Detroit Modern Lafayette/Elmwood Park Tour DETROIT MODERN Lafayette Park/Elmwood Park Biking Tour Tour begins at the Gratiot Avenue entrance to the Dequindre Cut and ends with a ride heading north on the Dequindre Cut from East Lafayette Street. Conceived in 1946 as the Gratiot Redevelopment Project, Lafayette Park was Detroit’s first residential urban renewal project. The nation’s pioneering effort under the Housing Act of 1949; it was the first phase of a larger housing redevelopment plan for Detroit. Construction began at the 129-acre site in 1956. The site plan for Lafayette Park was developed through a collabora- tive effort among Herbert Greenwald, developer; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect; Ludwig Hilberseimer, city planner; and Alfred Caldwell, landscape architect. Greenwald had a vision of creating a modern urban neighborhood with the amenities of a suburb. Bounded by East Lafayette, Rivard, Antietam and Orleans Streets, Lafayette Park is based on the ‘super- block’ plan that Mies van der Rohe and Hilberseimer devised in the mid-1950s. The 13-acre, city-owned park is surrounded by eight separate housing components, a school and a shopping center. Mies van de Rohe designed the high-rise Pavilion Apartment buildings, the twin Lafayette Towers, and the low-rise townhouses and court houses in the International style for which he is famous. They are his only works in Michigan and the largest collection of Mies van de Rohe-designed residential buildings in the world. Caldwell’s Prairie style landscape uses native trees, curving pathways, and spacious meadows to create natural looking landscapes that contrast with the simplicity of the buildings and the density of the city. Progress on Lafayette Park came to an abrupt halt when Greenwald died in a plane crash in 1959. Mies van de Rohe’s association with the project ended and the remaining undeveloped lots were eventually sold and the buildings completed by other architects. Elmwood Park is a 504-acre urban renewal area east of Lafayette Park and the Grand Trunk Western Rail- road (now the Dequindre Cut, a pedestrian and bike path). It was Detroit’s second major urban renewal project. It was developed in three phases but planned simultaneously to ensure continuity in architecture and design. Crane & Gorwic, Inc., Detroit-based urban planners, and Johnson, Johnson & Roy, landscape architects from Ann Arbor, led the design team. Today, Elmwood and Lafayette Parks form an attractive place to live for 11,500 residents. Work began on Elmwood Park #1, located east of St. Aubin Street to Chene Street and north of East Lafayette Street to Waterloo Street, in 1960, with final plat approval in 1966. Covering 122 acres, its archi- tects were chosen through a design competition. Elmwood Park #2, located on 190 acres between East Lafayette Street and East Jefferson Avenue, was planned to provide housing for a low-to-moderate income population displaced from the area. It was an experiment in the coordination of social planning and physical development; community participation was an integral part of the planning process. Construction took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The 188 acres of land for Elmwood Park #3, bounded by Chene Street, East Vernor Highway, East Lafayette Street and Elmwood Cemetery, was cleared for the final phase of the Elmwood Park Master Plan in 1971. Architects and Artists Gunnar Birkerts & Associates Carl Koch & Associates, Boston Born in Latvia, Gunnar Birkerts came to America in 1949 and Carl Koch graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Design began working with Eero Saarinen on the General Motors Tech- in 1937. A pioneer in pre-fabricated housing, Koch designed the nical Center in 1951. Birkerts joined Minoru Yamasaki’s firm in TechBuilt Housing System which utilizes standardized modules 1959 and was chief designer for the Reynolds Metals Building for floor, walls, and roof. Over three thousand of these affordable (1959) in Detroit. Birkerts taught architecture at the University homes were built across the United States in the 1950s including of Michigan from 1961 to 1990. He gained international acclaim one in Rochester Hills, Michigan. He later experimented with pre- after establishing his own firm in Birmingham, Michigan in 1963. stressed concrete with his Techcrete system. Alfred Caldwell, Chicago Lorenz & Paski Trained as an architect, Alfred Caldwell became a landscape de- Willard Lorenz and Bernard Paski established their firm in 1960. signer working with Jens Jensen, creator of the Prairie Style of Lorenz was a graduate of the University of Michigan and taught at landscape architecture, for the Chicago park system. Caldwell the Detroit Institute of Technology. Paski received his training at worked with Ludwig Mies van de Rohe at the Illinois Institute the University of Detroit. of Technology (IIT) and collaborated on the campus’ landscape design. Caldwell’s Lily Pool near Lincoln Park in Chicago is a Madison & Madison Architects, Cleveland National Historic Landmark. A graduate of Howard University and the Harvard Graduate School Marshall Fredericks of Design where he studied under Walter Gropius, Robert Madison is believed to be the first licensed African American architect in A native of Illinois, Fredricks was a student of the Swedish sculp- Ohio. Madison and his brother Julian, a civil engineer, formed the tor Carl Milles and taught at the Cranbrook Academy of Art from firm in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1954. With five branch offices, includ- 1932 to 1942. He produced a large body of public art including ing one in Detroit, it became one of the largest African American- Belle Isle’s Barbour Memorial Fountain (1936) in Detroit. His work owned architectural firms in the United States. is known nationwide. