And so it was with both optimism toward deconstruction’s possibilities and a realistic understanding of its difficulties that the evening unfolded. Though it was clear it will be some time before Deconstruction becomes a mainstream alternative to demolition, the passion and enthusiasm of the panelists and audience alike were testament to a collective belief in the value of this burgeoning industry.

Nature as Commodity
In the mid to late 1800s, the great lakes region was known for its vast of timber resources. At the time, Michigan white pine was an essential commodity both in the development of east coast cities as well as the populations spreading into the frontier regions of the west. The conceptual transformation of the natural world into commodity pervades the history, rapid growth, and development of the great lakes region. The lumber industry which transformed much of the region from dense tracts of forest into cleared agricultural land also enabled the regional population explosion that followed.

At the time, the commodities exchange of Chicago became uniquely poised to collect, store and distribute vast quantities of wood from northern areas to the plains. As William Cronon writes in Nature’s Metropolis “Ecology and Economy had converged: the city lay not only on the border between forest and grassland but also on the happy margin between supply and demand.”

City as Natural Resource
In many rustbelt cities, buildings left abandoned have become transformed from one commodity to another. From icons of failed real estate speculation, the built environment has now become a resource similar to the dense forests that once populated these areas. Deconstruction provides an opportunity to reclaim those materials which would otherwise end up in a landfill for use either in the construction of new buildings, as fuel, or even recycled as art objects. Buildings are now surveyed not only for their historical value and architectural significance, but as a composition of resources of various values in the materials market.

According to the Deconstruction Institute, the demolition of a typical 2,000 square foot home can be expected to produce 127 tons of debris. Meanwhile, that same house if deconstructed properly can yield 6,000 board feet of reusable lumber, which is equivalent to 33 mature trees, or the yearly output of 10 acres. In addition to wood, the vast majority of building materials can be recycled in some way or another if properly handled and separated. However, under current regulations and because of Michigan’s low waste disposal fees, Deconstruction has yet to become an economically viable alternative to demolition.

Constructing Value
Part of the challenge facing the panelists is to educate the public to the economic, ecological, and social advantages to Deconstruction. For example, while Deconstruction is labor intensive, and therefore costly relative to demolition, it also creates jobs. On average, deconstruction laborers earn an average of $1.90 more per square foot than demolition laborers. On a typical 2,000 square foot house, this equates to 38 more worker-days at a living wage than would be provided by demolition. Job creation and the resale of materials allows deconstruction to compete with demolition in areas where landfill ‘tipping fees’ are high. In Michigan where these fees are the lowest in the region, there is little financial incentive to seek alternate means of waste management. Therefore it is important that policies be considered which incentivize industries like Deconstruction while encouraging recycling and better waste management practices.

Beyond the financial hurdles, however, there is the inherent social and environmental value in seeking responsible alternatives to landfills. With a high density of vacant buildings awaiting demolition, Detroit is uniquely poised to serve as both resource and distribution center for this growing industry.  Abundant, affordable warehouse space and access to rail lines could link Detroit’s Deconstruction efforts with a greater context, helping to cultivate the market for recycled materials at multiple scales. Related businesses could emerge- builders, furniture makers, artists, craftspeople – which incorporate raw recycled materials into their products, adding an intrinsic history and narrative to their work. Likewise, this expanded presence could position Detroit as a regional leader in sustainable stewardship as the city continues to address its urban condition.

lecturesHAA is dedicated to creating a broader creative discourse through open and collaborative dialogue. The program includes lectures and discussions throughout the year that will consider important contemporary design issues associated with the urban environment.

The 2010 program for is titled, “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program provides an important platform for consideration of innovative, multidisciplinary strategies designed to help the city not only create reinvestment and redevelopment, but also begin to regenerate the social, economic and environmental attributes that define it. Now, more than ever, we need to come together to understand how we can effectively participate in the thoughtful, creative regeneration of Detroit.

The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please visit our facebook page or return to rogueHAA for post lecture discussions, future topics, and dates.

EVENT 08: Panel Discussion
“DECONSTRUCTION DETROIT : A (Re)generation strategy”

Deconstruction is the selective dismantling of building components, specifi cally for re-use, recycling, and waste management. If this practice is integrated within the city of Detroit and the metropolitan region, the effects may be profound.  Physically, deconstruction facilitates the extension of a building material’s lifetime, providing a sustainable alternative to the conventional demolition of several thousand vacant buildings.  Economically, at a regional scale, a well organized deconstruction program promotes a viable industry. While socially, stewardship of the deconstruction effort provides a positive image for our city and region.  During this August event, five local professionals will present their past and current deconstruction efforts. Following their presentations, an informal panel discussion will query balanced, and sometimes contradictory, dialogue on the (Re)generation of Detroit, one deconstruction effort at a time.

