Detroit: “Make no little plans”

Detroit is struggling with the same chronic urban issues that many of our nation’s [USA] older postindustrial cities face—high unemployment, population loss, deteriorating infrastructure, and property abandonment.

People are using public art projects and community agriculture to transform entire neighbourhoods.

### architectmagazine.com Posted on: October 6, 2010
From: ARCHITECT October 2010
Planning
Can This Planner Save Detroit?
By Fred A. Bernstein
Toni L. Griffin has just accepted a unique—and daunting—job: the reshaping of Detroit. She talks to ARCHITECT about population decline, urban ag, downtown’s revival, and more.

By the way, there is still a good amount of affordable housing stock in rehab condition—we have an opportunity to strengthen the city’s traditional neighbourhoods as well as create new, compact, and more diverse neighbourhood typologies.

A Manhattan resident, Griffin spends most of the week in an office in Detroit City Hall. In an arrangement that reflects the strong interest of philanthropists in Detroit’s future, her salary is paid by the Kresge Foundation (which has an endowment of over $3 billion). Rip Rapson, Kresge’s president and son of architect Ralph Rapson, is also giving the city funds for Griffin to hire a team of local, national, and international consultants, from the private sector and four Michigan universities. Several other foundations are expected to provide funding to support both the technical and civic engagement components of the project.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr