STUDIO OVERVIEW
Imagine your role where acts of design are an entrepreneurial endeavor, specifically aimed towards empowering those communities whose historic and cultural character is in danger of disappearing.
Detroit’s oldest surviving neighborhood, Corktown is layered with immigrant history, working-class roots, and a cultural identity shaped by cycles of growth, decline, and reinvention. Just west of downtown and anchored by the restored Michigan Central Station, it stands as both a gateway to Detroit’s past and a catalyst for its future. Ford Motor Company’s transformation of Michigan Central into a mobility innovation hub has sparked new construction, startups, and retail, while also raising urgent questions about gentrification, displacement, and the preservation of local character.
Our studio site sits just west of Michigan Central within an emerging sports and innovation district. Students translate a deep reading of place into narrative that drives an iterative design process toward a deployable precast concrete façade system. Programs included commercial, retail, restaurant, innovation labs, and mixed-use spaces. Working alongside industry experts, students investigated the material and structural constraints and opportunities of precast and UHPC systems. Also central to this studio was the relationship between interior life and exterior expression, or how the building envelope can deliberately respond to, amplify, and extend the activities within.
This studio engages community, memory, culture, and identity across scales. Through rigorous site research and design inquiry, students learned that context is more than what is visible. It is social, cultural, and political. Through making and building, we aim to strengthen citizen-centered impact and equity, demonstrating the power of architecture to shape place with intention.
STUDENTS: Jared Abrahamian, Hasaan Allen, Aaliyah Alvarez, Sahil Chavan, Mallika Champaneria, Thaddeus Gue, Sumit Nalawade, Jessica Nguyen, Megha Pramod, Porter Thiele, Benjamin Ullrich, Daniel Volpe
GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT: Mallory Justis (MS Architecture 2025)
PROFESSIONAL PARTNERS: HKS (Atlanta and Detroit); Wells; DEX Industries; Uzun + Case; Clark Pacific; FRONT; Walter P. Moore; Architectural Polymers
COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS: City of Detroit Planning Department; Michigan Central