Here, which was once the fourth largest city in the America and haf its fortune due to the US automotive industry, today many building lie derlict. Decades of outward migration caused Detroit to decline, creating inner-city segreation and abandonment on a large scale. The entire centre of the city of San Francisco, could be fit within the derlict space that exists in Detroit today. This magnitude of vacant, unwanted space has now started to be taken over by the‘urban farming’ industry, acres of crops now occupying land that once sat houses and places of work.
Detroit
Detroit Dequindre Cut Greenway is a former Railroad line constructed in the 1830s. The trains ran below ground serving factories and north through the Eastern Market and to the suburbs. The image shows the area in 2007 where it was left derelict and abandoned
The area was regenerated in 2009. It sits along the border between Eastern Market and McDougal-Hunt, the last remaining residential area where many former residents of the historic ‘Black Bottom’ neighbourhood settled after Black Bottom was demolished to make way for urban redevelopment and the construction of the I-375 Interstate in the 1960s.
Political Conditions
There have been many contributing factors to Detroit’s decline over the decades, however one of the main reoccurring themes that can be seen throughout is racism. The large outmigration of Detroit’s white population that began in the 1950’s, ultimately resulted in its transformation from a wealthy white city into a poor black city.
The Government played a significant role in the racial segregation of the Detroit metropolitan area. In 1930’s, the Federal Housing Administration’s underwriting manual instructed mortgage lenders to respect racial covenants, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board sponsored the development of residential security maps that made most minority neighbourhoods off-limits for lending.
Following World War II, subsidized mortgages were offered to millions of veterans, however the government’s mortgage lending restrictions effectively excluded blacks. As a result, the new homes in the white suburban communities around Detroit were built with money that was denied to most blacks, which resulted in an increased racial and financial divide between the two communities.
As the wealthier white population left Detroit, the overall population shrank. This had a knock-on effect as the city’s tax base shrank, leaving Detroit less able to support public schools, public safety, and its widely spread-out infrastructure.
The other key factor was the outmigration of manufacturing jobs, which began in the late 1940’s as the auto industry disinvested in Detroit and moved to surrounding suburbs. White Detroiters followed the auto industry out of the city for better employment, land, housing, and schools. Some also preferred the suburbs as they were more racially segregated.
Economic Conditions
Eastern Market District in Detroit, has been at the centre of this urban farming, it has helped to start the redevelopment of a new Detroit and bring more money to the local community. The downtown area that once revoloved around vechiles and being unfriendly to pedestirans, now is the opposite with is high walkability and pedestrian friendlyness. The area has been brought to life with food markets, bars, residential units taking over vacant buildings, and derelict sites.
From the 1950s until 2010s markets shrunk as large grocery chains built their own regional distribution centers, bypassing the need for public markets. Over the last decade, the food system has been again undergoing change. Consumers are driving fundamental shifts towards local, healthier, and more distinctive food products. Iconic, mass-marketed brand sales are diminishing and behemoth food enterprises are scrambling to reinvent themselves as smaller producers of specialty food products flourish.
According to the Institute for the Competitiveness of Inner Cities, food businesses employ the widest range of skills among all economic clusters. Especially important for Detroit is the high number of entry-level, living-wage jobs that food businesses generate. Those jobs are desperately needed to solve chronic structural unemployment in the city’s neighborhoods.
Eastern Market has played a key role in promoting entrepreneurism across economic classes. In our long history new immigrants have found their economic footing as vendors at Eastern Market. Today, we honor that tradition with wider efforts to engage neighborhood based entrepreneurs whether they make food products or other goods.
The District’s economic force now has the opportunity to grow because of two distinct advantages present in the area. Immediate freeway access, close reach to export markets, and other logistical advantages already in place make expansion easier here than in other areas with no existing industry. Additionally, former residential neighborhood areas adjacent to the District with high vacancy rates are a prime area for expansion. This is the place where Detroit works for everyone.
Adaptive Reuse in Detroit
Our study into the Eastern Market has called to attention many design ideas for all of Detroit. Due to it dense building population, adaptive reuse could be a significantly important outcome to the redesign.
Eastern Market has many unused building, a perfect opportunity to reuse them for new purposes. Allowing for not only gentrification of the area but also a more sustainable approach.
Alot of buildings in Eastern Market have already been reused and have become extremely successful, allowing for more people to use the area and enjoy the original buildings that stand there.
Eastern Market itself has been adapted and changed since 1841
Adaptive Reuse projects have happened all over Detroit. One particularly of interest was OMA’s transformation of former warehouse into Mixed-Use Arts and Community Venue. Creating a building for more than the local community but bringing people from all over the state to use. Allowing for detroit to gentrify.
Another Adaptive Reuse project in Detroit is this $40.4 million redevelopment of the former Studebaker Plant. It will bring 161 afforable housing units and over 150 parking spaces for the city.
The site in the Eastern Market has many instrutrial buildings that could be adapted to be used for the Urban Farm
Social Aspects
Eastern Market has been a key component in supplying the people of Detroit with fresh produce since 1891. However, as a result of largescale supermarkets establishing themselves within the area, the market has experienced a steady decline in size and footfall since the 1950s. To preserve the heritage of the site and multiple schemes and strategies have been put in place to promote tourism and empower local people
The “Eastern Market 2025 Strategy” aims to preserve the authenticity of the site and improve its connectivity within the wider area. The authenticity of Eastern Market is built upon its 130-year history of nourishing Detroit. The Eastern Market is seen as both a part of the city’s cultural legacy and its working economy. The future as a working food district is fundamental to maintaining the character of the District.
Despite the District supplying to a range of further locations, the district itself is isolated and cut off by freeways making it hard to access, as a result, the strategy aims to bridge neighbourhoods and break down barriers to make the space more accessible to all.
To further empower the people of Detroit the “Murals in the Market” festival provides the unique opportunity to allow local artists to showcase their wide set of skills, these murals relate to both the diverse culture and the heritage of the area with the pieces of the most recent festival dedicated to the Eastern Market’s Farmers as well as the Eastern Market’s Makers.
These murals help to promote and empower the community whilst helping to revitalise the image of the area as a whole.
