Detroit Works Project
These two stories relate to the School of Architecture's involvement with the Detroit Works Project, a civic process to create a shared, achievable vision for the future of the city of Detroit.
- Rose Fellow supports School of Architecture’s Detroit Works Project
- UDM’s DCDC helps give Detroit residents an active voice through Detroit Works Project
Rose Fellow supports School of Architecture’s Detroit Works Project
Ceara O’Leary
When Ceara O’Leary came to Detroit in January 2012 as a Rose Fellow, the California native knew of Detroit’s national image as a gritty city but was pleasantly surprised to find a silver lining.
“I’m impressed by the strength and organizing capacity of the residents,” she said.
As an Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow hosted by the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) in the School of Architecture, O’Leary works on a variety of projects, including meetings with community leaders and residents working together to revitalize Detroit.
Last year, DCDC received a $1.5 million grant from the Ford Foundation to lead the civic engagement efforts of the Detroit Works Project, a citywide planning process that will yield a long-term vision for the future of Detroit.
Detroit Works is a collaborative effort initiated by the city’s elected officials to bring together residents, business owners, community leaders and advisors, such as UDM, to seek ways to redevelop and revive the city to meet the needs of the 21st century. In response to citizen feedback from the first stages of the Detroit Works Project, the effort is divided into two tracks:
- Short term actions will address current needs of Detroiters today
- Long term planning will focus on the city’s future
DCDC Director Dan Pitera is spearheading his organization’s involvement with Detroit Works to help develop and implement a Long Term Planning framework for decision-making. O’Leary works with Pitera to set up large community meetings that engage residents and community leaders in the ongoing effort to create a roadmap for the future of Detroit.
Of her role, O’Leary said, “It’s really challenging and it’s fantastic. I’m getting to know the city and its residents.”
Another of O’Leary’s projects pertains to daylighting sections of historic Bloody Run Creek, which once flowed through the near east side of the city, including Mt. Elliott cemetery and Eastern Market. Her work contributes to the larger trajectory of a strong project team, and benefits from a lengthy feasibility study that was recently completed for the Bloody Run Creek Greenway Redevelopment Project.
Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellows work to support the design of affordable housing and other community development projects throughout the country. While they gain lifelong learning opportunities, Fellows support innovative solutions that their host organizations are implementing in their communities. Thus, the projects that O’Leary tackles during her three-year Fellowship will contribute to DCDC’s ongoing commitment to community-based architecture and planning.
UDM’s DCDC helps give Detroit residents an active voice through Detroit Works Project
Improving the quality of life for all Detroiters is the goal of the Detroit Works Project, spearheaded by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. Consisting of two distinct tracks—Short Term Actions (administered within the Mayor’s Office) and Long Term Planning (outside of the Mayor’s Office)—University of Detroit Mercy’s Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) is facilitating the Long Term Planning Community Engagement process with the goal of creating a Strategic Framework Plan by August 2012—a 1.5 million dollar effort funded by the Ford Foundation. This plan will serve as a road map that can guide the actions of a wide variety of constituents on issues such as economic growth, land use, neighborhoods, public land, zoning, city systems and infrastructure.
DCDC Executive Director Dan Pitera discusses the details of Detroit Works Long Term Planning with a group of youth sampled from various youth-based groups and organizations from across Detroit. This is just one of the dozens of groups and individuals the Community Engagement team talked to throughout the first phase of the Strategic Framework Plan.
“We’re planning to do things differently in order for tomorrow to be different,” said Dan Pitera, executive director of the DCDC. “If we do nothing, then Detroit’s quality of life will continue to decline,” he said.
Completing the Strategic Framework Plan requires a four-phase process, each building on the results of the prior. The Community Engagement Team is currently finishing the second phase, matching different solutions with on-the-ground and new opportunities.
“Much of the first and second phases have really been about rebuilding enthusiasm and trust among members of the Detroit community,” said Pitera. “To do that, we need to meet them where they are, we can’t wait for them to come to us.”
To this effect, the team has designed and built a “Roaming Table,” a portable display, which highlights key points of the project.
“We bring the table to places where people gather,” said Pitera. “We were at Café con Leche, in Southwest Detroit the other day.”
The Roaming Table is part of what Pitera describes as “random acts of engagement.” Other strategies include attending existing community meetings and hosting dinner parties—activities performed by the project’s street team and ambassadors.
Since most of these positions are new, Detroit Works is living up to its name. The project has hired 64 people in the past six months, 48 of them Detroiters, 23 for newly created jobs.
“People are our greatest asset,” said Pitera. And it’s the people who will define the vision of the project. “We didn’t come in with an idea of what the end result would look like,” said Pitera. “The vision is being created by the Detroit community, through the process of engagement.”
Through this first phase, Detroiters have indicated the quality of life elements that are most important to them: safety, education, public services, a sense of community and identity, retail services, housing, physical environment, culture, career/job opportunities, recreation, health, environment, and mobility. Based on these priorities, the team has identified 12 Imperatives, or “things we must do” to realize Detroit’s potential and improve the quality of life for all.
As they move into the Strategies phase, their work will be positioned to complete the Strategic Framework Plan over the summer months, which will consist of specific action steps. The Plan must first be approved by the project Steering Committee, which was assembled by and reports to Mayor Bing.
For more information, see:
- the Detroit Works Project website
- the Detroit Works Project Facebook page
- the project's Twitter feed
- the project's YouTube channel
by Cate Caldwell, UDM Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
