I recently had my two-year anniversary at my host company, the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC). I realized that I’ve never really blogged about what I do for most of the week!
The DCDC is a non-profit architecture and urban design firm located in the School of Architecture on the University of Detroit Mercy’s campus. “Architecture” is a pretty broad term and we revel in the dynamicism of potential found in that. Historically, the firm has done art installations, urban planning, and design/build projects as well as traditional architectural building design. In architecture, the process is what drives the project. Our process is guided and championed by the community that the project is for. We are always invited into the communities in which we work. This is philosophically in line with the pathos behind design-thinking and human-centered design.
Since much of our work is in the realm of community development, we hold a lot of events. What better way to build community than to bring a bunch of people together?
Our most recent event was called “Spring Forward on Six Mile”. Like any good work of architecture, this event had a dual purpose. It served as a block party to celebrate the arrival of spring as well as a streetscape installation to re-imagine the street as more vibrant, equitable, and safe. Set on Six Mile just west of Livernois, the block we were working on was one of spare businesses and very fast-moving traffic.
We were partnered with the Planning and Development Department (P&DD), and the local community development nonprofit, Live6 to put on the event. To build something is a precise and profound privilege, so it’s a total honor to be able to come to a place and work there. But building is also a huge lift, so our partners were a key to this success. It takes a village.
Our process was community-driven from the start. Home grown, as it were. We asked local residents what kind of activities they’d like to see happen in the vacant lot we wanted to activate. We heard things like resource tents, hula-hooping, kids activities, local food options. We worked hard to make these things a reality. The rest of the streetscape design was crafted through many previous community meetings that happened to inform a larger planning process for this area. We installed things like bike lanes, crosswalks, a parklet, parking lines, and a temporary façade installation.
Event planning is an art, and as such it is full of surprises, beauty, and messiness. One such surprise was the vast amount of generosity we received from volunteers. We met people on the street and in Home Depot that ended up stopping by and helped set up for hours. Contractors who had been working on Detroit Sip (the forthcoming coffee shop on that block) spent days helping us build out the façade installation and any other thing that needed a power tool. Students from the University of Detroit Mercy came and got an in-depth experience of what it means to be a volunteer for us (“Hey, we need you to get on a ladder and drill a hole in that wall.”) Folks from the Planning Department lent a hand. I could go on. But in the chance that any of those volunteers sees this blog post: THANK YOU! Thank you for your good attitude and honest efforts DeWayne, Phil, Pete, Jevona, Ernie, Daryl, Greg, Ian, Jacob, Cameron, Nicole, Michael, Brooke, Cassi, Paulette, Giulia, and all the volunteers who lent a hand throughout the process!!