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Media Coverage: The Globe and Mail

This June, ULI Toronto members had the privilege of attending a unique Members-Only two-day City Exchange organized in collaboration with ULI Michigan. With certainty we can say we’re not the only attendees who were in complete awe of the advanced revitalization efforts taking place in Downtown Detroit. The resurgence of the Motor City was immediately evident throughout our tours from initiatives within the City.

Our first day started with a delicious lunch in Campus Martius Park where we were welcomed by not only the ULI Michigan team but also a lively, stimulating open space filled with art, culture and sport. The Campus Martius District that surrounded us is known as a “24-hour neighbourhood” and includes 20,000 employees, 750 residents, 35+ dining options, 50 retail outlets, the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel, and 10,000 parking spaces. The district also attracts over 200 million visitors per year. You could feel the excitement; this place was alive. The Park itself is a 2.5-acre, two square block located in the District’s commercial centre of Detroit’s downtown core. This public domain is brilliant and the epitome of “work and play.” Its features include a fountain, monuments, green space, stages, a rink in the winter, a “beach” in the summer, restaurants, and a sports zone. From here, all other destinations were easy for us to get to as Campus Martius Park is the centrepoint from which all major roads lead.

From the park, we headed north for an Opportunity Detroit-led tour of the Compuware Building that included the offices of Quickenloans, POP Detroit, Compuware Corporation, and ROSSETTI Architects. By providing these tours, Opportunity Detroit’s mission is to showcase Detroit’s present and promising future by creating inclusive urban environments made up of businesses, residents, and visitors alike. The building, designed by ROSSETTI Architects, showcased open concept workplaces throughout all the offices. Walking around on a Friday afternoon, we could see that the creative work environments were filled with motivated employees. It was hard not to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of each company. Every individual we encountered on the tour (and in Detroit in general!) was so passionate about placemaking and so proud to call Detroit home. Following the tour, the group visited another proud homegrown business, ROSSETTI Architects. Since the firm’s inception in 1969, its focus has been on sports and entertainment design projects in the City, including the new NHL arena that is currently under construction. Meaningful spaces are the backbone of this firm, as you can see in the stunning photo below of their office space’s walk-out rooftop that shows off a million-dollar view of downtown and the Detroit River.

For dinner the group enjoyed an exclusive three-course meal in the historic Detroit Athletic Club (DAC). Detroit residents currently working in the urban planning and/or real estate industry joined us for dinner, which gave us the chance to speak to local residents. It was a treat to hear personal accounts of their experiences in Detroit and their thoughts on where the future of Detroit is heading. It was fascinating to hear the proud history of the City’s long-time residents along with their commitment and conviction to transform Detroit. With full bellies we watched the Detroit Tigers play the Cleveland Indians mid-sunset from the DAC rooftop patio which overlooked Comerica Park. What a heated game it was to watch! Even from our vantage point, we could hear the crowd go wild and see the majestic fountains spray as both Romine and McCann scored in the bottom of the 5th.

The night concluded in a reclaimed public alleyway in the centre of downtown now known as The Belt. The redevelopment of this alleyway into what is now known as The Belt was undertaken by a partnership between Library Street Collective and Bedrock Real Estate Services. The idea behind The Belt’s transformation is the incorporation of public art, giving artists a space to engage with the public in Detroit. The Belt is filled with installations, murals, and rotating outdoor exhibitions curated by Public Matter (a platform by Library Street Collective). It’s a truly photogenic space. Amidst the captivating public art are trendy and very popular restaurants and bars. Of course, a few of the thirsty crew among the group mustered up the energy to hit up The Skip, an open-air cocktail lounge offering a range of options from margaritas to craft cocktails to beer. The unique space also offered Latin American street food with seating on the gray cobblestone alleyway. Check out their website for more information and for a 3D Tour (link at end of blog).

