For Assistant Professor of Architecture Jana Cephas, a day on the job as project manager at UDM's Detroit Collaborative Design Center means embracing unique challenges that bring her personal and professional gratification.  As one member of the nonprofit's seven-person architect firm, she manages all aspects of a client's project, which often includes helping clients figure out how to fund their non-mainstream proposal.

Jana Cephas

One such client, the Institute of Black Culture, asked that the center's staff turn a vehicle trailer into a museum complete with displays, picture frames, computers and shelves for its Black History 101 Mobile Museum.  The trailer, 8 feet by 30 feet, will house the museum's varied artifacts depicting the history of black culture from slavery to hip-hop. 

This fall, Detroit artist Tyree Guyton and Young Detroit Builders, an organization that trains unemployed 18-24 year-olds in construction, joined the center's efforts in bringing this project to life. 

The overall goal is to redesign the first trailer so that the Institute of Black Culture will attract a sponsor to fund the museum's travel to schools throughout the Detroit area.  Ideally, Cephas hopes the program's success will result in an entire fleet of bigger, interactive trailers, which will travel to schools nationwide.

"The non-mainstream projects I work on are exactly the reason why I became an architect," says Cephas.  "From the time I applied to architecture school, I had every intention of working on small projects that have a potentially large impact on underserved communities."

She continues to help the underserved by spearheading another project which will aid victims of Hurricane Katrina.  In conjunction with a local New Orleans architecture firm, Cephas is on the team that is designing a recovery center for people in a New Orleans community.  They are transforming mobile home trailers into a shelter that will consolidate the services of three nonprofit organizations.  There will be meeting rooms, a kiosk, a small office and a food distribution building. Additionally, they are creating an area dedicated to personal showers and one equipped with laundry facilities.  The trailers will be shipped to New Orleans in February.

Cephas is a graduate of UDM's School of Architecture, where she received her Master's in Architecture last May.  This September, she joined the School of Architecture staff as an assistant professor of Architecture.