Archinect - News

General Motors mulls major Renaissance Center demolition in Detroit

2024-12-06T10:33:00-05:00

Multiple Detroit news outlets are reporting about the controversy swirling around a potential demolition of the city’s downtown Renaissance Center five-tower block as General Motors looks to secure public funds needed for a renovation. The company is apparently pursuing an all-or-not approach to its plan, which would author a pair of large-scale office-to-residential conversions while creating new public spaces. John Portman was its original designer.

Craig Wilkins of the University of Michigan told the Detroit Free Press: "The idea of 'if you don’t go with this, then we’ll just tear it all down; seems like extortion to me, and I don’t think the public should allow itself to be extorted."

The design of the complex has been criticized as being "anti-urban" and caustically apart from the life of the city since it first opened in 1977.

Cranbrook Academy of Art's Fall '24 events feature Jomo Tariku, Axel Timm, Charisse Weston, and Leonard Suryajaya

2024-09-10T12:41:00-04:00

The new school year at Cranbrook Academy of Art Department of Architecture, an Archinect Partner School, has just begun. To coincide with it, we’re highlighting the must-see events and lectures to take in for the Fall 2024 semester.

Public programming begins with the special "Communion" fundraiser on September 28th at the new Peterson Rich Office-designed The Shepherd Gallery and Art Center in Detroit's Little Village neighborhood. (Tickets for the event can be purchased here.)

View of the Charles McGee Legacy Park and the Shepherd Gallery. Photo by Jason Keen. Courtesy of Library Street Collective.

In the following month, be sure not to miss an exciting slate of lectures that begins on October 3rd with a visit from conceptual artist and writer Charisse Weston. Following hers is another from Berlin-based architect Axel Timm on November 7th. Photographer Leonard Suryajaya speaks on November 21st, and the semester concludes with a final lecture on furniture design from the contemporar...

Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Winn House is for sale at $1.85 million

2024-08-06T17:56:00-04:00

A unique Frank Lloyd Wright home in the historic Parkwyn Village community in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, is for sale after listing for $1.85 million.

The two-story Robert D. and Winifred L. Winn House from the architect’s Usonian period was built in 1950 and features a similar three-bedroom layout shared by a pair of Wright designs located nearby in The Acres that went on the market last September.

Image courtesy Fred Taber/Jacqua Realtors

Inside, surviving original built-ins can be found along with 2.5 baths. The 2,469-square-foot design received a total of $800,000 in renovations after being purchased by the current homeowner for just $200,000 in 2012, according to Realtor.com. Local firm Jacqua Realtors is listed as the sale agent.

Image courtesy Fred Taber/Jacqua Realtors

Artnet says this is the last home designed by Wright for the Parkwyn Village community, which he began planning in the early 1940s with a group of employees from the pharmaceutical manufacturer Upjohn Company....

Record-setting Gordie Howe International Bridge passes major construction milestone

2024-07-20T08:47:00-04:00

The important Gordie Howe International Bridge project is nearing completion at the U.S. border with Canada. The latest construction update now states that the design’s critical bridge deck component has now been installed on the entire length of the 2,800-foot span, connecting both countries through what will become the longest main span of any cable-stayed bridge in North America once it is completed in the fall of 2025.

All images courtesy Pont International Gordie Howe International Bridge

The Windsor-Detroit border crossing is also the busiest land border crossing in North America. Construction on the deck began in December 2022. Charl van Niekerk, CEO of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, said previously: "After a three-year pandemic and considering the size and complexity of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, our project team is pleased that the impact to the construction schedule is limited to only 10 months beyond the original contracted completion date."

All i...

Quinn Evans' remake of the iconic Michigan Central Station debuts in Detroit

2024-06-13T19:18:00-04:00

Quinn Evans Architects has shared some photos of their completed work on the newly remade Michigan Central Station in Detroit. The home of the Ford Motor Company’s 1.2-million-square-foot technology hub in the historic Corktown district re-established the 110-year-old landmark through an expedited six-year process described as a "hybrid approach" by senior associate Angela Wyrembelski.

The project is the largest central piece included in the 30-acre master plan from Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU). The building re-opened for the first time since closing in 1988 over the weekend with a star-studded musical performance and remarks from special guests like Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Integral to the design team were several native Detroiters and proud alumni of the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (more on that here.) The project was completed at a cost of $950 million, helping the firm to be named as the AIA Architecture Firm Awa...

