June 28, 2018 (Detroit) — The international design competition launched by the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA)and Midtown Detroit, Inc. (MDI) to unite 12 cultural and educational institutions, creating a connected cultural district and a town square for the surrounding neighborhoods, has reached another important milestone. Three urban and landscape design teams have been selected as finalists in the competition. Each team includes Detroit-area firms as partners.

The three finalists and their partners are:

Agence Ter, Paris, France. Team partners are Akoaki, Detroit; Harley Etienne, University of Michigan; rootoftwo; University of Michigan and Detroit; and Transsolar | KlimaEngineering, Germany. Information at http://agenceter.com/en/

Mikyoung Kim Design, Boston. Team partners are James Carpenter Design Associates, New York; CDAD, Detroit; Wkshps, Quinn Evans, Detroit; Giffels Webster, Detroit; Tillett Lighting, New York; Cuseum, Boston; Transsolar | KlimaEngineering, Germany; and Schlaich Bergermann & Partners, New York. Information at  http://myk-d.com/

TEN x TEN, Minneapolis. Team partners are MASS Design Group, New York; D MET, Detroit; Atelier Ten, London; Local Projects, Boston; HR&A Advisors, New York; and Dr. Craig Wilkins, University of Michigan. Information at https://www.tenxtenstudio.com/

The three finalists will study the site and develop proposals, which will be exhibited at the DIA from Jan. 23 to April 2, 2019. They will also make public presentations on Jan. 23, 2019 at the DIA and the winning team will be announced in March 2019.

"This is a significant step forward in this exciting project. We are reimagining how Midtown's cultural institutions can create a unified, dynamic and inclusive space that facilitates connections throughout the Cultural Center and encourages visitors to engage with each other in new ways," said Salvador Salort-Pons, DIA director. "I look forward to seeing what these three teams present in January."  

The initial 44 submissions from more than 10 countries and 22 cities were narrowed down to eight firms, each of which presented their ideas to a panel of judges at a public event at the DIA on June 13 and 14.

“It is a privilege to be a part of this process,” said Cara McCarty, curatorial director, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and one of eight competition jurors. “Detroit’s dedicated citizens, rich history as a leader in architecture and the arts and as an automotive and manufacturing center have left indelible roots that cannot be erased. There is no other post-industrial city in the United States where all the stars have aligned to reinvent a truly great city. The Detroit Institute of Arts, the Cultural Center and surrounding campus are at one nexus of this renaissance.”

“I am really honored and humbled to be a part of this jury as an artist born and raised in Detroit,” said artist Mario Moore, another one of the jurors. “To be a part of this process also comes with a responsibility to choose the best team that will create something uniquely Detroit. A connecting space that considers all Detroiters and brings in people from around the world.”

"Detroit continues to be a center of design excellence and the open selection process itself was a master class in the best of urban design and landscape thinking,” said juror Maurice Cox, Urban Planning director for the City of Detroit. “It was yet another great example of Detroit’s commitment to inclusion and transparency in the really important design decisions that we make as a community. The results speak for themselves." 

In addition to McCarty, Moore and Cox, jurors included Salvador Salort-Pons, Director, President and CEO, Detroit Institute of Arts; Julie Bargmann, Associate Professor Landscape Design, University of Virginia, Founder & Principal, D.I.R.T. Studio; William Gilchrist, Planning and Building Director, City of Oakland, California; Jonathan Massey, Dean, Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan; Juanita Moore, CEO, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History; and Richard L. Rogers, President, College for Creative Studies.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how our arts and cultural district operates, and we hope that the public will take advantage of the many planned opportunities to provide feedback on what they would like to see and experience,” said Susan Mosey, Midtown Detroit, Inc. executive director.

The DIA Plaza and Midtown Cultural Connections design competition planning process is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, William Davidson Foundation, and the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation with support from the Boston Consulting Group Detroit Office led by Xavier Mosquet. 

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The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier art museums in the United States, is home to more than 60,000 works that comprise a multicultural survey of human creativity from ancient times through the 21st century. From the first Van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum (Self-Portrait, 1887), to Diego Rivera's world-renowned Detroit Industry murals (1932-33), the DIA’s collection is known for its quality, range and depth. The DIA’s mission is to create opportunities for all visitors to find personal meaning in art individually and with each other.

Programs are made possible with support from residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

Follow the DIA on Facebook YouTube Twitter Instagram.

Midtown Detroit, Inc. (MDI) is a nonprofit planning and development agency charged with revitalization of Detroit’s Woodward Corridor. Representing over 100 area stakeholders, including Detroit’s anchor educational, medical and cultural institutions, MDI provides public space maintenance and security services; marketing support; technical assistance; infrastructure and real estate development; small business support; grant administration; and arts programming for the district.

