Designer’s Paradise? An Optimist’s Vision for the Future of Detroit.
I recently had the pleasure of attending the IIT Institute of Design Strategy Conference here in Chicago. This conference tours the world, bringing bright minds together to discuss insights and trends in the many areas of design. There were a number of awesome speakers, but the one that stuck with me the most was Amy Kaherl, the Executive Director at Detroit SOUP, a non-profit organization that puts together local dinners to micro-fund creative projects in Detroit and other cities. Some of the projects Amy talked about were amazing, my favorite being a group of women making necklaces and earrings from decrepit street art which had fallen to pieces on sidewalks. The other reason this talk was so inspiring was Amy herself, who openly admitted she doesn’t have any real technical skills, but awed everyone in the audience with her undeniable passion and charisma.
Hearing Amy talk about Detroit really changed the way I saw the city. Before, I saw it as a sad news story, a city-size remnant of the glory days in American manufacturing. Amy completely changed the narrative by not asking for sympathy, but instead pointed out how much her organization was doing with so little. It really inspired me and got me fantasizing about a grand vision for the future of Detroit, which I’ll try to convey here in this post.
When you boil it down, designers are really just problem solvers, many of us drawn to the most complex of problems. Where in America is there a more unique set of problems than in Detroit? There’s a laundry list of issues, from economic to environmental, that designers would certainly love to dig into and try to resolve. You could see the city as one enormous opportunity. Think about all of the infrastructure and residential areas going largely unused! Think about a city government that would be willing to make huge policy concessions to attract members of the growing maker movement.
Look at the High Line in New York, where people turned an elevated train line in disuse into a beautiful linear park. Stories like that inspired similar projects, like the Bloomingdale Line here in Chicago. Crafty designers could find opportunities like these all over Detroit and get the projects crowdfunded. If Detroit could become the haven for a small community of motivated and ambitious creatives looking to make a real difference, I could see the story spreading and drawing the attention of America’s curious entrepreneurs and engineers. Real estate prices would definitely make the city an attractive place for anyone looking to join the grass-roots revival.
I’m imagining a midwest version of Portland, but even more art-filled and tech-forward. What if we could turn a downtrodden city into a triumph of ingenuity and community? What if Detroit became the blueprint for other cities across the globe to follow?
Ok, ok, let’s be real for a moment. I’m from Chicago and know as much about Detroit as I’ve scraped together from the dozen or so news reports and online articles I’ve come across. I’m also an interface designer and know next to nothing about government policy and public works projects. But if you went to the same conference I did and had the chance to hear Amy speak, you would know that those things don’t really matter much at all. If we all have motivation and commitment on our side, maybe we can get this ball rolling and make Detroit (and therefore America) great again!
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