Lafayette Park: In-Between Urbanism

Abstract

Criticism of modernist planning strategies in the United States has prompted the demolition of superblock housing projects and the subsequent approbation of New Urbanism as a model for urban revitalization. Despite these trends, the Lafayette Park development in Detroit challenges and contradicts the presumed failures of modern architecture and urbanism. A paradox of city and suburb amidst the contested urbanism of Detroit, Lafayette Park’s significance lies in its contradictions—the reification of Modernism’spotential combined with the limitations of this vision. These contradictions have enabled the success of lafayette Park, elevating it as a development model for Detroit’s future.