Restitchin' East Warren

Project title: Restitchin' East Warren: East Warren Socializer
Course title: Community Design Studio
Professor/Instructor: Virginia Stanard
Student: Dallas Mahaney

Course description: In this community-based design studio, students investigated what it means to rethink Detroit’s underutilized commercial corridors in relation to their surrounding neighborhoods. The studio focused on the East Warren corridor between McLellan Street and Moross Road anchored by the St. Jean, Chandler Park, Morningside, East English Village, and Cornerstone Village communities. Students were charged with creating a new kind of commercial corridor that integrates local assets and innovative reuse of vacant land while accommodating a mix of uses and mobility options. Research and analysis for three typological corridor conditions - low, moderate, and high vacancy - framed the studio in addition to case study research on mobility, placemaking, and green infrastructure. Additionally, a variety of initiatives informed the studio such as Mix Tape Zoning, the Motor City Match and Restore programs, Restitchin’ E. Warren, the City of Detroit’s Commercial Corridor Streetscape Improvement Program, and the UNESCO Detroit City of Design as well as conversations with community advisors including representatives from U-SNAP-BAC, East Warren Community-Business Association, and the City of Detroit. The final project resulted in an urban design strategy for East Warren and an architectural and landscape strategy for an urban block on East Warren driven by the students' research and urban analysis.

Student work description: "Restitchin’ East Warren" creates a central node along the East Warren corridor anchored by St. Jean and Conner streets that stitches together the St. Jean and Chandler Park neighborhoods. This central node is complimented by a greenway linking various assets within the community and the "East Warren Socializer," a mixed-use building that includes housing, gathering space, urban farming and pocket gardens, and incubator pop-up space.

Project title: Restitchin' East Warren: Bike N’ Build School
Course title: Community Design Studio
Professor/Instructor: Virginia Stanard
Student: Tyler Younes

Course description: (See course description above)
Student work description: "Restitchin’ East Warren" creates a central node along the East Warren corridor anchored by St. Jean and Conner streets that stitches together the St. Jean and Chandler Park neighborhoods. This central node is complimented by a greenway linking various assets within the community and the "Bike N' Build School," a maker space and vocational school campus that includes housing, retail, and outdoor recreational amenities.

Project title: Connecting East Warren: Morningside Commons
Course title: Community Design Studio
Professor/Instructor: Virginia Stanard
Student: Nathalie Begin

Student work description: "Connecting E. Warren" revitalizes and updates the mobility of the East Warren corridor with newly developed infrastructure and green paths that connect the residential areas to the commercial corridor. The "Morningside Commons" node includes a mixed-use building with co-working and pop-up/event spaces as well as a daycare, grocery, pharmacy, and outdoor public space.