The UDM Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students (our central extra curricular student organization) won the Chapter Honor Award for 2011 – essentially recognized as the best AIAS Chapter in North America.

UDM’s Detroit Collaborative Design Center secured the largest grant in its history ($ 1,500,000) this July from the Ford Foundation to work with the City of Detroit and many area community development leaders to facilitate community engagement as the city works to develop long-range land use and development strategies.

The student team from the SOA’s AIAS chapter received an honorable mention for its entry in the 2011 Detroit Canstruction® Design/Build exhibit, which was on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Oct. 26-30, 2011. The exhibit, sponsored by Miller Canfield law firm, consisted of giant sculptures made completely of canned foods that were created by eight competing teams from local design/architecture firms and colleges. The UDM entry, “Faygo Rocks the D,” utilized 1,717 cans, donate by Kroger. The 14,300 cans used to create the exhibits were later donated to Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan. View Canstruction® photos at http://canstructdetroit.tumblr.com