A neighborhood built out of Quonset huts off of Grand River Avenue is in the running to win a major international architecture prize.
True North has been selected as one of the six projects in North and South America competing to win the 2018 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP), a biennial prize established by the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) College of Architecture. It recognizes the most distinguished architectural works built on both continents.
True North is a community of 10 live/work Quonset corrugated galvanized steel structures located just southwest of the Grand River and Warren intersection. The $1.6-million project was built on land that had been overgrown and garbage ridden since 1999 and had not seen commercial development since the 1960s.
Seven of the units are devoted live/work spaces. The residences were delivered mostly raw to let their occupants design them the way they’d like their place to function and feel. There are also two apartment style hotel rooms.
In addition, the community has yoga studio and 35 trees have been planted.
True North was designed by Edwin Chan, founder of the Los Angeles-based cross-disciplinary architecture and design studio EC3, and developed by Philip Kafka, founder of the Detroit-based real estate company Prince Concepts.
“I’m interested in how architecture can challenge consensus – how it changes the way people live, sure, but more importantly how they think and feel,” says Kafka. “It’s great knowing Edwin and I were able to use architecture to make neighbors feel great about the work happening on their block, but that also make an international audience feel great about the work happening in Detroit. To me, success is when both of these important audiences genuinely cares.”
True North was chosen from more than 171 entries and 31 semi-finalists, which encompassed diverse project types and scales. For a complete list of finalists please click here.
Reviewers called True North “an innovative use of industrial Quonset corrugated galvanized steel structures creates a sequence of dynamic external and internal spaces providing affordable accommodation to a new generation of urban pioneers in Detroit’s fragile inner-city communities.”
The winning project will be announced at a symposium on October 10 at IIT. The designers will receive $50,000 to fund research and a publication.
True North was a winner of the 2017 Progressive Architecture Award given by Architect magazine and was featured on the February 2017 cover of the same publication. It was also named the 2017 Multi-Family Project of the Year by Architect’s Newspaper.
— Lead photo by Chris Miele
True North Quonset hut neighborhood selected as finalist for international architecture prize added by Marge Sorge on
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