Gordie Howe International Bridge nearing finish line with bridge deck nearing completion

2024-06-07T18:12:00-04:00

Following news from earlier this year that the completion date for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which spans the Detroit River and connects Detroit, Michigan, in the United States with Windsor, Ontario, in Canada, had been pushed back, it has recently been announced that the delayed $4.8 billion project is approaching the finish line.

Previously on Archinect: Gordie Howe International Bridge construction: Opening delayed to September 2025

According to the project team, they have begun the final steps to connect the bridge deck over the Detroit River, with 85 feet remaining. The bridge deck connection is expected to be completed at the end of June.

One more segment measuring 49 feet on the U.S. side must be installed before work on the final segment, known as the mid-span closure, starts. When connected, the bridge deck will measure over half a mile making it the longest main span of any cable-stayed bridge in North America and the tenth longest in the world. It will also be ...

SO – IL and OSD to overhaul Detroit marina for new waterfront district

2024-04-30T11:45:00-04:00

SO – IL and OSD have designed a new waterfront district for Detroit’s Little Village. The marina overhaul, named Stanton Yards, will see the existing storage and service-based site transformed into a 13-acre cultural destination with 80,000 square feet of commercial and creative space, 85 boat slips, and waterfront parks.

Image credit: bloomimages

SO – IL will lead the adaptive reuse of four existing pre-war industrial buildings, which historically housed a former theater, marina showrooms, service ships, and a navy shipyard used during World War II. Select demolition and the addition of “unifying elements and upgrades to accessibility” will create a campus for arts organizations, retail, artist studios, and hospitality.

Image credit: bloomimages

“The ethos that 'new ideas must use old buildings' guides our transformation of Stanton Yards into a thriving, multifaceted community,” said Florian Idenburg, Co-founding Principal of SO – IL, about the scheme. “Our design ingrains four histo...

KPF presents Detroit's new University of Michigan Center for Innovation design

2024-04-05T15:15:00-04:00

A new project in Detroit from Kohn Pedersen Fox will deliver the University of Michigan's Center for Innovation (UMCI), a six-story academic research and teaching facility that is expected to open by the spring of 2027.

Construction has already commenced for the $250 million development, which will be delivered at 200,000 square feet in advance of two other “incubator” and residential structures that will follow at a later date on the four-acre site. The university says the UMCI will serve a host of purposes and is primarily intended for workforce development and different graduate degree programs.

Atrium view. Image credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox

KPF Design Principal Hana Kassem describes: “The UMCI is a catalyst for positive change and, as such, presents itself along Grand River Avenue as a ‘gateway for innovation. It proudly bears the University of Michigan spirit focusing on progress and inclusivity which is embodied in its dynamic forward-leaning form and the portal that cuts through...

SmithGroup files suit over copyright violations for Michigan hospital design

2024-03-19T18:24:00-04:00

An argument concerning a new pediatric hospital design in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has spurred a lawsuit from SmithGroup against the local firm Pure Architects over an alleged violation of the copyright of an earlier unrealized project. Crain’s business journal is reporting on the disputed Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital project after SmithGroup filed a suit in federal court last week.

In the suit, SmithGroup alleges that the termination of their contract for the new Joan Secchia Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital never resulted in the required payment of licensing and other fees on the part of the hospital. They say that, in the aftermath, the hospital “improperly copied, reproduced, prepared derivative works” before sharing the plans with other architects, “willfully” infringing the copyright to generate new renderings.

Both the firm and the hospital are denying these claims publically. The $60 million project is expected to get underway this spring and be completed in 2026...

CannonDesign completes new Western Michigan University student center inspired by Indigenous design elements

2024-03-04T12:13:00-05:00

CannonDesign has completed a new student center at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Replacing the university’s Bernhard Center, the new three-level building contains gathering and lounge spaces, dining, a bookstore, a future on-campus brewpub, and retail, designed as a “beacon of inclusion,” according to the team.

Photo credit: Christopher Barrett

“Located on lands historically occupied by Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadmi nations, the building is designed to be a student-centered gathering place that champions belonging and honors the roots of Native American heritage embedded throughout the site,” the team notes.

Photo credit: Laura Peters

The building’s 163,000-square-foot plan was designed to create “interstitial opportunities” for students to informally engage with each other. Student feedback influenced the design of various social elements, such as a sitting circle derived from Native American culture. Across the sc...

