Detroit Urban Strategies

Posts Tagged ‘Detroit Urban Strategies’

ANNOUNCING PANEL DISCUSSION 02-MOTIVATIONS: DESIGN INSTIGATORS

Monday, July 25th, 2011

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. (more…)

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies, Lecture
Posted in Detroit Urban Strategy, Events, Lectures | Comments Off

MICHIGAN CENTRAL DEPOT : INSERT YOUR PROGRAM HERE

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Cincinnati Museum Center @ Union Terminal

Anti-History. The discourse surrounding the Michigan Central Depot (MCD) is epic. Everyone has an opinion, and many opinions are charged with personal history, political dogma, or impulsive judgment. This post does not attempt to chronicle the saga and thereby continue the allegations. Rather, this post proposes to erase the associated drama and begin anew with the existing structure and current conditions. Can we move beyond the MCD’s existing identity and all associated issues that continue to plague the MCD? What could truly be done with this massive structure? What is possible?

Momentum. Over the years, numerous proposals have floated through the Detroit ether: Homeland Security Offices, Business Center, Detroit Police Department Headquarters, Hotel/Casino. None of these proposals have landed, none have gained momentum. On a community level, the Greater Corktown Development Corporation and eighteen Earhart Middle School students developed MCD programming ideas through multiple design charrettes. These creative programming solutions were summarized in powerpoint and then formally presented to the Detroit City Council. A small band of renegades (Phillip Cooley, uRbanDetail, Tadd Heidgerken, and others) have designed a Roosevelt Park Masterplan and slowly implemented the initial phases. Their landscape urbanism strategies have encouraged the MCD owner to clean up the structure’s forecourt and plant perennials along the front façade. Mainstream recognition includes multiple music videos (Kid Rock, Eminem), wedding party photos, documentaries, and movies (Transformers, The Island, 8 Mile, 4 Brothers) using the MCD as a backdrop and/or stage. This combination of community, renegade, and mainstream momentum results in a uniquely creative discourse, and perhaps a new found urbanism, Detroit-style. (more…)

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Architecture, Detroit Urban Strategy, Projects, Research, Urbanism | Comments Off

HAA ANNOUNCES LECTURESHAA – EVENT 02

Monday, August 10th, 2009

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 initial program for 2009 will be “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program will provide 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 return to rogueHAA for future dates and topics.

EVENT 02: Lecture
SWEET JUNIPER!
The Afflatus of Ruin: Talking Differently About Detroit’s Unique and Endangered Assets
Jim Griffioen, Artist & Author

Jim Griffioen is a former corporate litigator turned writer, photographer, and stay-at-home dad. Every day thousands of people from around the world visit his website, sweetjuniper.com, to read his thoughts on parenthood, contemporary culture, and the state of his adopted home of Detroit. Griffioen’s photography has been featured in Harper’s, Vice, Landscape Architecture, New York, and CS Interiors among other publications. He has appeared on American Public Media’s The Story with Dick Gordon, CBC’s national arts and culture Program Q, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker.com.

August 18, 2009 @ 6pm
Johanson Charles Gallery
1345 Division
Eastern Market, Detroit

EVENT 03: Lecture
Lars Graebner, Architect
October 13, 2009 @ 6pm
Johanson Charles Gallery
1345 Division
Eastern Market, Detroit

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Detroit Urban Strategy, Lectures, Projects, Sustainability | Comments Off

FIELD OBSERVATION – Detroit Port Authority

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Field observation. The Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority (DWCPA) project is currently under construction. Located at the intersection of Bates and Atwater in Downtown Detroit, the DWCPA Public Dock and Terminal “is designed to not only harbor and attract cruise ships, but also any other transient vessels visiting Detroit.” Once completed, this HAA designed facility will accommodate visiting domestic and international vessels and further energize Detroit’s already successful pedestrian Riverwalk.

