Taubman College is excited to announce the inaugural recipients of Pressing Matters grants. The new research incentive funding program will support work that advances the state of knowledge and/or practice…

Led by María Arquero de Alarcón, associate professor of architecture and urban and regional planning, students explored Wahnabezee — or Belle Isle, as the island park is known today — through oral and written histories, archival material, maps, photographs, and site visits to gain a multi-layered reading of the island and its hidden stories.

Inspired by Nuit Blanche arts fes­ti­vals from around the world, DLEC­TRIC­ITY is a spec­tac­u­lar out­door visual light and art cel­e­bra­tion that takes place in Detroit’s cul­tural cen­ter and DTE’s Bea­con Park Fri­day and Sat­ur­day from 7 p.m. to midnight. 

Detroit, like many cities, is in great need of housing that’s both accessible and appropriate for its residents — especially the 40 percent of Black Detroiters who don’t have access to a car.

Much of Akoaki’s other current work is centered on Detroit’s historic North End, a once-thriving entertainment district that today retains few physical markers of that legacy.

“Environmental factors tend to be left out of the planning process, as well as the needs and wants of community — especially frontline communities and communities of color like mine — so I am going into this field to make sustainable, equitable change.” ~ Dorothy Perales

University of Michigan experts are available to discuss the weekend flooding in the Detroit metro area. The flooding provides a dramatic reminder that the frequency and intensity of severe storms are expected to continue to increase in the Great Lakes region due to climate change.

In their dual roles as practicing architects and college professors, Craig Borum and Jen Maigret also have developed a creative conduit for ideas, talent, and collaboration that benefits Taubman College students and graduates, as well as their firm’s clients and community stakeholders.

By connecting spirituality and planning, June Manning Thomas says planners can transcend the profession’s limitations: “I’ve never expected that urban planning could solve deeply entrenched social problems that are embedded within bigger forces because urban planning is tied to bureaucracies that are dependent on what policies do or do not exist.”