The City of Detroit has established a promising collaboration with Danish architects and urban planners SLA, local firm Giffels Webster, and consultants Utile, CDAD, and HR&A to address and solve the social and urban challenges of the Gratiot / 7 Mile Neighborhood in Detroit. The team was selected after it won a competition issued by the City of Detroit calling for a multidisciplinary team to help with a new neighborhood framework plan.

"The Gratiot/7 Mile Neighborhood has many challenges. But it also contains many opportunities and much potential to reinvent itself from socially and physically challenged area into a well- functioning community. Drawing on our team’s multidisciplinarity and joint Scandinavian-American roots, we want to create the foundation for a holistic development that will help Gratiot / 7 Mile find its feet again - both physically, socially, culturally and economically," said Rasmus Astrup, Design Principal and Partner in SLA in a statement. 

The consultant team and the city have already started a series of "Virtual Community Meetings" to co-create the plan with local residents. In fact, this is core to the team's approach, to create a holistic planning methodology in close collaboration with residents, youth, business owners, community groups, city officials, and others to improve the quality of life and "create new empowerment for the community and its approximately 10,000 residents."

The result of the team's work will result in a strategic analysis, an urban and economic development plan, and a conceptual design for the area. This will also include recommendations regarding the use of nature, culture, safety, activities for children, infrastructure, and other projects. The team is currently working on the Neighborhood Framework Plan, which is due to be complete by Spring 2021.