A competition to design a city center in a large city. My partner and I chose Detroit as our location for this project. Designed to serve as a hub for city activity, this complex offers apartment space, retail space, a grocery store, restaurants and a movie theater, as well as office space.

1. commercial | public | residential
CPR for a Sinking City Grand Circus Park Detroit, MI
Why Detroit? A product of racial tensions, outsourced manufacturing, short-
term remedies and unfocused planning, agitated by the recent economic collapse, Detroit $ Bank of America
has become one of America’s fastest shrinking cities. What we hope to accomplish with this
project is not to ll all of the gaps in city’s urban fabric, but to simply address one major gap
in what could be a very productive and exciting downtown neighborhood. Our site consists
of two blocks anking Detroit’s famous Grand Circus Park just east of Woodward Avenue,
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located a few blocks north of the city’s center. This area is populated by several high rise Fox Theater Comerica Park/
Ford Field
residential lofts and o ce buildings, and within walking distance to several Detroit enter-
tainment landmarks including the Fox Theatre, Comerica Park, Ford Field and the Detroit
Opera House. There are also many historical sites in the neighborhood, including the Book
Tower, the GAR Building and the old Michigan Theatre.
Grand Circus Park
CPR Built within the last ten years, the Compuware World Headquarters, the Detroit
Riverwalk, the Motor City Casino, and the new football and baseball arenas have provided Parking
incentives for revitalizing Detroit and bringing visitors back to the city, but what about
Detroit residents? What Detroit needs is not another landmark building, entertainment
district, or corporate headquarters. What it needs is a hub for all of these things and more –
the more being the actual Detroit residents. What they need is not a welcome center for
visitors but a city center for the people of Detroit. Chain Grocery Store People Mover to Broadway
* proposed relocation
of Grand Circus stop
Community Focus Our design recognizes the importance of employing both
universal and sustainable design strategies, but it is the local community and immediate
context that remains our primary design inspiration. After all, in order for our center to
Above-Ground
* Green Roof Co ee Shop
e ciently serve the community long-term we must understand and address local needs,
Short Term Parking
and provide design solutions suitable to our urban context. For example, public access and * Underground Long Term
transportation are not simply a program requirement but an existing condition, where the Parking
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Restaurant
balance of pedestrian, public, and automotive transportation could mean the success or First Floor Retail
failure of the project. Most importantly, our center will address the issues of urban food inse-
curity; an exceedingly pertinent topic in the case of Detroit, which lost its last chain grocery
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Commercial/Non-Pro t
store in 2007. As part of our planning strategy, our city center will engage all four of the
major stakeholders: private property owners, commercial property owners, non-pro ts and
O ce Space
$ Retail
city government, in order to achieve a joint venture pro ting all parties. Apartments/
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Condos
* renovation of Retail
Sustainable Solutions Situated within the urban context of the largest existing tower
city in the Great Lakes state, sustainability, speci cally the conservation and preservation of
our water resources is our second design priority, behind our obligations to the community.
We organized our sustainable technologies and alternatives around the tertiary of water,
waste and energy. Considering our site, Michigan’s climate, and our close proximity to large
bodies of water including the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, we decided to focus
our e orts towards e cient water management. Our key sustainable design features work
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to reduce water usage through smart irrigation of our public roof top gardens, greywater Movie Theaters Bike Racks
treatment for non-potable building use, and harvesting rainwater for reuse in our evapora-
tive cooling system.
Cocktail Bar
Integrated Systems While water remains our primary focus these processes * Ampitheater
interact with other building systems to cooperatively reduce thermal load and heat island
e ects. Intelligent Controls help our building achieve overall e ciency while allowing for Neighborhood Service
individual control. Building Management Systems (BMS) control the mixed mode ventilation Organization
zone system e ciently, mediating between passive systems and mechanical conditioning
enabled by ground source heating. Utilizing the sustainable, thermal and aesthetic qualities
of the Trespa panels, low-e glass, and permeable pavers the building envelope and its com-
ponents help support the other building systems. The Trespa panels provide the perfect
nishing touch to the Center City facade - providing the building with a dynamic and invit-
Grocery
ing presence. With a wide range of applications and color choices, the Trespa panels
provided us with the design inspiration we needed to push our conceptual ideas into archi-
tectural form. Restaurant
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Wayne Country
Entertainment Environment Department
$ Commercial
Residential Rosa Parks Transit Center
* 0.4 miles N
Sustainable
Transport