Gordie Howe International Bridge construction: Opening delayed to September 2025

2024-01-09T17:04:00-05:00

The completion date for the delayed Gordie Howe International Bridge has been pushed back to September 2025, according to the Detroit Free Press.

A public announcement put out by the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority detailed the progress that’s been made since the project commenced in late 2018.

Since that time, the bridge’s road deck construction, stay cable installation, and Port of Entry facilities have progressed successfully. Completion of the road deck, stay cable installations, and ancillary Port of Entry outbuildings will follow in the coming year. The finalization of the operations process is then anticipated for the year after.

"After a three-year pandemic and considering the size and complexity of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, our project team is pleased that the impact to the construction schedule is limited to only 10 months beyond the original contracted com...

Detroit installs America's first wireless EV charging track

2023-12-08T12:24:00-05:00

Detroit has debuted an EV charging roadway concept from Electreon inside of its new Michigan Central Station innovation district they say represents a “major milestone in the future of mobility” as the first-ever wireless charging roadway in America.

The quarter-mile track through the city’s Corktown neighborhood was developed by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) after being announced by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in February of 2022. The track will serve as a five-year test pilot for the anticipated boom in EVs that are expected to hit the road in the next decade, cornering about half of the total market by the year 2035.

Similar concepts are been developed in Europe by Electreon, which hopes to open the new, eventually one-mile-long Detroit track to the public next year. The installation was also made possible by Ford (backers of the Michigan Central project), Jacobs, DTE, KIEWIT, Next Energy, and ROUSH CleanTech.

Related on Archinect: Detroit to host first public w...

Two-for-one special: Pair of Usonian Frank Lloyd Wright homes hits the market in Michigan

2023-09-29T18:37:00-04:00

A pair of Usonian-period Frank Lloyd Wright homes have hit the market in Galesburg, Michigan, for an asking price of $4.5 million, according to a combined listing posted last week by Christie’s International Real Estate.

Located in The Acres, a Wright-designed subdivision that remained unfinished after the architect began work on the more successful Parkwyn Village nearby, both the Samuel & Dorothy Eppstein House and Eric & Pat Pratt House offer approximately 2,000 square feet of premium living space inside of Wright’s signature concrete block and mahogany detailed exteriors.

Image courtesy Victoria Krause Schutte/@properties Christie’s International Real Estate

Christie’s says the original built-ins of the houses have been well preserved by their owners, along with Wright’s floorplans. The sale represents the first time Wright homes have been offered in a bundle, and follows a spate of other rare homes in Arizona, Northern California, Texas, and Oklahoma to have been listed in the ...

Gensler and CIVILIAN team reimagines abandoned Detroit book depository as startup hub for mobility innovation

2023-04-28T11:55:00-04:00

A team including Gensler and CIVILIAN has completed the adaptive reuse of an old book depository in Detroit. The new center will serve as the headquarters for Newlab, a technology collective hosting startups in the field of decarbonization, energy, mobility, and materials.

Image credit: Jason Keen

Newlab’s headquarters sits within the wider Michigan Central campus; a 30-acre center advancing mobility-focused technologies and the vision of Ford executive chairman Bill Ford. On the campus, Newlab will create what the organization calls a “center of gravity for startups, entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists to build breakthrough companies in Detroit.”

Image credit: Jason Keen

Image credit: Brian Ferry

The 1936 Albert Kahn-designed building housing Newlab was originally built as a post office and mail-sorting facility, before being used as the Detroit Public School’s Book Depository. The art deco building will now serve as a 270,000-square-foot center with purpos...

University of Michigan’s Taubman College is searching for its next Architecture Program Chair

2023-03-29T14:27:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for an Engagement Coordinator at The New York Review of Architecture, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open position on Archinect Jobs for the Architecture Program Chair at the University of Michigan.

Based in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, the role calls for an individual to chair the school’s architecture program for a three-year renewable term beginning July 1st, 2024. Candidates for the position must hold or qualify for a tenure or practice track appointment in the architecture program at an associate or full professor level, and display a “record of distinction in teaching and in professional, scholarly, and/or creative achievement.”

Why the role interests us

The open position at Taubman College offers us the opportunity to explor...

Detroit to host first public wireless charging road for electric vehicles in the U.S.

2022-02-18T18:43:00-05:00

Electrical Vehicle wireless charging technology company Electreon has announced that it is set to establish its first public wireless EV charging road system in the U.S.

