Detroit early plans French plan of 1749

Detroit: early plans
French plan of 1749

Fort Detroit, 1749

Detroit: early plans
British plan of 1763

Fort Wayne, 1840

Detroit: early plans
Detroit plat map of 1825

Judge Woodward
and his plan, 1825
Judge Augustus B. Woodward

Judge Woodward plan
Based on L’Enfant’s plan
Multi-radial grid
Hierarchy of streets
Many open spaces and plazas
Focal points and landmark buildings

Old Detroit sketch
A period when
Detroit was
considered the
most beautiful
city in the
country.

Woodward and Monroe,
1917

Ford Rouge Plant

Detroit freeway system
A city of freeways...

Northland Mall, 1954

Reasons for Detroit’s decline
1. Capital moved to the suburbs
manufacturing moved to cheaper land
residents followed
services followed
Led to 2 Detroits
2. Capital moved to the sunbelt
Detroit’s factories were old
Unions
Labor laws
Tax rates
Political support in south
Lower energy costs
Fewer pollution regulations
3. Reorganization and decentralization of auto industry on a global scale
Development of “world car”
Transportation/ communication revolution
Inexpensive labor

Charles Blessing, Planner
Planning and architecture degrees from MIT
Regional planning director for Greater Boston
Head planner for Chicago’s master plan
“A planners’ planner”
Traditional planner in Urban Renewal tradition
Brought in a young, bright staff trained in urban design
1956: Published Detroit’s “City of Tomorrow”
Goal to reconstruct 30 sq. miles of inner city
Promised Detroit would “lead the way in city design and planning”
“We have to be concerned with architectural form from the outset.”
His goal was to restore the city’s former glory.

Charles Blessing, Planner
His plan failed…
Urban renewal approach emphasized funding for demolition
Lack of marketing skills by planning department
they were designers
Too many years of no development drove down land values
Lack of public and political support
Didn’t respect growing influence of African-American population
Led to a second Planning Department under control of mayor
Detroit still has two planning departments.

Detroit riots
31 people had
been killed.
4,700
paratroopers
and 3,000
National
Guardsmen
restored order.
“The East Side
is secure,” said
Lieutenant
General John
Throckmorton,
“and the West
Side is under
control but not
quite secure.”

Racial clashes
Racial conflicts as early as 1863
1925: Ku Klux Klan cross-burning attracted 10,000 people
1943: Whites walked off jobs when three blacks were hired
1950s: Dearborn’s mayor : “Housing the Negroes is Detroit’s problem. Our city will
remain lily white.”
1967: Detroit riots
43 people dead
Whites moved to the suburbs
White pop. 1960: 1,200,000; 1970: 800,000; Today: 200,000
1973: Coleman Young elected mayor
In office for 20 years; he made it a black city.
Black self-determination and black pride
1977: Ren Cen built, but as a fortress

After the riots
Michigan Central Train Station

Detroit demolition

Detroit demolition

Detroit ruins

An American Acropolis

AfricanTown

Paired Town Proposal

Paired Town Proposal
“Pairing is the only alternative to a Black City
Core and a White Ring or a White Out-town
Newtown and a Black Newtown In-town.”

The new Detroit
The Renaissance Center
Show Robert A.M. Stern
video on Ren Cen

People Mover

Detroit People-Mover
An attempt to
make the center
city more
desirable and
more accessible.
It was too limited
in scope to fulfill
its mission.

Empowerment Zones
A program developed under the Clinton
Administration, under which Detroit would receive
$100 million and special tax benefits over a 10-year
period. The program allows communities to
determine their own needs, priorities and solutions.
In Detroit, the project focused on three goals:
- Creating economic opportunity
- Sustaining competent, healthy and safe families
- Restoring and upgrading neighborhoods

Brush Park,
New housing

Addison Apartments

Campus Martius

Comerica and Ford Fields

MGM Grand and
Greektown Casinos

Westin Book-Cadillac

Belle Isle

Belle Isle

Lafayette Park
Mies:
“The city is an entity subject to a principle of order,
without which it can’t exist.”
“Order is the disposition of equal and unequal things,
attributing to each its place.”
Mies viewed everyday life as chaos.
“With order, the chaos in which we live would give way and
the world would again become meaningful and beautiful.”

Lafayette Park
Final site plan, 1956
Ludwig Hilberseimer and
Mies Van Der Rohe

Lafayette Park
Modern architecture in a
natural setting–
In the middle of Detroit.

Lafayette Park
It’s success is built not around the city,
But around the “absence of city” in the plan.

Metro Airport
Delta Airlines terminal

Metro Airport

Aerotropolis corridor

Gallagher book

Urban agriculture