Detroit Design 139

Neighborhood Planning

Rosa Parks Clairmount

Neighborhood Framework + Landscape Stewardship Plan

Existing city-owned property will be adaptively reused to create new commercial assets.

Project Details

  • Location: Rosa Parks & Clairmount
  • Project Size: .50 SQ MI
  • Client: City of Detroit
  • Architects:
  • Gensler
  • Hood Design Studio

Rosa Parks/Clairmount Neighborhood Revitalization Framework

The plan focuses on neighborhoods surrounding the vacant Herman Kiefer Hospital Campus and is bordered by the Lodge Freeway, and the Boston Edison and Virginia Park historic districts. At its most vibrant, the neighborhood had a lively walkable commercial corridor dominated by African American owned businesses along 12th street. After the 1967 uprising, the 12th street commercial corridor was eventually razed and replaced with a new shopping and community center and the street was widened and renamed Rosa Parks Boulevard. Recent disinvestment has resulted in a large amount of vacancy. The Rosa Parks/Clairmount Neighborhood Framework Plan will support stabilization and growth through a landscape framework, enhanced livability through beautification strategies and increased connectivity through cycling and pedestrian interventions. Innovative mobility strategies will reconnect this community to surrounding employers and economic development such as the planned Motown Museum and Henry Ford Health Systems Campus expansions. In 2014, the City of Detroit selected a developer who will rehabilitate historic homes and reimagine the Herman Kiefer Hospital Campus.