The adaptive reuse design for the Shepherd Gallery and Art Center inside the new Little Village in Detroit has been revealed ahead of its public opening on May 18th.
The project from Peterson Rich Office (PRO) transformed a 110-year-old former church into a new cultural center for the local Library Street Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to presenting art in the city's revitalized heritage spaces. It was executed at 16,000 square feet and culminates in two new galleries with a small library, classrooms, and workshop included for local community endeavors.
In terms of its interior redesign, the architects chose to place an exhibition area in the transept mezzanine while making the altar below into another gallery open for performance and public gatherings. The church's other transept now houses a curated Little Village Arts Library space from Asmaa Walton. A landscaped pathway called the Nave connects the Shepherd to a new cocktail bar located in an old parking garage outside.
The contribution from PRO spearheads their client's larger Little Village master plan, a block-scale "campus" redevelopment that weaves together local food vendors with other converted culinary arts commercial spaces designed by native Detroiter Ishtiaq Rafiuddin’s seven-year-old studio UDECORATED.
Artist Charles McGee’s sculpture garden will help activate the new 3.5-acre Legacy Park space (which also includes a skate park designed by Tony Hawk) created by OSD in the former church grounds beyond.
"By transforming this vacant block into an open and accessible arts campus, new life is emerging in a previously unused gap in the city fabric, like flowers sprouting through the pavement. We are thrilled to be part of such a meaningful project for Detroit and its creative arts," OSD’s founding principal Simon David describes of the broader community benefits the Little Village contains.
The project precedes the debut of OMA’s adaptive reuse of a former bakery called the LANTERN in May. A converted bed & breakfast concept called ALEO is also in the works for the former church rectory, designed to include four guest suites and two rooms for artist McArthur Binion’s Modern Ancient Brown residency.
With the completion of the Shepherd, PRO will add to a portfolio of cultural projects that lately includes a new space for the Wesleyan University Art Gallery and an overhaul of public areas inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
"The Shepherd reshapes an institution that built community around religion, to one that will build community around the arts. Anthony and JJ’s commitment to expanding access to arts in the city of Detroit is nothing short of transformational. Our firm is honored to play a role in this special project," PRO founders Nathan Rich and Miriam Peterson added finally.
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