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Chicago Jude T. Fusco One of the greatest architects of the twentieth century, Mies van A graduate of the University of Toronto, Fusco established his de Rohe, along with Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, was a mas- Ferndale, Michigan-based firm in 1962. His commissions included ter of the International style. Mies headed the Bauhaus school in a public housing project in Pontiac (1969) and Trolley Plaza (1980), Germany in the late 1930s. As war approached, he left Europe in an innovative 28-story concrete Detroit apartment building. 1937 to head the architecture department at the Illinois Institute of Technology (ITT) in Chicago. His best work includes the glass Green & Savin Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois (1946), Crown Hall at ITT Joseph Savin, a University of Michigan (U-M) graduate, was as- (1956) where he introduced the glass curtain wall to America, and sociated with Eero Saarinen and Associates from 1956–58 before the Seagram’s Building in New York City (1958). partnering in 1960 with Isaac Green, a U-M and Illinois Institute Eberle M. Smith Associates of Technology graduate. They designed a number of apartment buildings. Smith began his career with Albert Kahn Associates and estab- lished his own firm in 1942. He became nationally known for his Gould, Moss & Joseph progressive, student-centered school designs. In Michigan, Smith Nathaniel Gould had a long career in the Detroit area, designing designed Edsel Ford High School (1955) and Henry Ford Com- the Wayne County Training School (1920) in Northville and Elo- munity College (1961) in Dearborn and Lincoln Park and Flint ise Hospital (1932) in Westland. Jacqueline Joseph, one of Michi- High Schools (1960). gan’s few female Modern architects, was a resident of Lafayette Clifford N. Wright & Associates Park. The firm was known for its Detroit area schools. A graduate of Lawrence Institute of Technology, Wright established Kamp & Mayotte his firm in 1949. He also partnered with Richard Pollman and Ervin E. Kamp, a 1951 University of Michigan graduate, had his Irving Palmquist to create Home Planners, Inc., a Detroit-based own firm from 1958 to 1964. Kamp Mayotte & DiComo was its firm that designed hundreds of Modern house plans for the aver- successor firm. Ronald E. Mayotte later had an office in Troy, Mich- age homeowner and published them in a series of house plan books igan. The firm designed Parkvue Hospital in Westland, Michigan, between 1950 and 1970. Wright contributed house plan designs and a number of churches in Southeast Michigan. to several national magazines, such as House & Garden and Better Homes & Gardens. Lafayette/Elmwood Park Biking Tour 1. The Pavillion 9. Hyde Park 1 Lafayette Plaisance Hyde Park Drive Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1959 Eberle M. Smith Associates, 1966 2. Lafayette Park Townhouses 10. East Park and Court Houses Bryanston Crescent Nicolet Place and Joliet Place Kamp & Mayotte, 1966 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1958–60 3. Walter P. Chrysler Elementary 11. Regency Towers School 1935 Chene Court 1445 East Lafayette Avenue Jude T. Fusco, 1969 Gould, Moss & Joseph, 1963 4. 1300 Lafayette East 12. Saint John’s United 1300 East Lafayette Street Presbyterian Church Gunnar Birkerts, 1961–64 1961 East Lafayette Avenue Madison & Madison, 1966 5. Lafayette Towers 13. Martin Luther King Homes 1301 Orleans Avenue 1900 East Lafayette Avenue Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1963 Metropolitan Detroit Citizens Development Authority, developer, 1969 6. Cherboneau Place South 14. Elmwood Park Plaza 1515-75 Cherboneau Place 750 Chene Street Clifford N. Wright & Associates, Carl Koch & Associates, 1973–75 1964 7. Chateaufort Place Townhouse 15. Calvary Baptist Church Apartments 1000 McDougall Street 1500-53 Chateaufort Place Gunnar Birkerts & Associates, 1977 Lorenz & Paski, 1961–63 8. Regency Square Apartments 16. Alvan Macauley Memorial, (now Parc Lafayette) Flying Geese 1901-75 Orleans Avenue Elmwood Cemetery, 1200 Green & Savin, 1967 Elmwood Street Marshall Fredericks, sculptor, 1955 Detroit Modern Lafayette/Elmwood Park Biking Tour Map courtesy of Google Maps 16 10 11 9 15 8 7 Dequindre Cut 6 14 12 1 5 2 13 3 4 Tour begins at the Gratiot Avenue entrance to the Dequindre Cut and ends with a ride heading north on the Dequindre Cut from East Lafayette Street.