In this studio, students researched the impact of the 1964 construction of I 375 through downtown Detroit with special attention being paid to the destruction of the predominantly African American communities of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley as a result of the National Interstate and Defense Highway Act of 1956. The students studied the effects of national policy on the city and the many other American cities that experienced devastating neighborhood destruction as a result of this Congressional program. Through significant research and study of the site and the adjacent neighborhoods, the students narrowed their focus of interest to the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood of Detroit. With the help of the McDougall-Hunt Neighborhood Sustainable Development Plan, researched and written by the Bailey Park Neighborhood Development Corporation, the students were able to identify key needs of the neighborhood that they believed could be addressed through design. “Building Networks: Infrastructure + Community,” attempts to directly address the needs of our time, acknowledge the mistakes of our past, and design for an unambiguously anti-racist future. Therefore, students were asked to embark on this project with humility and empathy and to remove all notions of “expert” embedded in traditional architectural education. We did not attempt to learn from the Bailey Park Neighborhood Development Corporation in order to replicate their work or enhance their work based on our perceptions, rather we approached the project as an effort to help the organization achieve what it is that they are setting out to do.
By centering the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process, over the course of the semester, the studio has felt like a sea change in the architectural pedagogical approach.