2. Green Roof
* Restaurant
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People Mover $ Retail * Movie Theater
Co ee Shop
A
A D
B
Mixed Mode Ventilation - Zone System:
System utilizes building components and HVAC system in order to maximize com-
fort of inhabitants while minimizing energy use. Zone system allows di erent spaces
to be conditioned either naturally or mechanically for extended periods of time, but C E
allows for potential change-over between systems.
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2 A | Rainwater Capture - Roof top basins and storage
Our key sustainable design features work to reduce water usage through graywater recollection as well as rainwater harvest-
ing and reuse for evaporative cooling.
1 B | Irrigation - Xeriscaping/Mulching/Smart Irrigation:
Landscaping with native grasses (Bu alo grass, zoysia grass) that require limited irrigation to grow. Mulching retains mois-
ture released by smart irrigation system ie. subsurface drip irrigation.
Zone A | ATRIUM - naturally ventilated Zone B | RETAIL - mechanically ventilated
C | Humidity Control - Cooling Water Feature:
Collected water will be used to in a radiant oor to control the climate in the larger spaces of our building. Our precedent for
study for the radiant oor system is the Hearst Building by Foster & Partners in New York City.
Intelligent Controls - Hybrid Building: D | Greywater Treatment - Rooftop Water Puri cation:
In order to achieve overall building e ciency while allowing for individual control, Southern roof garden acts as a greywater treatment area by combining a wetland system and water treatment plant, in
building employs Building Management System (BMS) to Hybrid control system order to facilitate a natural water puri cation process.
with local system overrides and automatic timers. Energy generation is controlled
centrally, while energy distribution is controlled locally. Interactions: Mediates E | Bioswale:
Landscaping element that help to lter out pollutants found in runo water. Very useful feature to be used near parking lots,
between passive systems and mechanical conditioning enabled by GeoExchange
or busy roads where large amounts of runo water mix with heavy pollution from vehicle tra c.
1Ground Source Ground Source Heat - GeoExchange: F | Low-Flow Fixtures:
2 Central Generation System uses pipes drilled 200-300 feet into the ground to exchange heat via water Low- ow xtures use less water than conventional xtures.
3 Local Distribution with ground source in order to utilize the constant temperature of the earth (50-60
degrees) to heat and cool building. E ects: after initial costs, operation/ mainte-
nance costs are relatively inexpensive; can produce power 24/7; clean energy;
reduces electric energy consumption.

3. Cafe
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$ $ Retail
Chain Grocery Store
Public Food Market
* 8am-2pm Wed. and Sun.
A 11.4.4 A 10.4.5 A 12.6.3 M 04.4. 1
English Red Sienna Brown Wine Red Titanium Trespa Panels
A Future of Food Security
“Community Food Security can be de ned as the which
exists when all of the members of a community have
access, in close proximity, to adequate amounts of nutri-
tious, culturally appropriate food at all times, from sources
that are environmentally sound and just. This food security
policy was developed to a rm the City of Detroit's commit-
ment to nurturing the development of a food secure city in
which all of its citizens are hunger-free, healthy and bene t
from the food systems that impact their lives. This policy
also a rms the City of Detroit's commitment to supporting
sustainable food systems that provide people with high
quality food, employment, and that also contribute to the
long-term well-being of the environment.”
Detroit Black Community Food Security Network
http://detroitblackfoodsecurity.org/policy.html

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Sustainable Urban Design
innovative in ll construction and building reuse