Christophe Ponceau

O.N.E. Mile (the Oakland North End Mile project) seeks to transform a linear stretch of Oakland Avenue into a vibrant cultural landscape in Detroit’s historic North End.

The goal of the projected micro-architectural interventions is to highlight the visionary creative legacy that defined Detroit and to render explicit the city’s impact on America’s musical vanguard. Without nostalgia or memorialization, O.N.E. Mile seeks to activate art and design in what was once arguably the most influential cultural district in the city.

To that end, the project will establish a network of varied and complementary protagonists from the disciplines of architecture, music, art and community advocacy to turn a series of underused but historically significant spaces into experimental sites of social activity.

Ephemeral cultural infrastructures produced using contemporary design and fabrication methods will host workshops, lectures and musical performances over the course the 2014 - 2015 summer seasons. Most importantly, perhaps, the planning process will be treated as programming, encouraging participants and residents to take a fresh look at the spatial potentials of marginalized sites and to collectively imagine a more playful, dynamic future.