CPR for a Sinking City Grand Circus Park Detroit, MI commercial | public | residential $ * Grocery Restaurant Entertainment Commercial Residential Sustainable Transport $ * $ $ $ People Mover to Broadway * proposed relocation of Grand Circus stop Movie Theaters Cocktail Bar Retail Retail Commercial/Non-Profit Office Space Apartments/ Condos * renovation of existing tower First Floor Retail Above-Ground Short Term Parking * Underground Long Term Parking Chain Grocery Store Restaurant Coffee Shop Bike Racks * Ampitheater * Green Roof * Grand Circus Park Parking Comerica Park/ Ford Field * Fox Theater Rosa Parks Transit Center * 0.4 miles Neighborhood Service Organization Wayne Country Environment Department $ Bank of America N Why Detroit? A product of racial tensions, outsourced manufacturing, short- term remedies and unfocused planning, agitated by the recent economic collapse, Detroit has become one of America’s fastest shrinking cities. What we hope to accomplish with this project is not to fill 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 flanking Detroit’s famous Grand Circus Park just east of Woodward Avenue, located a few blocks north of the city’s center. This area is populated by several high rise residential lofts and office 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. 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 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. 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 efficiently serve the community long-term we must understand and address local needs, and provide design solutions suitable to our urban context. For example, public access and transportation are not simply a program requirement but an existing condition, where the balance of pedestrian, public, and automotive transportation could mean the success or 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 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-profits and city government, in order to achieve a joint venture profiting all parties. Sustainable Solutions Situated within the urban context of the largest city in the Great Lakes state, sustainability, specifically 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 efforts towards efficient water management. Our key sustainable design features work to reduce water usage through smart irrigation of our public roof top gardens, greywater treatment for non-potable building use, and harvesting rainwater for reuse in our evapora- tive cooling system. Integrated Systems While water remains our primary focus these processes interact with other building systems to cooperatively reduce thermal load and heat island effects. Intelligent Controls help our building achieve overall efficiency while allowing for individual control. Building Management Systems (BMS) control the mixed mode ventilation zone system efficiently, 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 finishing touch to the Center City facade - providing the building with a dynamic and invit- 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.