Last week
the Knight Foundation reported that Midtown Detroit Inc. was awarded the prestigious
ULI Global Award for Excellence for superior development efforts that go beyond good design to include strong leadership, community contribution, public-private partnerships, and financial success. While many, many people helped turn Midtown into the success it has become, none have been more directly involved than Susan Mosey, President of Midtown Detroit Inc. Read more about
Mosey and her efforts in this week's Urban Innovation Exchange.
But that wasn't the only Midtown news to come from Knight. Midtown is about to get itself another "Living Room," in addition to
the Cultural Living Room that opened inside the DIA earlier this year. A new grant from the Knight Foundation – in partnership with U3 Ventures, Boston-based planning firm
Sasaki, and San Francisco-based designers
Rebar – will support the design work of the new TechTown Living Room, a public space that will serve as the heart of Midtown’s TechTown innovation district.
The Living Room, part of the
TechTown district plan for a mixed-use neighborhood building on the area's existing anchor universities, hospitals, and major businesses, "will transform a parking lot at Cass and Burroughs streets into an active and dynamic public space," connecting to TechTown's new co-working space which will be home to more than 400 entrepreneurs. It will also have a café and programming to attract the more than 10,000 professionals, students, and residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.
According to Alex Feldman of U3 Ventures, the Living Room will be completed in the summer 2014.
Source: Alex Feldman, Knight Foundation blog
Writer: Nicole Rupersburg
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