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The City of Detroit’s Gratiot/7 Mile Neighborhood Framework Plan was co-crafted by residents to help shape future growth and investment in the area. Photo credit: The Detroit News.
Project Dates: Fall 2022–Spring 2024
Client: City of Detroit Office of Planning and Development - The Neighborhood of 7 Mile and Gratiot (G7) Framework Plan
SEAS Faculty Advisor: Mark Lindquist, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
SEAS Students: Ihsan Akhtar, Ziyi Chen, Bingqing Han, Myles Markey, Jillian Morisette, Zhongyi Zhang
About the Client
Gratiot and 7 Mile (G7) is an area in northeast Detroit that is made up of several neighborhoods that share the same domain of resident leadership and city-led planning efforts. The City of Detroit, in close partnership with residents, crafted the Gratiot/7 Mile Neighborhood Framework Plan between 2019 and 2021 to guide future development and investment in G7. According to the city’s G7 webpage, the plan aims to “stabilize single family neighborhoods, multi-family housing and retail opportunities, as well as examine park, greenway, and streetscape improvements.”
About the Project
This student team worked with the G7 Project Manager and affiliates to propose and map pragmatic and systematic alternative scenarios for activating vacant land and sparsely occupied areas in the G7 neighborhood. These scenarios considered how the natural areas in this zone could be enhanced and restored with green infrastructure like ecoparks, solar power, and urban homesteads. The students’ designs were informed by the community, and strived to enrich aesthetic and property values, enhance ecosystem services, and elevate the social and cultural capital in the neighborhoods.
Key components of the project included conducting a hydrological analysis, designing and illustrating alternative concepts for vacant properties and zones, and exploring options such as eco-parks with solar power, green infrastructure features and/or re-envisioned urban homesteads.
Read more here.