Day two began with a lovely group breakfast at the hip and deliciously satisfying brunch joint, Dime Store. Our next tour was of The Guardian Building in Detroit’s Financial District led by Jeannette Pierce, Executive Director of the Detroit Experience Factory (check out their link below if you’re planning a visit to Detroit!). The Guardian Building, a designated National Historic Landmark, contains 36 stories of Class A office space in addition to a cafe and gift shop at ground level (the majority of us splurging on local souvenirs to bring back to Toronto). Interesting fact: while one half of the building’s famous lobby ceiling is decorated with a mosaic made from Pewabic tile (a tile manufactured right in Detroit) and Rookwood tile (a tile that is no longer produced), the other half of the building’s lobby ceiling is actually made from painted canvas and insulated with horse hair in order to minimize echoes. Standing in the lobby, you could hardly tell the difference between the tiles and painted canvas. See the photo below to see for yourself!

The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI) in Detroit was an eye-opening experience in many ways. The Co-Founder of the Farm, Tyson Gersh, told the ULI Toronto group that MUFI is a not-for-profit organization which runs solely on donations and help from volunteers to redevelop two vacant square blocks in Detroit’s North End community into urban agriculture. Gersh and his volunteers’ efforts at MUFI are a fantastic example of adaptive reuse – taking two blighted neighbourhood blocks and turning them into an urban farming initiative that has produced over 50,000 lbs of food since it began in 2011. Gersh’s aim is to address the lack of food security, the unavailability of healthy, affordable food, and other diet-related challenges facing this particular Detroit community. Their food is sold at a pay-what-you-can price to individual households (most of them within a 5km2 radius of the farm), sold at competitive cost to local markets, local restaurants and vendors, and donated to shelters and churches. In addition to combatting food security issues in Detroit, MUFI has become a catalyst for community development and resident engagement. According to Gersh, residents in the immediate area have a deeper connection to the neighbourhood in which they live and their sense of pride of where they live has increased ever since MUFI came into the neighbourhood. Gersh went as far to say that even property values have increased since they started up work in the neighbourhood. Further change is coming to the neighbourhood with the new streetcar line, dubbed the QLINE, being proposed a couple blocks away. To read more about MUFI and to see how you can help them out, click on the link at the end of the article.

Following a walking tour of Midtown Detroit and a tasty lunch stop at the ULI Michigan office thanks to Slows BBQ, located in Corktown and a to-go location in Midtown (if you love barbeque, check them if you’re ever in the neighbourhood!), we finished off the Exchange trip with a bus tour of several neighbourhoods across the City, led by a tour guide from Detroit Experience Factory. One neighbourhood that resonated with the group was Detroit’s East Side where we stopped to take in the outdoor art project called “The Heidelberg Project.” The 30-year project sits amidst an urban community and encourages all to see beauty in everything that exists. Beginning in 1986, the Project was originally designed as a creative response to the ongoing urban decay in the neighbourhood where the artist was raised. Tyree Guyton, founder and artistic director, was on site during our visit and works on the project every single day to incorporate new pieces of art in the two block area as a demonstration of the power of creativity to transform lives.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to make it out to this inspiring trip. The trip proved to be an eye-opening experience full of enlightenment about the spirit of Detroit and most importantly, of its residents, without whom the City of Detroit would not be on its way to a renaissance. ULI Toronto members were able to make new connections amongst the group on the trip as well as with the friendly folks in Detroit. A huge shout out to ULI Toronto for organizing this incredible exchange, with a very special thanks to Shannon Scalfani and Allison Watch from ULI Michigan! We hope everyone enjoyed themselves on this successful City Exchange. Be sure to stay tuned as ULI Toronto plans its next exchange trip!

Be sure to check out the links below:

http://www.campusmartiuspark.org/
http://opportunitydetroit.com/
http://thebelt.org/
http://www.lscgallery.com/
http://www.miufi.org/
http://www.heidelberg.org/
http://slowsbarbq.com/
http://detroitexperiencefactory.org/
http://michigan.uli.org/

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