• Featured,  Print Edition

    Great Lakes By Design: Ergonomics

    CONTENTS DESIGN CORNER 16 Pergola | the freestanding architectural workspace solution that also functions as an office space divider by Haworth Inc. 19 Prospect | the one-of-a-kind coffee table featuring the unique shapes and grain patterns of harvested Ash trees presented by Room & Board Inc.   DESIGN SPOTLIGHT 22 Elevated design | the innovative company leveraging its elevator interiors to create workspace design solutions for…

  • Design Spotlight,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Kemba Braynon, AIA, NOMA

    Senior Architect Quinn Evans | Ann Arbor, Michigan   Stories are often a powerful tool and intangible link of past, present, and future. They speak to the collective cultural memory as well as the personal, and the preservation of which can often leave an influential echo in the minds of those who come long after they have been written. In…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured

    In conversation: Graham Stanton

    In an industry disrupted by the cancellation and rescheduling of events due to COVID-19, Chelsea Farrugia and Robin Wilson, co-founders and co-owners of Graham Stanton Co. in Detroit, Michigan, pushed forward with their new business venture, navigating the uncertainties that came with it. Graham Stanton, a woman-owned, event experience firm offering full-service event planning and floral design, was first established…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured

    Freshwater future

    As a collective of fresh water that houses more than 20 percent of North America’s freshwater volume, the Great Lakes hold a unique status among American waterways. They require special consideration and treatment, especially in the face of climate change’s adverse effects. While the Great Lakes have a long, natural history of water level fluctuation, recent levels signal a decidedly…

  • Featured,  Form

    City Lights Detroit

    In Troy, Michigan, tucked within the Michigan Design Center’s rich campus of design resources for hobbyists and professionals alike, there is an exclusive provider of products by Visual Comfort & Co., a Texas-based resource for designer lighting that has been a leader in its industry since the late 1980s. City Lights Detroit brings the premier offerings of Visual Comfort’s American…

  • J.L. Hudson Company, Hudson’s, passenger elevators, DesRosiers Architects Inc., Michigan, Bloomfield Hills, Louis DesRosiers AIA, Detroit history, Detroit Elevator Company, Vogue Furniture, Royal Oak
    Featured,  Form

    Restore in residential 

    Throughout the 20th century, The J.L. Hudson Company, or Hudson’s, department stores were fixtures in Detroit’s history as a fashion and design capital, and played a major role in holiday shopping traditions and style development alike.  Opened on Woodward Avenue in 1911, the Hudson’s department store in downtown Detroit would eventually grow into a massive, 25-story structure that was the…

  • '71 Barracuda Front End Facelift Concept," 1968, Donald Hood, American; crayon, gouache, ink, felt marker, prismacolor, pastel on vellum. Collection of Robert L. Edwards and Julie Hyde-Edwards.
    Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Form

    Detroit style

    Between the mass production of accessible, timeless car designs, and the artistic innovation that pushed the automotive industry into each new age, Detroit’s influence on American car design, technology, and manufacturing has remained since the turn of the 20th century when Henry Ford touched down his Detroit Automobile Company and Charles Brady King test drove the first self-propelled carriage along…

  • Scavolini, Michigan Design Center, island kitchen, photo by Jeff Aisen
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    Scavolini in Detroit

    A rich vein of high Italian style, both rustic and traditional, and sleek and contemporary, permeates international interior design markets, including that in the American Midwest. Since its founding in Pesaro Italy in 1961, Scavolini has been a brand synonymous with stylistically relevant, highly functional and Italian-made living arrangements. It is known for its ability to transform kitchens and bathrooms…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Form

    Preservation by design

    Detroit’s architectural fabric is rich with unique historical structures—some recognizable, others more discreet—that have continually been re-purposed for the modern-day city. They also double as keenly protected sites for historic conservationists, one of which was recently recognized by both the Michigan chapter of the AIA and Michigan Historic Preservation Network for its sensitive design and rehabilitation of two historic buildings…