Detroit’s Jefferson Chalmers Neighborhood Community Development Proposal:

Power to the Community

Media: Digital Drawing and Digital Rendering

Year of Project: 2020 Winter Semester

How was it Done: Independently

Context: University of Michigan Arch 442 Undergraduate Studio 4

Based in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood located on Detroit’s Eastside, this project is a proposed strategy for local residents to rebuild their local environment and develop community-driven self-sufficiency through the learning, sharing and implementation of skills within their very own homes. With money from the adjacent North Fiat Chrysler Plant’s $2.5 billion dollar expansion project acquired through Detroit’s Community Benefits Ordinance, the project seeks to create interactive spaces for local residents to use and enjoy communally while also providing them with some of the resources they had requested in their own collective neighborhood appeal to Fiat Chrysler.

Initial Research of the Jefferson Chalmers site was the first step to developing the implementation strategy. Through an assessment of the neighborhood’s local housing stock, commercial locations and vacant space, a general site analysis was created in order to gain a better understanding of the area’s local context and locational relationship to the Fiat Chrysler expansion project. Analyzing the community’s wants and request that were proposed to the automaker in addition to the prior site research lead to the creation of the proposed land use map, which dictated the design and direction of the later stages of the project.

The Community House concepts help to illustrate the role that vacant or abandoned homes can play within the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood once restored. With endless possibilities to be used in a wide variety of ways to educate, entertain or even accommodate local residents, the community house concept plays an integral part in the development of self-sufficiency and unity within the neighborhood.

The Jefferson Chalmers Unity Trail embodies the changes to outdoor space that could result from the funding acquired from the Benefits Ordinance. With a focus on creating collaborative space that local residents can use year-round, the trail portrays a series of ways the community could utilize their exterior space to breed togetherness and between residents and families who might other be separated by the empty green space that stipple the neighborhood.

When the Community House and Unity Trail concepts come together, they create vibrantly bustling neighborhoods that can support community interaction, education and self-sufficiency for the local residents. With funding acquired from their Community Benefits Agreement provided by Fiat Chrysler, the Jefferson Chalmers community can begin to create spaces for sharing skills, resources, space and time while developing life long relationships all within the bounds of their own neighborhood.