The Michigan Department of Transportation along with the State Department of Future Transportation and Electrification awarded the company a tender to create a wireless charging demonstration project that will include a one-mile wireless charging road and static charging stations. Dubbed the “Michigan Project,” the initiative is expected to launch in 2023 in Detroit.

The Michigan Project is expected to be a significant part of Michigan’s aim to strengthen the economy, electrify vehicle fleets, and reduce carbon emissions by 2050. The State Department of Michigan will provide $1.9 million in funding towards the project.

Previously on Archinect: New research reveals the possibility for wireless vehicle charging while driving

“Michigan’s automotive industry roots built a foundation for mobility innovation, and we’re t...

Michigan Governor Whitmer signs bills to resurrect state's only HBCU into college of design

2021-12-31T14:06:00-05:00

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed two bills on Tuesday to re-establish the state’s first and only Historically Black College or University (HBCU). The former Lewis College of Business is slated to reopen as the Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design in 2022. It was originally founded in Indianapolis in 1928 before relocating to Detroit in 1939 where it operated until closing in 2013.

This will make it the first HBCU to close and then successfully reopen. Plans for the school’s reopening were announced several months ago, however, Governor Whitmer’s signing of House Bill 5447 and 5448 has made this effort a reality. The school will operate on the College for Creative Studies campus in Detroit and, according to Detroit Metro Times, will provide free tuition for Black designers, creatives, and future business leaders.

Previously on Archinect: A formerly closed HBCU in Detroit is reopening as a design school thanks to an industry leader

Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design is expected to open in March of 2022 and will be under the leadership of Dr. D’Wayne Edwards, the founder of the Pensole Design Academy in Portland, Oregon, former Nike design director, and controlling stockholder of the previously closed Lewis College of Business.

Minoru Yamasaki’s Michigan State Medical Society building hits the market for $4.3 million

2021-11-18T15:37:00-05:00

An excellent example of the New Formalist style is now available for the relatively low price of $4.3 million.

Local news outlets are reporting the recent addition of Minoru Yamasaki’s Michigan State Medical Society to the real estate market in East Lansing.

Image courtesy Michigan State Historic Preservation Office via Flickr

The architect of the World Trade Center received the commission for the building in 1959, marking his first major project outside of Metro Detroit. It was given a two-story extension in 1979 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

Yamasaki’s design features a column-lined exterior connected by 31 cast-concrete arches which form a profile later repeated in the Trade Center’s podium and characterized by an internal collaborative office plan and vaulted ceilings.

Image courtesy Michigan State Historic Preservation Office via Flickr

“The intent was to build a serene and inviting building to express the idealism and humanity of the medical pro...

A formerly closed HBCU in Detroit is reopening as a design school thanks to an industry leader

2021-10-29T14:44:00-04:00

Detroit, Michigan’s erstwhile Lewis College of Business is making history after being resurrected by one of the biggest names in footwear and apparel design.

The college operated from 1928 to 2013 before shuttering due to financial concerns and will now become the nation’s first HBCU to officially reopen, giving hope to the 104 similar institutions that were until recently a significant part of President Biden’s multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better spending plan.

The school is offering free room and board as well as comped tuition for students interested in pursuing careers in the design field. Its website is promoting a learn-by-doing approach that will help train students across multiple disciplines, including robust course offerings in STEM fields, sustainability, business, and design.

Renamed the Pensole Lewis College of Business & Design, the reimagined institution takes its name from Pensole Design Academy, a Portland, Oregon-based non-profit founded in 2010 by former Ni...

Another Frank Lloyd Wright home hits the market in Michigan

2021-10-06T12:51:00-04:00

A private residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright has hit the auction block in St. Joseph, Michigan, joining a host of other Wright homes that have entered the real estate market in the past year alone.

Listed just shy of $2 million, the Harper House was last seen for sale 25 years ago and is believed to be the last home designed by the architect in the state of Michigan before his death in 1959.

Image via @properties

Wright built the L-shaped home for a local doctor in 1950. It was inhabited by the client until her death in a car accident just three years later and has since fallen into the care of one area couple that had previously restored the 3,150-square-foot residence.

Image via @properties

Featuring Wright’s signature Chicago common brick material, stained glass windows, and a great room complete with a Baldwin grand piano and furnishings by Donghia, the four-bedroom home is defined by prominent views of Lake Michigan and a mixture of pitched and flat roofs thanks to an addi...

