American architecture firm LOHA has completed a housing block with cedar cladding and a stepped form in a once-rundown Detroit neighbourhood that is undergoing redevelopment.
The project, called John R 2660, is located in Brush Park, a neighbourhood that sits just beyond the city's downtown district. It was an affluent area in the 1850s but later became neglected.
John R 2660 is in Brush Park, Detroit
The neighbourhood has experienced a rebirth in recent years, with new buildings cropping up there and old ones being renovated.
The LOHA project ? which is named after its address on John R Street ? is the first of four apartment buildings that have been designed for the area by the California firm. All four are meant to add density while respecting the area's character and history. The building is clad in reddish cedar
"As architects, it's important to understand the culture of where you're building from the standpoint of the ecology of people, and come forward with solutions that respond to those aspects of the city," said LOHA founder Lorcan O'Herlihy, who founded his practice in 1994.
Occupying a corner property, the John R 2660 building contains 35 residential units and ground-level retail. It totals 42,580 square feet (3,956 square metres).
Cedar also lines the entrance's interior
Roughly rectangular in plan, the six-storey building has a stepped form ? a response to the area's different building scales. An angled wall on the third level helps the building look...