Fitzgerald Neighborhood Revitalization Plan

CLIENT

City of Detroit

LOCATION

Detroit, Michigan

YEAR

2018

Bird's eye view rendering of Fitzgerald neighborhood with proposed greenway and various landscape typologies implemented across vacant lots within neighborhood.

Aerial rendering of the Fitzgerald neighborhood and the various landscape typologies looking east toward the University of Detroit Mercy. Houses highlighted in blue indicate structures that will be rehabilitated.

Plan view illustration of Fitzgerald neighborhood with vacant lots highlighted in blue, many vacant lots lay side by side with groupings of 5 or more, only a few are singular.

Plan view illustration of possible connections across Fitzgerald neighborhood, Margrove College to University of Detroit Mercy.

Plan view illustration of 10 minute walking distance from Universtiy of Detroit Mercy is at mid point of Fitzgerald and coincides with large grouping of vacant lands.

Plan view illustration of Fitzgerald neighborhood with vacant lots categorized into different color based on the number of vacant lot groupings.

Color coding groupings of vacant parcels revealed a pattern of large grouping at center of Fitzgerald can be combined to create a central park, while groupings of 2 or singular parcels creates a greenway, connecting Marygrove College to a central park to University of Detroit Mercy.

Perspective rendering of a vacant lot transformed into a community garden with sunflowers, ornamental grasses, shrubs, and perennial plants.

Perspective rendering of a vacant lot transformed into a community orchard.

Perspective rendering of a vacant lot transformed into a pollinator meadow of wildflowers with pink, purple, and white flowers.

Bird's eye view rendering of the central park, Ella Fitzgerald Park, with colorful basketball court, greenway, and artistic crosswalk as a street calming measure.

Bird's eye view constructed photograph of the central park, Ella Fitzgerald Park, with colorful basketball court, future greenway, and artistic crosswalk as a street calming measure.

Constructed photograph of colorful basketball court with children playing basketball.

Constructed photograph of the new playground with children playing on swing.

Partners

Detroit Collaborative Design Center

Larry Weaner Landscape Associates

Live6 Alliance

Awards

2017 ASLA Honor Award for Analysis and Planning

Neighborhoods in Detroit and other cities across the country are dealing with the impact of blighted and vacant properties in their communities. The Fitzgerald Revitalization Project proposes a unique, landscape-driven approach to revitalizing neighborhoods.

This project envisions a bold new way to address distressed neighborhoods by focusing on the landscape of the entire neighborhood rather than addressing blighted properties on a lot-by-lot basis. The project addresses all vacant and blighted properties in the entire ¼ square mile neighborhood, envisioning an entirely blight-free neighborhood.

Using landscape strategies as the framework for affordable housing, workforce development, and community empowerment, this project presents an innovative way to think about neighborhood revitalization where healthy, inclusive, and ecologically robust landscapes are the driving force.

The plan calls for a new greenway and park created by consolidating vacant parcels, as well as the transformation of 200 vacant lots into community hubs, orchards, pollinator habitats, and stormwater management sites. Built on this landscape framework are market-driven productive landscapes, the rehabilitation of 115 abandoned structures into affordable housing, and a green-collar workforce initiative.

Aerial rendering of proposed greenway with bold orange flowers painted on the path.

The Grove or Greenway is delineated by stenciled graphics using road marking paint to communicate safety guidelines along the shared path as well as create identity.

The landscape framework plan for the neighborhood, developed with extensive community engagement, focuses on addressing every parcel in the ¼ square mile neighborhood. There are four primary initiatives in the plan:

Ella Fitzgerald Park: In the center of the neighborhood, over 2-acres of vacant parcels were consolidated to create a new community park with access to the greenway. This park serves as a central gathering space for the community. Completed in 2019.
Fitzgerald Greenway: Connecting the two universities on either end of the neighborhood, the greenway uses vacant parcels to weave a new pedestrian and bicycle route through the neighborhood. An urban forestry initiative to plant new canopy trees in the neighborhood was a key feature of the greenway. Completed in 2020.
Landscape Stewardship Plan: Integrated into the development of affordable housing in the neighborhood as a public/private partnership, the Community Developer will implement and maintain a series of landscape typologies on vacant parcels. This includes a range of landscape types, including orchards, pollinator meadows, community gathering spaces, and community gardens.
Productive Landscapes Initiative: In another public/private partnership, a productive landscape initiative for market-driven landscape-based businesses, such as local food production, hops production for local breweries, or cut flower production, will turn many of the larger, consolidated parcels into economic opportunities for local entrepreneurs.

Fitzgerald Neighborhood Revitalization Plan was awarded the 2017 ASLA Honor Award for Analysis and Planning.

community members working together to put a mosaic on the wall in a park.

Fitzgerald residents participate in the installation of a mosaic mural by the artist Hubert Massey.

An extensive community engagement process is at the heart of this project. Early on, the City of Detroit committed to a transparent process where the neighborhood is involved in every step of the project. Beyond the community and stakeholder meetings that formed the basis of the engagement process, the community was involved in the selection of the Community Development team that will implement a large portion of the plan. The planning process also addressed multiple issues simultaneously, such as landscape strategies, workforce development, crime reduction and affordable housing, in an acknowledgment of their interconnectedness.

The comprehensive approach to the project, where the entire neighborhood is considered as a whole, allowed the community greater input into the overall development and planning process. Furthermore, focusing on the landscapes, including streets and social spaces, helped to focus the planning process on tangible outcomes and a shared vision for the future of the neighborhood.

The planning process integrated the affordable housing initiative with the creation of the blight-free neighborhood. RFP for a Community Development team to rehabilitate 115 of the existing structures as affordable housing is tied to the Landscape Stewardship Plan, where the same development team will implement and maintain landscape interventions on the 200+ vacant lots in the neighborhood. The RFP for Productive Landscape entrepreneurs is based on the community's vision for how productive landscapes will add value to the neighborhood and local businesses.

kids and teens work together to paint the proposed greenway in the neighborhood as part of the community engagement

Neighborhood residents and students from Detroit Mercy testing painting strategies and learning about the future Greenway.

Credit:

Alexa Bush

The Ella Fitzgerald Park and Greenway show how aggregate parcels of under-used land can be brought together to create a community open space asset.

construction crew painting pattern of blue music notes on a street

The Ella Fitzgerald Park and Greenway show how aggregate parcels of under-used land can be brought together to create a community open space asset. Using landscape strategies as the framework for affordable housing, workforce development, and community empowerment, this project presents an innovative way to think about neighborhood revitalization where healthy, inclusive, and ecologically robust landscapes are the driving force. The vision of a healthy, walkable, vibrant neighbourhood with access to parks, greenways, and community psaces is the idea around which the other initiatives revolve.

Fitzgerald Neighbourhood Revitalization Plan was awarded the ASLA Honor Award in Analysis and Planning in 2017. For more information click here.