This juncture of vision and process is where Williams feels she can have the greatest impact. It’s a skill set she honed during her studies at Taubman College. “One of the first things that we learned in our first year was about the planning process,” she recalls. “I don’t think I appreciated how invaluable that was until I graduated.”

As a commercial artery, the Detroit River built and bankrolled U-M; as the site of major engineering projects, it inspired the university’s pioneering naval architecture program; as an international border, it drew university alumni into the Underground Railroad’s anti-slavery networks; and as a damaged but recovering ecosystem, it continues to inspire the university’s ecology and sustainability research.

Interior lighting in the space is mediated by a combination of 9 shades and glosses of white pigments, producing a visual richness and reflective reverb that ensures every Instagrammer and foodie has perfect lighting for social media dispersion.

“We found that placemaking had a very positive impact on the growth and development and the resurgence of urban communities, really throughout the throughout the world, but especially here in Detroit, and that it really helped to drive the change in conversation.”

Their mother moved to Ann Arbor for what was supposed to be a 2-year fellowship at the University of Michigan. But the entire family fell in love with the university, the community, and has remained connected to it for 34 years.

Cadillac Urban Gardens doesn’t just grow produce. It grow leaders and environmental stewards, says U-M alumna Sarah Clark, who founded the garden. Clark started working with Dolores Perales in 2013 when she was a sophomore at Detroit Cristo Rey High School. Perales went on to earn dual master’s degrees from U-M.

Museum founder Olayami Dabls, an artist and storyteller who grew up in Detroit, wanted the museum’s exterior to tell the same story as the strands and jars of colorful beads displayed inside. Since 1998, the African Bead Museum has drawn visitors from around the world. He partnered with U-M recently on the AfricanFuturist Greenhouse, designed to mimic bead patterns.

This past spring the farm grew 14,000 tomato transplants in collaboration with Keep Growing Detroit for distribution in that organization’s Garden Resource Program that supports over 2,000 urban and community gardens in the city.

“The pandemic shined a light on the fact that digital access is both a real requirement for modern living, and a cause of inequity for those who don’t have it. With so many aspects of our lives taking place remotely, that digital divide seemed to get bigger.”

~ DeAndré Calvert