Follow MDI on Facebook Twitter.

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Agence Ter and their Core Team:

Agence Ter (www.agenceter.com) are landscape architects and urban designers, internationally known for their creative contemporary design. Based in Paris, France and Karlsruhe, Germany, with recently opened offices in Los Angles, Barcelona and Shanghai, Agence Ter projects around the world demonstrate a creative, sustainable response to the global challenges of urban development. Since its creation in 1986, Agence Ter has been involved with designing the public realm. Their holistic design approach is based upon a profound respect for each particular project’s context, examining all factors (climate, cultural, historical, ecological, geographical, economical, etc.) to inform an innovative and creative design; making places of outstanding quality that are good to be in. Role:  Landscape architecture

Akoaki (www.akoaki.com) is an award-winning architecture and design firm based in Detroit, Michigan. Since 2008, they have established a reputation for innovative and resonant projects that build on the unique social, spatial, and material realities of place. They are experts at creating inclusive, unrestrictive, and dynamic cultural environments in the public realm. Their work is actualized at a range of scales, from ephemeral interventions and programming to the design of buildings and neighborhoods. With each opportunity, they embrace aesthetic invention and advance sustainable, culturally calibrated strategies for social inclusion, and urban activation. Akoaki was founded by Anya Sirota and Jean Louis Farges Role:  Local architecture firm, animation, programming

rootoftwo, LLC (www.rootoftwo.com) is an award-winning research and practice-driven hybrid design studio, led by Cézanne Charles and John Marshall. They instigate projects that test the materiality and consequences of technology at the city-scale; making social objects, experiences, and works for the public realm which engage participants in civic future-making. John is associate professor with tenure and program director for the MDES in Integrative Design at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design University of Michigan. Cézanne is director of creative industries at Creative Many Michigan. Role:  Engagement, interactive technology-led design

Harley Etienne (www.taubmancollege.umich.edu/faculty/directory/harley-etienne) is an Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He teaches in the areas of urban community development, inner-city revitalization, neighborhood change, urban poverty, and qualitative research issues in planning. Etienne’s research focuses primarily on the intersection of social institutions and their relationship to processes of urban neighborhood change. Role:  Local urban planner

Transsolar | KlimaEngineering (www.transolar.com) is an international climate engineering firm determined to create exceptional, highly comfortable indoor and outdoor spaces with a positive environmental impact. They believe that the very measures taken to create remarkable architecture can simultaneously enhance human experience and minimize resource use. To them, sustainability is not separate from design, but an indispensable component that enhances the experience of the built environment. Their engineers are not just experts in basic physical principles; their creativity enables the collaboration necessary to develop deeply integrated comfort and energy concepts. Beginning from a project’s earliest conception, they work alongside the client, architect, design team, and the most vital participants of all – the occupants. Their teams are leaders in holistic, climate-responsive design with offices in München, Stuttgart, New York and Paris. Role:  Climate engineering, comfort in the public realm

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Mikyoung Kim Design and their Core Team:

Over the course of two decades, Mikyoung Kim Design (www.myk-d.com) has crafted an exceptional body of work that redefines the discipline of landscape architecture. The firm’s award-winning portfolio creates a fresh, distinctive approach - one that reveals and weaves together the art and science of landscape architecture. In the city, their work celebrates the transforming conditions of water and light to create memorable destinations. A hallmark of Mikyoung Kim Design’s work is the integration of sculptural innovation with the ecological systems that shape the urban landscape. Role:  Landscape architecture

James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA) (www.jcdainc.com) offer a unique synthesis of creative ideas and technical expertise that straddles the fields of art, architecture and engineering, while forging creative implementations of innovative technologies that result in civic spaces that are engaging and timeless. Led by James Carpenter, JCDA is a unique cross-disciplinary design firm working at the intersection of architecture, art, design, and engineering. The firm is recognized for its distinctive use of natural light, which is evident across its practice: a focus that results in design that reflects and enhances the unique attributes of a site; the individual experience of space; and the manifestation of natural light in the built environment. Role:  Architecture, urban design

Quinn Evans (QEA) (www.quinnevans.com) is a leader in adapting buildings for residential and mixed uses, and in designing new buildings that strengthen the existing urban fabric. They embrace the opportunity to preserve, to renew and create spaces that meet contemporary expectations. QEA’s multi-occupancy, mixed-use experience includes hotel, office, restaurant/bar, entertainment, and multifamily residential uses in small and large, historic and nonhistoric buildings. Their design work includes restoration of historic spaces and creation of contemporary spaces. The designs meet the requirements of public and private funding sources, and in many cases qualify for historic preservation tax credits. Role:  Local architect