August 17, 2010 @ 6pm
Recycle Here! Warehouse
1331 Holden Street, Detroit

Participants presenting in the “DECONSTRUCTION DETROIT” panel discussion include:

• Derek J Roberts, Design Evolution Workshop
• Jill Ferrari, Wayne County
• Will Wittig, University of Detroit Mercy
• Tom Friesen, Architectural Salvage Warehouse
• Matt Naimi, Recycle Here!

Volunteerism in Detroit: A [RE]Generation Strategy from HAA on Vimeo.

An army of volunteers. In Detroit, volunteerism is a catalyst for change.  We accomplish change by performing change, and the unique legibility of these efforts is striking within Detroit’s urbanscape.  Established throughout Detroit, various non-profit volunteer organizations and their dedicated, creative volunteers have successfully regenerated many facets of our City.  This legion of volunteers has provided the impetus for positive marketing campaigns, entrepreneurial endeavors, and formal urban redevelopments.

These positive interventions inspire and motivate others to contribute to our City.  And so, we ask ourselves…

How can we facilitate regeneration?
How can we become the vehicle for Detroit’s transformation?

On June 15^th, lecturesHAA celebrated its one-year anniversary by hosting an event aimed at answering these questions. Entitled “VOLUNTEERISM IN DETROIT: A (Re)generation Strategy”, this event provided a venue for six local non-profit volunteer organizations

Young Detroit Builders
Detroit Synergy
Greening of Detroit
Preservation Wayne
Architecture for Humanity
Summer in the City

to present and discuss their origins, inspirations, and bodies of work within the City of Detroit.  Initially, the organizations demonstrated themselves as unique, outlining their specific programs, and then documenting their commendable efforts on a common base map of our City. Between these six local organizations over 10,000 volunteers are utilized each year within the City of Detroit.  En masse, their projects influence 60 square miles of the city.  The collective scope, breadth and impact of these projects are striking. Click here to view the Volunteerism Areas of Influence Mapping.

Imagine if we were able to calculate the impact of every single volunteer effort from every single non-profit organization?  What if we then added the contributions of all the for-profit corporations that organize monthly or yearly volunteer days?  What statistics would we calculate?  How much of the city is affected?  How densely populated would our map be then?

As revealed in the second half of the evening, this volunteer energy actively works towards Detroit’s regeneration. Four main themes focused the panel discussion:

Detroit’s Volunteer Organization Model. In their origins, many of the non-profit volunteer organizations based their organizational structure upon a sister non-profit from another city.  As they developed these organizations evolved away from their origins.  In all cases, the once generic non-profit template became inextricably linked to Detroit specific issues.  And now, these organizations (and their strategies) could be applied towards other rust-belt cities, acting as a regeneration model for other post-industrial cities.

Struggling with the Economy. In the best of financial times, Detroit can still be easily defined as a city “in need”.  These last few years of national financial crisis have had profound effects on the volunteer organizations. Ironically, as more and more citizens lose their jobs, the requests for help increase exponentially, but so does the size of the volunteer base willing to work for a greater cause.  Unfortunately, with each passing year, each organization has more volunteers than it has funding to organize.

Rightsizing Detroit. Using the final volunteer “area of influences” map as reference, the panel was asked about the forthcoming efforts to “rightsize” Detroit.  The organizations noted the importance of participation, and remarked that perhaps their efforts and objectives could influence a new comprehensive plan for Detroit, rather than being told where they should focus their work.

Detroit and the Media. Even with the past year’s intensively focused national media interest, none of the organizations (or their efforts) have received any national media coverage.  None have been asked for interviews, comments, or their story.  Many of the organizations have attempted to contact the media in response to their stories, in hopes of balancing the more aggressively negative perspectives portrayed to the world.  None have received a response.

Applause for the army. It is hard to ignore the passion and enthusiasm of tens of thousands of dedicated volunteers, the dedicated funding to the volunteer efforts, and the obvious effects resulting from combining these two ingredients.  The following organizations presented during the June 15^th event. In many cases, their individual regeneration strategies simply and beautifully improved the physical urbanscape of Detroit.  In other situations, their regeneration strategies aimed towards benefiting certain socio-economic demographics, giving the youth of Detroit opportunities to learn skill sets that may guide them through troublesome teenage years.  Regardless of their temporal (???) influences, their dedication and loyalty to the city of Detroit should be commended, loudly.  For further information on each of the organizations, please check their websites or email info@roguehaa.com.

In addition, Dig In Detroit,  Slows BBQ,  and Cliff Bells volunteered equipment, supplies, and their energy towards the success of this event.