Detroit Modern Lafayette/Elmwood Park Tour

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 collaborative 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 superblock 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 Railroad (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 architects 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 Born in Latvia, Gunnar Birkerts came to America in 1949 and began working with Eero Saarinen on the General Motors Technical Center in 1951. Birkerts joined Minoru Yamasaki s firm in 1959 and was chief designer for the Reynolds Metals Building (1959) in Detroit. Birkerts taught architecture at the University of Michigan from 1961 to 1990. He gained international acclaim after establishing his own firm in Birmingham, Michigan in 1963. Carl Koch & Associates, Boston Carl Koch graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1937. A pioneer in pre-fabricated housing, Koch designed the TechBuilt Housing System which utilizes standardized modules for floor, walls, and roof. Over three thousand of these affordable homes were built across the United States in the 1950s including one in Rochester Hills, Michigan. He later experimented with prestressed concrete with his Techcrete system. Alfred Caldwell, Chicago Trained as an architect, Alfred Caldwell became a landscape designer working with Jens Jensen, creator of the Prairie Style of landscape architecture, for the Chicago park system. Caldwell worked with Ludwig Mies van de Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and collaborated on the campus landscape design. Caldwell s Lily Pool near Lincoln Park in Chicago is a National Historic Landmark. Marshall Fredericks A native of Illinois, Fredricks was a student of the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles and taught at the Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1932 to 1942. He produced a large body of public art including Belle Isle s Barbour Memorial Fountain (1936) in Detroit. His work is known nationwide. Jude T. Fusco A graduate of the University of Toronto, Fusco established his Ferndale, Michigan-based firm in 1962. His commissions included a public housing project in Pontiac (1969) and Trolley Plaza (1980), an innovative 28-story concrete Detroit apartment building. Green & Savin Joseph Savin, a University of Michigan (U-M) graduate, was associated with Eero Saarinen and Associates from 1956 58 before partnering in 1960 with Isaac Green, a U-M and Illinois Institute of Technology graduate. They designed a number of apartment buildings. Gould, Moss & Joseph Nathaniel Gould had a long career in the Detroit area, designing the Wayne County Training School (1920) in Northville and Eloise Hospital (1932) in Westland. Jacqueline Joseph, one of Michigan s few female Modern architects, was a resident of Lafayette Park. The firm was known for its Detroit area schools. Kamp & Mayotte Ervin E. Kamp, a 1951 University of Michigan graduate, had his own firm from 1958 to 1964. Kamp Mayotte & DiComo was its successor firm. Ronald E. Mayotte later had an office in Troy, Michigan. The firm designed Parkvue Hospital in Westland, Michigan, and a number of churches in Southeast Michigan. Lorenz & Paski Willard Lorenz and Bernard Paski established their firm in 1960. Lorenz was a graduate of the University of Michigan and taught at the Detroit Institute of Technology. Paski received his training at the University of Detroit. Madison & Madison Architects, Cleveland A graduate of Howard University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he studied under Walter Gropius, Robert Madison is believed to be the first licensed African American architect in Ohio. Madison and his brother Julian, a civil engineer, formed the firm in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1954. With five branch offices, including one in Detroit, it became one of the largest African Americanowned architectural firms in the United States. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Chicago One of the greatest architects of the twentieth century, Mies van de Rohe, along with Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, was a master of the International style. Mies headed the Bauhaus school in Germany in the late 1930s. As war approached, he left Europe in 1937 to head the architecture department at the Illinois Institute of Technology (ITT) in Chicago. His best work includes the glass Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois (1946), Crown Hall at ITT (1956) where he introduced the glass curtain wall to America, and the Seagram s Building in New York City (1958). Eberle M. Smith Associates Smith began his career with Albert Kahn Associates and established his own firm in 1942. He became nationally known for his progressive, student-centered school designs. In Michigan, Smith designed Edsel Ford High School (1955) and Henry Ford Community College (1961) in Dearborn and Lincoln Park and Flint High Schools (1960). Clifford N. Wright & Associates A graduate of Lawrence Institute of Technology, Wright established his firm in 1949. He also partnered with Richard Pollman and Irving Palmquist to create Home Planners, Inc., a Detroit-based firm that designed hundreds of Modern house plans for the average homeowner and published them in a series of house plan books between 1950 and 1970. Wright contributed house plan designs to several national magazines, such as House & Garden and Better Homes & Gardens.

Lafayette/Elmwood Park Biking Tour 1. The Pavillion 1 Lafayette Plaisance Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1959 9. Hyde Park Hyde Park Drive Eberle M. Smith Associates, 1966 2. Lafayette Park Townhouses and Court Houses Nicolet Place and Joliet Place Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1958 60 10. East Park Bryanston Crescent Kamp & Mayotte, 1966 3. Walter P. Chrysler Elementary School 1445 East Lafayette Avenue Gould, Moss & Joseph, 1963 11. Regency Towers 1935 Chene Court Jude T. Fusco, 1969 4. 1300 Lafayette East 1300 East Lafayette Street Gunnar Birkerts, 1961 64 12. Saint John s United Presbyterian Church 1961 East Lafayette Avenue Madison & Madison, 1966 5. Lafayette Towers 1301 Orleans Avenue Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1963 13. Martin Luther King Homes 1900 East Lafayette Avenue Metropolitan Detroit Citizens Development Authority, developer, 1969 6. Cherboneau Place South 1515-75 Cherboneau Place Clifford N. Wright & Associates, 1964 14. Elmwood Park Plaza 750 Chene Street Carl Koch & Associates, 1973 75 7. Chateaufort Place Townhouse Apartments 1500-53 Chateaufort Place Lorenz & Paski, 1961 63 15. Calvary Baptist Church 1000 McDougall Street Gunnar Birkerts & Associates, 1977 8. Regency Square Apartments (now Parc Lafayette) 1901-75 Orleans Avenue Green & Savin, 1967 16. Alvan Macauley Memorial, Flying Geese Elmwood Cemetery, 1200 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 1 5 12 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.

michiganmodern.org For more information about Detroit s historic sites, visit detroitmi.gov/hdab Photos courtesy of the Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Board This brochure was written and designed as part of a Certified Local Government grant to the City of Detroit by the State Historic Preservation Office. Partial funding has also been provided by the City of Detroit through the Detroit City Council s Historic Designation Advisory Board. This publication has been financed in part with federal funds from the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The State Historic Preservation Office receives federal financial assistance for identification and protection of historic properties. LAFPK-136-110721 Equal Housing Employer/Lender