New high school incorporates design elements meant to hinder active shooters

2019-08-23T15:30:00-04:00

With school shootings becoming a point of concern for many across the country, K-12 design methodologies are beginning to address the issue as well.

Fruitport High School in Fruitport, Michigan, for example, is undergoing a $48 million renovation project aimed at incorporating some of these design approaches. The new work "will add curved hallways to reduce a gunman’s range, jutting barriers to provide cover and egress, and meticulously spaced classrooms that can lock on demand and hide students in the corner, out of a killer’s sight," reports The Washington Post.

Speaking with The Washington Post, Matt Sagle of TowerPinkster, and an architect on the project, illustrated the project's "shadow zones," designed areas for students to hide in that are obstructed from a shooter's sight lines. TowerPinkster also designs prisons; Regarding the project, The Washington Post writes that Sagle "wanted to strike a balance between security and creating a welcoming presence without the pendulum ...

Winners of the Detroit City of Design Competition prototype solutions for Detroit's neighborhoods

2019-08-15T15:30:00-04:00

Recognized as a UNESCO City of Design in 2015, Detroit has dedicated time and effort to help the city grow and thrive. This year, Design Core Detroit launched its first edition of the Detroit City of Design Competition. The international and multi-disciplinary competition invites designers from all 31 UNESCO Cities of Design to participate in the competition. The goal is to create prototype design solutions for various neighborhoods in Detroit that promote safety and walkability.

A jury comprised of local and international design experts and community representatives reviewed 26 project submissions for the competition. Out of those 26 submissions, three winners were selected. The three finalists were chosen for their attention to the prompt, their creativity, and the execution of their designs based on overall cost and their choice of neighborhood.

"We are inspired by the innovation presented in the winners and finalists and the way they demonstrate the value of design to the commu...

Emily Helen Butterfield, Michigan's first female architect

2019-08-05T15:36:00-04:00

Emily Helen Butterfield, born August 4, 1884, was the first licensed woman architect in Michigan.

Butterfield grew up in Detroit with a love of watercolor painting, and eventually studied architecture at Syracuse University, where she was a founding member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. After graduating in 1907, Butterfield and her father, Wells D. Butterfield, established the architectural office of Butterfield and Butterfield in Detroit.

The pair practiced together and specialized in the design of churches while also leading the design of the Oaklands planned community in Farmington Hills outside of Detroit. The younger Butterfield designed many houses in the development, according to the City of Farmington Hills Historic District Commission, mainly in the Colonial Revival style. Butterfields thoughtful bungalows are notable for their two-story design and for the cleaver inclusion of evocative stylistic architectural elements that lent the homes formal interest and material ...

America's obsession with highway "boondoggles" continues

2019-07-02T16:44:00-04:00

The United States Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has unveiled its annual list of "highway boondoggles," a list of "budget-eating highway projects" that will "harm communities and the environment, while likely failing to achieve meaningful transportation goals."

The proposed North Houston Improvement Project would wipe out thousands of homes. Image courtesy of Texas Department of Transportation.

The organization reports that the projects contained within the 2019 list will cost more than $25 billion to build, "sucking money away from road repair, transit, and other local needs."

Studies have shown that rather than alleviating traffic congestion, highway widening projects actually incentivize people to drive and ultimately cause an increase in traffic congestion.

Another view of Miami's proposed Interstate-295 expansion. Image courtesy of Florida Department of Transportation.

The top highway boondoggles for 2019 include:

The "Complete 540" project in North Carolina that aims to ...

Julián Castro unveils national lead abatement plan

2019-06-13T14:32:00-04:00

In response to the ongoing toxicity crisis gripping the town of Flint, Michigan, 2020 Democratic presidential contender Julián Castro has unveiled a nationwide lead abatement plan.

Last week, Castro, former Housing and Urban Development secretary under President Barack Obama, became the first presidential candidate to visit the ailing town, where a slow-motion environmental disaster has been playing out since 2014.

(For a thorough breakdown of the Flint water crisis, see this informational story from CNN.)

Castro proposes to establish a presidential task force on lead “charged with eliminating lead poisoning as a major public health threat” while asking Congress to allocate $5 billion per year for a decade to replace lead pipes around the country. The funding would also go toward abating lead contamination in household paint and in soil "in areas of highest need." In addition, the plan would allocate $100 million per year toward lead poising prevention efforts. Castro told BuzzFee...