For 20 years, the Community Development Advocates of Detroit (CDAD) (www.cdad-online.org) has served as the leading voice for Detroit’s community development industry.  With over 100 dues-paying members, CDAD advocates for public policies and resources that advance the work of nonprofit, community-based organizations in Detroit neighborhoods who are engaged in physical development, land use planning, community organizing, and other activities designed to stabilize and revitalize the quality of life in Detroit. Role:  Civic engagement

Giffels Webster (www.giffelswebster.com) is a firm of civil engineers, landscape architects, planners, surveyors and GIS specialists. Role:  Local engineering

Wkshps (www.wkshps.com) is a multidisciplinary design workshop that crafts identities for art institutions, public spaces, non-profits, and global brands alike. Role:  Branding

Linnaea Tillett Lighting Design Associates, Inc. (www.tillettlighting.com) crafts highly nuanced lighting programs. Founded in 1983, it has a reputation for artistry, technical innovation and functionality. Founder/Principal Linnaea Tillett holds a doctorate in environmental psychology. Her innovative approach incorporates a thorough understanding of the perceptual, behavioral and psychological effects of light. She has extensive experience in lighting landscape, infrastructure, and private and public sculpture collections. Role:  Lighting

Cuseum (www.cuseum.com) helps museums, attractions, and nonprofits drive visitor, member, and donor engagement. Role:  Museum engagement technology

Transsolar | KlimaEngineering (www.transolar.com) Role:  Engineering, sustainability

Schlaich Bergermann & Partners (www.sbp.de/en/offices/new-york) are independent consulting engineers. Role:  Engineering

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TEN x TEN and their Core Team:

TEN x TEN (www.tenxtenstudio.com) is a future-focused landscape architecture and urbanism practice grounded by a shared passion for curiosity and creativity. Their work explores spaces, materials, and ecologies across all scales through asking questions, testing, listening and remaining open. Their design approach aims to elevate everyday human experience through a deep respect for the authenticity of people, culture and ecology. They have extensive experience working across the disciplines of architecture, landscape, and public art on a range of project types and sizes, from large-scale public urban projects with complex client groups to campuses, park, plazas, gardens, and art installations. Role:  Landscape architecture, urban strategy

MASS Design Group (www.massdesigngroup.org) is an award winning architecture, design and research firm most recently winning the 2017 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for providing high-quality architecture design services to projects globally and in the U.S. They bring expertise in participatory planning, community engagement, and urban redevelopment projects such as the master plan for Poughkeepsie, New York, a 150-unit affordable housing project in the Mattapan Neighborhood of Boston and the Memorial to Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Role:  Architecture, civic participation, community impact

Local Projects (www.localprojects.com) is an impressive team of 60+ multi-disciplinary, extraordinarily talented, and unique individuals with experience across a range of design backgrounds. They are located in lower Manhattan and work both regionally and internationally. At the heart of their creative direction is their Founder and Principal, Jake Barton, a storytelling visionary who has first-hand involvement on each and every project that comes through our doors. In addition to Jake, their creative direction is led by a team of four internationally recognized design thought leaders in media, physical, technical, and visual design. Role:  Experience design, interactivity, public art strategy

D MET (www.dmetstudio.com) is an award-winning, design-intensive architectural studio located in Midtown, Detroit. D MET is known in Detroit for bringing a fresh sensibility to the design of contemporary architecture and urbanism. They specialize in an informed, collaborative design process that presses on how things are made in order to create well-crafted, and affordable spaces. Their body of work includes an array of ground-breaking projects—large and small, permanent and temporary—for several of the organizations, leaders, and entrepreneurs driving Detroit’s renaissance. Role:  Local architectural support, programming

Architect, artist, academic, and activist Dr. Craig L. Wilkins (www.taubmancollege.umich.edu/faculty/directory/craig-wilkins) currently serves on the faculty at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. A 2017 Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum National Design Award winner, his creative practice includes both written and built work. Currently, creative director of THE WILKINS PROJECT, the former director of the Detroit Community Design Center specializes in engaging communities in collaborative and participatory design processes with the understanding that publicly accessible and responsive design can radically transform the trajectory of lives and environments, especially for those on the margins of society. His award-winning design work has been featured in the Washington Post, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, The Atlantic, and Fast Company, among others. Role:  Civic participation, public art strategy, social justice

Atelier Ten (www.atelierten.com) is a collaborative, interdisciplinary and innovative firm of environmental design consultants and lighting designers focused on delivering sustainability to the planned and built environment. Their core objective is to meet the needs of our clients by developing well-integrated projects with simple systems that work to increase comfort, reduce energy consumption and contribute back to the greater environment. Role:  Sustainable futures, green infrastructure

HR&A Advisors (www.hraadvisors.com) has over 40 years of experience advising on complex real estate & economic development projects in cities across the world. Role:  Economic sustainability, market strategy, programming support