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies, Port Authority
Posted in Architecture, Detroit Urban Strategy, Hit and Run, Projects, Urbanism | Comments Off

DESIGN 99 LECTURE DISCUSSION

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

On June 23^rd, the first lecture in a series of HAA sponsored events occurred in a small Eastern Market art studio, The Johanson Charles Gallery. During the lecture, Design 99′s co-founders Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert presented a sampling of their past and current work. As their projects flashed over the make-shift projection screen, the sound system petered in an out of existence. These underground conditions seemed perfectly analogous to Design 99′s daily challenges and each of their project’s specific circumstances. Despite the late start and the subsequent technical difficulties, the 40+ Detroit locals were enraptured, appreciative, and focused on the discussion at hand:

Current urban issues require change
Context specific design catalysts operate as community focal points
Focal points spark community discussions
Community discussions initiate resolution of urban issues (more…)

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Detroit Urban Strategy, Lectures, Projects, Urbanism | Comments Off

HIP HOP ARCHITECTURE

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

“Negro music has touched America because it is the melody of the soul joined with the rhythm of the machine. It is in two part time; tears in the heart; movement of the legs, torso arms and head. The music of the era of construction; innovating. It floods the body and heart; it floods the USA and its floods the world. The jazz is more advanced than the architecture. If architecture were at the point reached by jazz, it would be an incredible spectacle.” – Le Corbusier

As a catalyst, the above quote ignited years of research, eventually leading to the development of my University of Detroit Mercy Graduate Thesis, “Hip Hop Inspired Architecture.” In short, the thesis established a framework for analyzing the developments of multiple cultural architectural styles and then assimilating these precedents within the proposed creation of a Hip Hop inspired architecture. By first understanding the evolution of each cultural architecture separately, one perceives how Le Corbusier’s musings on music and architecture suggest an evolution from jazz towards a Hip Hop Culture. While Le Corbusier should not be credited with laying the foundation of the Hip-Hop culture, his physical and theoretical works indirectly contributed both positively and negatively to the Hip Hop culture. Within this body of research, I further explored the cultural and professional significance in implementing the Hip-Hop culture into the field of architecture. Johann von Goethe said, “I call architecture frozen music.” My thesis sought to freeze the most socially and culturally recognizable music in the world, Hip Hop. (more…)

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Architecture, Detroit Urban Strategy, Projects, Publications, Research | Comments Off

ANALYZE, DEMONSTRATE, REPRESENT: ACTIONS ACHIEVED THROUGH GRAPHICS

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Position. As architects, landscape architects and interior designers, there is an inherent distance between the product of our daily work (drawings and representations) and the eventual product produced from our work (buildings and spaces). Put simply, we don’t build airports and parks, we draw them. We represent for a living. Accordingly, we must intensely consider the most effective ways to produce our product; to see all that drawings can do, from construction documents to conceptual renderings and parti diagrams to program matrices. The example below shows the process HAA used to apply this realization beyond the design of buildings and spaces to the analysis and demonstration of data.

Questions. What is the most effective method for presenting the analysis of statistical information to a variety of audiences? Should different methodologies be employed to analyze qualitative versus quantitative information? Can the use of multiple methodologies result in a cohesive, comprehensive presentation with clear direction? The Woodward Avenue Action Association provided Hamilton Anderson an opportunity to investigate these questions using Woodward Avenue as a laboratory.

Background. Woodward Avenue is Michigan’s “main street” and thread of economic vitality in the southeastern part of the state. It is home to more than 300 historic sites, 150 annual events, 55 major attractions and contains the world’s first mile of concrete highway. Beyond Detroit and the other 10 municipalities it intersects, Woodward’s iconic status as a roadway and destination is understood regionally and nationally. The Woodward Corridor was designated as an Automobile National Heritage Area in 1998, a Michigan Heritage Route in 1999, and in 2002 the National Scenic Byways Program included Woodward Avenue (M1) in its exclusive list of America’s Byways®: 125 distinct and diverse roads with special designation by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation based on archaeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, or scenic qualities. (more…)

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Architecture, Detroit Urban Strategy, Planning, Projects, Research, Urbanism | Comments Off

HAA ANNOUNCES LECTURESHAA – EVENT 01

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

The initial program for 2009 will be “Challenging Detroit: (Re)generating Urbanism.” This program will provide 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.

