The symposium, hosted by the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, is the culmination of the Michigan-Mellon Project on the Egalitarian Metropolis. Sessions are open to the entire University of Michigan community and beyond.

Five projects will receive funding in the latest round of Pressing Matters grants, a research incentive funding program that supports research advancing the state of practice in Taubman College’s various disciplines and forges new interdisciplinary opportunities. The projects include one that aims to reconstruct Black Bottom, a thriving Afro-American community sacrificed for urban renewal projects in the 1950s and 1960s.

Now in its concluding year, the project is evolving into an Urban Humanities Initiative at the University of Michigan, which will continue to connect humanities researchers, planners, and architects, along with community leaders outside the university, as they work toward a fairer future.

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.”

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.

Participants toured locations such as the Detroit Riverfront with Professor Maria Arquero, the Packard Plant with Professor Robert Adams, and Historic Fort Wayne with Detroit Historical Society curator Jeremy Dimmick.

“People talked about the Michigan Difference. Part of that is U-M’s worldwide network of alums. I didn’t understand that until after I graduated.”

~ Khalilah Burt Gaston

“And I got to Detroit and I immediately knew it. I was a student, but I knew I needed to be here. It resonated with who I am as a person.”
~ Yvette Rock