John R 2660, carefully woven into city life

In 2016 we were invited by Quicken Loans’ development arm, Bedrock, to design four corner buildings for their City Modern project at Brush Park. This will be the first large-scale housing project in Detroit in over 65 years, since Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park. Instead of leveling and displacing an entire community, as the Modernist project did in 1956, the development will be stitched into the existing street fabric, serving as a bridge between downtown and midtown, and bringing much-needed housing to Detroit. We saw this project as a platform to further expand the idea that buildings should be carefully woven into city life, not parachuted in. If done right, a new complex could allow life to spill into the streets – an infusion, rather than a walled-in subtraction.

The quartet of anchor buildings are variations on a single idea, meant to reflect the low-slung character of the neighborhood. The project adds density while valuing the architectural past. Inspired by Detroit’s urban palette, each of the four buildings is clad in materials commonly found throughout the city – brick, wood, and metal. Coupling one of these signature materials with a unique form gives each building its own spirit and adds aesthetic diversity to the comprehensive Brush Park master plan. The building steps up in height, ranging from three to six stories, referencing not only the variety of different types of buildings within proximity downtown, but also the proximity to single family, residential adjacencies. For John R 2660 specifically, the height steps up to five stories at the southern end, facing downtown, and steps down to three stories to align with the historic Victorian across the street.

For Detroit, we were inspired to embrace a richer material palette, and wrapped the building in a rhythm of thin vertical boards of western red cedar and floor to-ceiling windows. The wooden pieces bring texture; the glass brings openness for the ground-floor retail. We’re playing with horizontals and verticals on the façade, which is expressed as a series of horizontal bands at each floor level that are reinforced by a metal coping detail at each floor level.

As the building steps back, this gesture is further emphasized through the exaggerated horizontality of each one of the floor levels. This is then juxtaposed by orienting the wood vertically, which creates a duality between the vertical and horizontals. The use of dark mullions, additionally offer contrast against the wood, while metal panels above and below the windows, further reinforce that the vertical break of the window is continuous.

The main residential lobby entrance is at the southern end of the building on John R street, which is situated alongside the retail units that occupy the majority of the ground floor plate. On the exterior of the building along John R street and Alfred Street, the building carves in creating an overhang of the second level which cantilevers out over the street. By expanding the bandwidth of the sidewalk we create a lively pedestrian thoroughfare and provide shade and shelter from the elements.

Moving up into the units, there’s a mix of studios, one bedrooms, and two bedrooms ranging from 450 - 1000 sq ft.. An important feature that brings openness and light to the interiors, is floor to ceiling glazing, and nine and a half foot ceiling. Another strategy use to maximize the space, was to push the bathrooms and kitchens against the corridor wall, as a way to open up the living rooms and bedrooms and main living spaces as much as possible to solar exposure along the outside wall. On the third floor is a shared roof deck for residents, oriented across from the historic mansion offering views of the surrounding area.