Source: School of Environment and Sustainability
SEAS master’s students focused their capstone project on creating landscape improvements for the East Village of Detroit. From left: Mujie Sui, Devin Derr, Geoffrey Batterbee, Anna Peppet and Minxuan Zhang.
SEAS master’s students focused their capstone project on creating landscape improvements for the East Village of Detroit. From left: Mujie Sui, Devin Derr, Geoffrey Batterbee, Anna Peppet and Minxuan Zhang.
A team of School for Environment and Sustainability master’s students received the 2026 Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the Michigan Association of Planning for their place-based work in Detroit.
Geoffrey Batterbee (MS/MURP ’26) Devin Derr (MLA ’26), Anna Peppet (MS ’26), Mujie Sui (MS/MUD ’26) and Minxuan Zhang (MLA ’26) were recognized for their capstone project, “East Village Catalyst Plan: Building Community-Engaged Resilience in Detroit.”
The project was done in collaboration with AboutFaceDetroit, a nonprofit organization focused on revitalizing Detroit’s East Village, a historically underserved neighborhood on Detroit’s east side that has experienced significant disinvestment over the years.
AboutFaceDetroit enlisted the help of the SEAS master’s students to create landscape improvements in the East Village that would “enhance the neighborhood’s social character and ecological resilience.”
“The neighborhood is a very urban space, and AboutFaceDetroit wants to beautify it by bringing more green spaces into the community,” said Lisa DuRussel (BS ’02, MLA ’06), advisor to the master’s project and a clinical associate professor of practice and engagement in the Master of Landscape Architecture program at SEAS. “They’re working with residents to transform the East Village into something that is more reflective of what they want their future neighborhood to be.”
