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CHARRETTE 2000—Michigan at Trumbull: Turning the Corner? Around the country, urban living is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Many young people and empty nesters are rediscovering cities as they find that, while the suburbs offer an environment with wide open spaces and social and physical tidiness, there is a rich quality of life only found in the messy vitality of the city. The University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning sponsored the second annual Detroit Design Charrette as a contribution to the revitalization and redevelopment efforts in this cityóproviding the benefit of creative planning and design in the formative stages of these efforts.
The Detroit Design Charrette, now in its second year, is on its way to being recognized as one of the premiere events of its kind nationwide. With generous corporate sponsorship by Detroit Edison and from a variety of university and private sources, it enjoys funding and in-kind support of the first order. Charrette 2000 attracted distinguished guest professionals Elizabeth Plater Zyberk, dean of the University of Miami’s School of Architecture and president of the Congress for New Urbanism; Alex Krieger, chair of the Urban Planning and Design Program at Harvard University; John Kaliski, AIJK Architecture a& City Design, Santa Monica, California; Craig Barton of the University of Virginia and Ellen Dunham-Jones of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Paul Bernard, director, and Tom Walters, executive manager, of the City of Detroit Department of Planning and Development suggested that this year’s design charrette focus on the area between Michigan Avenue and Temple Street, from 14th Street on the west to the Lodge Freeway on the east, including vacated Tiger Stadium and the old Michigan Central Railroad Terminal. The blocks around the stadium have been all but leveled for parking lots for Tiger baseball games, which are now relocated to Comerica Park. The city is interest in creating innovative planning for the area as an adjunct to an ambitious proposal for the adaptive reuse of Tiger Stadium. “The value of the study is the partnerships we develop and the number of individuals and the diversity of ideas we have at our disposal,” said Bernard.
Dean Douglas Kelbaugh’s original thinking had been to reduce the scope of the charrette study area and the number of participants this year. However, strong interest from the design community, planners and related professionals, students and community members resulted in an event that involved over 75 participants in five teams. Graduate students gathered from the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and University of Miami (Florida). In addition, nearly two dozen consultants and speakers, as well as several professionals, developers and community members volunteered their time because of a personal interest in the project area. The charrette began with a bus/walking tour of the site and environs, including a tour inside Tiger Stadium, and was followed by an afternoon of briefing of all participants by civic and neighborhood leaders and professionals. The five teams worked in friendly competition on the ninth floor of the Detroit Edison headquarters overlooking the project area to the west, just as they had overlooked the Cass Corridor site to the north in last year’s inaugural charrette. Krieger and urban planning professor Aseem Inam’s Team Two cautioned stakeholders against pinning their hopes on ambitious plans for the stadium or the train station as first phase developments. Both, however, are “terrific” phase two prospects. They saw the area at the intersection of three major freeways as a natural site for a regional shopping mall. The team proposed the stadium look to a partnership with nearby Wayne State University which would advance the division I football ambitions of Wayne State and at the same time provide a partner for re-investment in the stadium.
Team One, led by Kaliski, Detroit architect Andrew Zago and Dean Kelbaugh was one of the most process-oriented teams. By designing and playing a land-use game, they simulated what the results of incremental development might be in this area. The players alternately acted the part of area residents, city officials and private developers to gain a feel for the different interests represented and how they might best be served. Their scheme converted Tiger Stadium into a regional sports/entertainment center and the railroad station concourses, through which a trolley would run, into a winter garden. One of the overriding themes that ran through all the team proposals was the need for incremental advances. Team Five led by Plater-Zyberk, adjunct lecturer Blake Williams and Detroit Institute of Arts Vice-president Maurice Parrish, recommended that development initially be concentrated on a designated route, or “safe walk” for children to walk from school to an after-school activity center. By providing “eyes on the street” the community gains safe passage for all residents and the initiative could be expanded route by route. This could be done in conjunction with adding more scenic medians with trees and shrubs.
The most compelling piece of the project area for most of the teams was the old Michigan Central Railroad Terminal. The building, designed by the same architect who did Grand Central Station in New York City, is a grand edifice never fully fitted out even in its heyday. During the initial tour of the study area, the participants were afforded a rare (and illicit) glimpse inside the abandoned structure. The terminal proved irresistible to the participants and inspired proposals ranging from a center for incubating small businesses, to a multiplex movie theater, to a hotel and convention center to a proposal to blow out the center bay of the building and add a glass walkway between the top floors of the remaining towers. The final presentation, generously hosted at the Teamsters Welfare Fund Building located in the study area, was attended by over 400 local residents, business representatives, government officials and the general public. Dean Kelbaugh proclaimed that “Detroit is clearly on an upward trajectory, much like it was at the beginning of the last century.” Detroit Mayor Denies Archer, after listening to the proposals thanked the participants for adding their talents and expertise, congratulated them for formulating plans providing for incremental advances and invited developers to step forward and work in partnership with the city to transform some of these ideas from paper to bricks and mortar.
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