Michigan's central role in the Modernist movement leaves lasting impacts

2018-09-07T13:51:00-04:00

If Michigan isn’t the first place that comes to mind when considering [the Modern era] — unlike, say, Germany or France in the 1920s — it should be. The presence of Ford in the city and Booth in the country was enough to make Michigan ground zero for the Modernist experiment [...] making the state home to perhaps the most diverse and best-preserved collection of early Modernist experiments in the world.

A look at Michigan's history in the Modernist movement and the story it tells for our future. M.H. Miller traces three main convergences in the state: Henry Ford's first Model T factory, the Cranbrook school's presence, and numerous influential architects most notably Albert Kahn and Minoru Yamasaki. While this all leaves Michigan with several noteworthy sites, Detroit and surrounding areas are also cautionary markers of modernism's relentless pursuit of "progress" for future generations.

Snøhetta to design Ford's new Michigan headquarters & campuses

2018-06-21T17:36:00-04:00

More details on Ford's adaptive reuse of Michigan Central Station reveal that Snøhetta has been commissioned as the lead designer as part of Ford's $1 billion capital improvements project. Tasked with re-envisioning the company's Headquarters and Research Campus in Dearborn, Michigan, the firm will also design Ford's new urban campus in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.

Michigan Central Station renovation rendering. Image: Ford.

The Corktown Campus project, estimated to cover 1.2 million square feet, includes renovating the historic Michigan Central Station, which has been in disrepair for 30 years since Amtrak last used the train station. Spanning 500,000 square feet, the updated building will house Ford and partner company offices along with public spaces.

Michigan Central Station current state of disrepair.

The project also involves developing mixed-use facilities close to downtown Detroit. The plans include restaurant and retail spaces on the ground floor, with residential provis...

Ford to give Detroit's iconic Michigan Central Station a new life as its future mobility lab

2018-06-20T17:19:00-04:00

Yesterday, Ford Motor Company announced its long-rumored plan to buy the abandoned Michigan Central Station and restore it as hub for its future mobility ventures. The news quickly created a sense of awe across metro Detroit. [...] On Tuesday morning, Ford laid out the details and made the purchase official in a public ceremony.

Rumors about Ford's intentions to purchase the iconic but dilapidated Michigan Central Station first surfaced in March, and now it's official: the automaker ('scuse me, mobility company) celebrated the announcement with a festive party on its new property hosting performers and city officials.

"Ford’s purchase of the station is a grand, symbolic gesture that seemed unlikely only a few years ago," Tamara Warren writes for The Verge. "As its intention materializes to transform the station into a center for autonomous driving and innovation in the next three to four years, it’s a poignant move that resonates deeply in the city and around the state of Michigan."

Cranbrook Academy of Art appoints Gretchen Wilkins as new Head of Architecture and Architect-in-Residence

2018-04-27T16:16:00-04:00

The Cranbrook Academy of Art announced today that Gretchen Wilkins will be the new Head of the Architecture Department and the institution's ninth Architect-in-Residence. Amy Green Deines, the dean of Cranbrook Academy, praised Wilkins as “a collaborative leader with strong connections and a deep knowledge of the international architecture community”.

Having nearly 20 years of architectural teaching and practice, Gretchen Wilkins is currently an Associate Professor and the Head of Design at RMIT University's Vietnam campus. She also previously directed RMIT’s Master of Urban Design program in Melbourne, Barcelona, and Ho Chi Minh City. She earned her Ph.D. from RMIT University and her M.Arch from the University of Michigan.

From her teaching experience in Australia and Asia over the last decade, Wilkins continues to focus her work on the city and cultivating its creative and productive industries. Keeping her ties strong in Detroit, she has collaborated with the Detroit Riverfront...

From the Ashes, Detroit continues to rise.

2017-12-18T11:30:00-05:00

An 800-foot-tall centerpiece is coming to Detroit's resurgent downtown as the city continues to build momentum about three years after exiting the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Detroit continues its steep climb back to normalcy and growth. As one of America's hardest-hit areas by the Great Recession, Detroit unemployment was running nearly three times as high as the national average in 2009 at a staggering 28 percent — and the city was bleeding population, losing inhabitants every year for the last six years.

Through all this, Detroit has powered back and hinted its potential as a location of a modern-day renaissance allowing for unhindered creativity and possibilities. Returning to Detroit's legacy of a booming urban center, altogether, the projected projects of downtown look to bring up to 24,000+ jobs to the region with companies such as Microsoft and Ally Financial looking to make a move to Downtown Detroit.