Landscape Architect Articles

Rebuilding Detroit 07-25-11 | News

Rebuilding Detroit

Gregory Harris, LASN

Downtown Detroit, highlighted by the Renaissance Center ?EUR??,,????'?????<

In the heyday of Detroit, the Motor City?EUR??,,????'?????<

Detroit was consistently the fourth or fifth most populous city from the 1920s through the 1970s, dropping to the sixth largest city in the 1980s and seventh largest in the 1990s. As the auto industry moved its manufacturing plants out of Michigan and residents moved to the suburbs, Detroit?EUR??,,????'?????<

Large sections of Detroit that used to be neighborhoods are now barren. NASA Astronaut and Detroit Native Jerry Linenger proposes transforming these areas into forested green belts that separate the city from the suburbs.

Although the population has dropped, the city?EUR??,,????'?????<

Growing up in Detroit, I am shocked by the images of the city in the 21st Century, though not surprised that the city is in its current condition. Like many, my family moved from Detroit to the suburbs ?EUR??,,????'?????<

I moved away from the Detroit area in the mid 1980s to attend college out of state and at that time, the city still had more than 1.2 million residents. Plans were always pitched to revitalize the city, but these ideas rarely came to fruition. If a sensible plan ever made it from the conceptual stage to reality, landscape architects and landscape contractors would undoubtedly play a key role in the revitalization.

Jerry Linenger, an astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions and spent 132 days on the International Space Station, recently penned an editorial in The Detroit News comparing the changes being made by NASA after the retirement of the space shuttle fleet and changes necessary to rebuild Detroit.

Detroit has many nice neighborhoods that are not too far from the barren areas. Several plans for the city have called from residents living in some of the more barren areas to be relocated to the established neighborhoods in an effort to have a more concentrated city.

Linenger, also a native Detroiter, described retiring the shuttle fleet as ?EUR??,,????'?????<

He went on to say the you cannot be bold and move technology and mankind forward without letting go of the past.

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In the opinion piece, Linenger said Detroit needs to make tough choices and institute bold changes in order to move forward.

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Linenger?EUR??,,????'?????<

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He continued, ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Linenger and Bing believe relocating residents to more viable neighborhoods will allow the city to concentrate city services to these areas rather than providing public works and emergency services to sparse areas.

Linenger?EUR??,,????'?????<

The plan is bold but Detroit leaders need to act rather than talk. I think the time is right (and has been for 20 years) for an aggressive plan like this to happen. As landscape architects and landscape contractors, what do you think? Can a bold plan like this work? Please click on the link at the bottom of this article to give us your opinion.