Creative
Detroit?
Re-imagining The Motor City
Neal Baj and Taylor Brydges
Why Detroit?
 Post-Industrial City
 Epitome of Financial Crisis
 Post-Recession Recovery?
Where is Detroit?
http://geology.com/satellite/cities/map/detroit-map.gif
Where is Detroit?
http://clickmetrodetroit.info/images/Click_city_M_detroit_map_net.jpg
Boom Time Detroit
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUbsw28PC
pA
Postwar Expansion
 Postwar era saw extensive freeway
construction
 This opened up the Motor City,
connecting Detroit to the growing
region
 Period of optimism and growth for
the city
Detroit in Decay
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Qp5io9U
qY
Detroit’s Decline
 Departure of automotive industry
 Mass exodus of people and jobs to
suburban municipalities
 Growing unrest within the Detroit
population
Impact of Recession
 Decline in innovation (Chan, 2011)
 $20 Billion Dollar Deficit (The
Citizens Research Council)
 Conflicting discussions on how to
move forward
What Remains: Focus on
Architecture
 Abandoned districts in the city
 The need to preserve the existing
architecture
 How can existing architecture be
leveraged in redevelopment?
Creative Approaches to
Redevelopment
 The work of Richard Florida (Rise of
the Creative Class, Who’s Your
City?, The Great Reset)
 Manchester and the CIDS
(O’Connor and Gu, 2010)
 Create Berlin to Creative
Balitmore (Evans, 2009)
Creative Problems
 “Creativity is the new black” (Peck,
2008, p.1)
 Neoliberal inequality (Zimmerman,
2008)
 “Creative class theory has a dark-
side” (Donegan and Lowe, 2008)
Is Creativity The Way Out?
 What is Detroit doing to innovate
out of crisis?
 The Detroit Creative Cultural
Corridor
 Detroit ‘Make It Here’ campaign
 Creative Cities 2.0 Summit 2008
Imported From Detroit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc
Discussion
 If you were the Mayor of Detroit,
would you pursue creative city
strategies?
 What place does Detroit’s history
have in planning the economy of
the future?