• Design Spotlight,  Featured,  Print Edition

    At the exchange of ideas

    The exchange of ideas is a powerful thing. It has driven innovation and disruption, inspired revolution and change, and galvanized communities and movements. It has taken on many forms over the centuries, from spoken and written word to transcontinental rail and digital platform, as time has welcomed new eras in communication and in the movement of people, ideas, and things.…

  • Featured

    To set a soul on fire

    In a 1942-built bungalow in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, the conceptual design and speakeasy vibes of its recently transformed lower-level sounds like music. There is a gradual swell in volume as one descends the stairwell beneath neon lights that speak like lyrics to an expressive landscape, gesturing to rhythm and tone of ambient composition. The bright glow of magenta and…

  • Featured,  Form,  Print Edition

    Bold concepts

    Conceptual design is a process, an ideation, and a framework. It is a creative solution and strategic plan that explores the potential of space, of experience, and of expression. It is a foundation in which client vision and lifestyle needs, form and function, organization and relationship, are given visual—abstract and technical—shape and express a design language distinctive to its users…

  • Design Spotlight,  Print Edition

    Megan Martin-Campbell, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, CSI CDT

    Project Architect, Project Leader | INFORM Studio Detroit, Michigan   For Megan Martin-Campbell, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, CSI CDT, project architect and project leader at INFORM Studio in Detroit, Michigan, design is an expression of a point of view. Metaphorically, design is a conversation, a dialog between people, materials, and spatial relationships. It can also speak to the larger importance…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Invisible, by design

    Though the portfolio of the design-driven, multidisciplinary firm of M1DTW Architects in Detroit, Michigan reflects a distinct breadth of commissioned works from the design of objects, artifacts, identities, and spaces, there is a commonality to the principles and tenets woven throughout each project. There is a sensitivity to resource and material, an intentionality to use and reuse, and a drive…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Print Edition

    LoveITDetroit

    In 2015, Detroit’s creative potential was recognized on an international stage with its designation as a UNESCO City of Design. It is a designation that not only recognizes a long history and legacy of creativity and innovation, but also a forward-thinking vision championing design-driven businesses and their role as a cultural, social, and economic catalyst in a larger regional and…

  • Featured,  Form,  Print Edition

    Eclectic flavor

    In Downtown Detroit, a city known for its community of designers, industrialists, creatives, and culinary artists, this adaptive reuse of a 1940s-designed Art Deco Streamline Moderne building near Woodward Avenue along Parker’s Alley is a thoughtful curation of the old and the new. Realized by a collaborative design, build, and creative team led by the award-winning firm of McIntosh Poris…

  • Design Spotlight,  Featured,  Print Edition

    The Caterpillar

    In Core City, Detroit, urbanism is defined in unconventional terms. For the creative and technical minds behind the neighborhood development at the intersection of Grand River Ave. and Warren Ave., it is about investing in intentional and thoughtful ideas grounded in reality to create a place rather than a market or projects motivated by demand. It is about renovating and…

  • Design Spotlight,  Form,  Print Edition

    In conversation: Jason Keen

    Visual Artist, Photographer Detroit, Michigan With an award-winning portfolio of work, Jason Keen is a Detroit, Michigan-based photographer who documents the built environment and has spent the last decade capturing the iconic design and architectural work of firms like Gensler, Stantec, Smithgroup, Olson Kundig, ROSSETTI, Mathison | Mathison, Moody Nolan, PLY+, Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects or LOHA, McIntosh Poris Associates, HOK,…