While it is relatively unconventional for a professional design firm such as Hamilton Anderson Associates to create and coordinate a lecture program such as this, we feel that by leveraging our resources and interests in design, we may more fully establish a fertile exchange of ideas that helps to bridge the gap between the creative community and the community at-large.

The public is encouraged to attend these free events. Please return to rogueHAA for future dates and topics.

EVENT 01: Lecture
Design 99: Current Works in the City -Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope, Artists

Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope believe that contemporary architecture and design is not reserved for a select audience. Rather, Design 99 offers inexpensive, contemporary design to the general public for a 99 cents per minute fee. Part retail space, part architectural design studio, Design 99′s Hamtramck studio blurs the distinction between art and design while reinforcing open collaboration with several individuals, organizations, and the public. This open collaboration has resulted in several provocative projects: Power House Project, MOCAD’s Shrinking Cities Exhibit, and “A People’s Guide to Detroit”.

June 23, 2009 @ 6pm
Johanson Charles Gallery
1345 Division
Eastern Market, Detroit

EVENT 02: Lecture
Jim Griffioen, Writer and Photographer
August – Date TBD
Location TBD

EVENT 03: Lecture
Lars Graebner, Architect
October – Date TBD
Location TBD

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Detroit Urban Strategy, Lectures | Comments Off

DETROIT CHILDREN’S LIBRARY : DESIGN FOR CHILDREN

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Detroit Children's Library Wall Sections

Questions. How should one design for children? Should an architect alter their design approach for projects with a 12 year old (and under) clientele? These simple questions marked the beginning of HAA’s design process for the renovation and expansion of the Detroit Public Library Children’s Library.

Position. After working through the project, HAA answered these questions with a modern design solution that empowers the intelligence of its primary users, the children. The proposed space allows for introspective investigations; each child initiates vastly different experiences in various parts of the library. Conversely, the proposed Detroit Children’s Library is also a social space, an armature for discovery that does not dictate specific responses, but provides opportunities for a wide range of collaboration and interaction. In effect, the proposed environment encourages the journey, where learning and social developments are associated with a thoughtful, compelling design.

Project. The Detroit Public Library (DPL) Main Branch is located along Woodward Avenue just north of Warren and centered in the cultural core of the city. The building was designed by the renowned Beaux-Arts architect, Cass Gilbert, and completed in 1921. Two subsequent wings were added in 1963. Housed within the first floor of the DPL north wing, the existing 3500 SF Children’s Library is outdated, outgrown, and happily over-utilized. The renovated area increases to occupy approximately 15,000 SF, providing the flexible space necessary for the expanding programs of the DPL. Working with the client, two innovative concepts emerged for the proposed Detroit Children’s Library. (more…)

Tags: Add new tag, Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Architecture, Detroit Urban Strategy, Interior Design, Projects | Comments Off

Downtown Detroit Storefront Competition – Part 2

Monday, May 18th, 2009

HAA Designed Storefront

POSITION. Participation in the Detroit Storefront Design Competition (DSDC) has provoked a series of questions regarding the existing urban conditions in the downtown area, and creative ways to stimulate activity that may plot a course toward significant redevelopment in the city core. Acknowledging both the current economic recession and Detroit’s past difficulties in renovating, occupying, and activating its downtown buildings, we are interested in how seemingly small-scale interventions may be used as interim devices to activate downtown streets and buildings.

QUESTIONS. Could similar storefront concepts become the high impact and low cost, dynamic interventions necessary for this process? What type of program or content could maximize the impact of these comparatively small and static venues on the downtown visitors, workers, residents, restaurants and retailers? How can these storefront interventions be organized and implemented to capitalize on existing downtown destination events, such as sports and entertainment, while providing day to day places of interest that engage a broad audience for extended periods of time? Finally, could these interventions become larger scale urban strategies that lead to further renovation and redevelopment of vacant buildings throughout the downtown area? (more…)

Tags: Detroit Urban Strategies
Posted in Competitions, Detroit Urban Strategy, Projects, Research, Urbanism | Comments Off