#lecture 19

[ha213-section3-blog]

Detroit - Beautification

A few weeks ago we took our field trip to the city of Detroit. My personal experience, however, began just under a week before we left. The Sunday before our trip, I went down to the city with a handful of guys from the rugby team to do a service project with one of our alums. We went to the city - but we were further out from the core of the city than on our field trip. Our project was located around the intersection of Grand River and Warren. (actually just a bit south of the intersection, at Grand River and 14th). Our project was to use shovels and other tools, to remove the plants that have overgrown sidewalks around the area. We actually cleared an entire 1/4 mile strip in front of a local school on Forest Ave (as seen below).

Personally, the experience was one of the most rewarding I've had all year.

[ha213-section2-blog]

Detroit

When we were last discussing our field trip to Detroit, it was really interesting to hear people's responses to how they felt about the current state of the city and how different buildings represent the downfall i.e. Packard Plant. I came across an article on Yahoo! today that was about a new type of housing that was starting in Detroit. This really caught my attention because we have been talking recently about both Detroit and housing. The new condos are made from shipping containers. It is a "green" way to build by reusing these old shipping containers. At first glance, the form of this building is a stack of shipping containers, however, form does not follow function in this case. Inside is comfortable housing. I think that this really shows a transformation of Detroit from an urban wasteland into a new, revitalized city drawing on parts of its unfortunate past to form its future.

[ha213-section2-blog]

The difference between the Packard Plant and the Cadillac Place were just astounding when we looked at them during our field trip to Detroit.  The way that Detroit is represented in the media you would think that everything resembles the crumbled ruins of the packard plant.  However this is not the case.  Walking into the Cadillac Place and the Fisher Building just made me realize all of the great history that Detroit has to offer.  Though the use of these buildings may have been changed, the pure architecture reminds us of a thriving city with fresh ideas to offer.  Even looking at the townhouses and how the community works together cooperatively says something about the city trying to prosper and move past their stereotype of a failing city.  Seeing all of this architecture first hand gave me a fresh perspective on Detroit.    

[ha213-section4-blog]

As we learned about artist colonies in Detroit, I couldn't stop thinking about the Heidelberg Project. As a metro Detroit native, I am very familiar with this unique art form in the city. The Heidelberg project is an outdoor art project that was created by Tyree Guyton in 1986. Guyton started his project by painting a series of rundown houses in the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood with brightly colored dots and he attached salvaged items to the exteriors of the houses. He worked hard to transform one of the most hard-core inner city areas into a neighborhood that people would be proud to live in. Guyton enlisted the children of the block to help out every day as well, creating a true community effort to better Detroit. The picture above is of the "Dotty Wotty" House.