Detroit is home to architectural wonders aplenty. There’s Isamu Noguchi’s monumental Hart Plaza, the Guardian Building, an Art Deco gem, and Mies Van der Rohe’s mid-20th century masterpiece Lafayette Park, to name but a few.
Philip Kafka, the president of Prince Concepts, a real estate development and property management company based in Detroit’s Core City, happens to reside in Lafayette Park — a neighborhood beloved for its revolutionary blend of green space and residential design. Inspired by Van der Rohe’s architectural significance and artful integration of nature, Kafka’s latest residential project, appropriately named The Canopy, balances world-class architecture and landscape design.
“When you wake up in the morning, you feel the light filtering through the trees. It’s a magical feeling. It feels as though you’re (waking) up in a treehouse,” design architect Edwin Chan says about the unmistakably Mies-styled townhouses. Chan says Lafayette Park and industrial icons like the Continental Motors plant designed by Albert Kahn, another architectural great, stirred The Canopy’s style.
Chan is the founder and creative director of EC3 — a cross-disciplinary architecture and design studio based in Los Angeles. The Canopy project marks the second time EC3 and executive architect Kevin Crosby, of Studio Detroit, have teamed up with Kafka. In 2017, Prince Concepts, EC3, and Studio Detroit built True North — a residential project located a stone’s throw from The Canopy. “We were going to build a sequel, you know, because living in Hollywood, everything is a sequel,” says Chan, who started EC3 in 2013, after working as celebrated architect Frank Gehry’s design partner for 25 years.
Kafka and Chan designed The Canopy in opposition to traditional multifamily residential buildings. They say they wanted to offer The Canopy’s tenants something far more valuable than modern amenities and marble countertops. Although those types of things are nice, Kafka explains that new-builds often lean heavily on interior finishes as selling points to market and fill units. He and Chan, on the other hand, decided that creating something people love is a better business model. Within The Canopy, a simple palette of materials is used in an interesting way to bring light, air, and views into focus. The aim was to make the space beautiful in its design but economical in its interior.
Before Kafka started developing Core City, the neighborhood’s activity had stood at a standstill since the 1960s. Today, Kafka adores the urban fabric of the neighborhood. “(From where we’re standing), you have an old church, Caterpillar, and all of the trees in view. These things come together to create a diverse landscape,” Kafka points out on a tour of the project. “The overall objective, which we achieved, was to break the traditional, block-style apartment building. Instead, we broke the cookie into crumbs.”
The spacious Core City is home to native gardens and includes 121 trees that were planted to build up the site’s growing ecology. The landscape architecture is a crucial part of the larger, architectural plan, and The Canopy’s designers say the goal was to harness the light. “When you’re in the building, there’s light from all these vistas. Eastern light, western light — you have different qualities of light all day long,” Kafka says.
Adds Chan: “Core City’s relationship to the landscape is very strong and the trees are very beautiful.” As such, the team built around the trees, equipping each unit with a custom layout and the best view possible.
Phase one of the project delivered five duplexes with two units each. The Canopy offers studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units that are affordably rented for $2,000 or less a month. Impressively, all of the phase one units were leased before construction was completed, and most residents found out about the dwellings through word of mouth. Phase two of the project is underway and promises seven additional duplexes, with the option to rent or buy.
Kafka and Chan hope The Canopy is home to a diverse mix of residents for years to come. “We hope to have a mix of residents: old-time Detroiters, young Detroiters, couples, artists, people who moved back to Detroit, and people moving into the city,” Kafka says.
On the roof of each duplex is a puzzle piece of a mural, designed by Detroit artist Victor Reyes. The murals are especially visible from a bird’s-eye view. “The roof is the fifth elevation and an important way, from the top down, to perceive the building,” Chan says. Vertical walls lend a punchy palette of color; it was a conscious choice to offer contrast to the trees while paying homage to textile designer Alexander Girard, who’s best known for the vibrant color schemes and fabric designs he created while working for Herman Miller in the 1950s and ’60s.
“One of the main project goals was to create a kind of urbanism — a 21st century, reimagined landscape urbanism. Lafayette Park was the 20th century version,” Chan says. The Canopy offers its residents sun-drenched architecture, breathable surroundings, and community connection, and synthesizes bites of Detroit’s rich design history, tapping into the talent of the past while enlightening generations to come.
When asked to describe one of his favorite design elements, Chan quickly responds: “The balconies. You can sit outside and drink coffee and feel like you’re sitting above The Canopy. You feel in harmony with nature, like you’re part of The Canopy.”
More information:
ec3.us, princeconcepts.com
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