Squiggles,

Shapes,

& Grids

As a contemporary critique of Modernism’s heavy handed involvement in urban design, this cast of unconventional characters create an unlikely urban hub in Detroit’s Eastern Market district to parallel that of Mies van der Rohe’s neighboring Lafayette Park. While the ensemble of ontologies work as a simultaneously whole yet disparate composition, the individual characters sample from a fixed batch of characteristics that respond to each role they play

The buildings - two towers, a flat building, a centerpiece, and a contradiction - perform as offices, a hotel, a warehouse, a library, and a theater respectively. The design of each is drawn from a single palette, resulting in a recycling of an identical grid, squiggle, and shape. The recycling, re-appropriation, and re-brandishing of these shared elements produce inherent similarities through disparate beings. The result is an entourage of different, different things, each being not distinct but quite like the other.