Georgeen Theodore (NJIT) – People, Property and Practice: Neighborhood Planning

Now in the USA Neighborhood planning is often thought of as a forward-looking practice that envisions future improvements to a place. What if we think of neighborhood planning not as something anticipatory, but instead as a practice of understanding, reading, and refiguring the complexities of today? In this presentation, Georgeen Theodore, FAIA, will speak about the work of Interboro, the US-based architecture, urban design and planning firm. Theodore, along with her partners Tobias Armborst and Daniel D’Oca and Interboro colleagues, have been working in the city of Detroit for two decades. Detroit has experienced profound changes in the built environment since the mid-20th century. Fundamental shifts in car production combined with racist city planning resulted in massive population loss and a huge inventory of city-owned, vacant land. Nonetheless, the refiguration of neighborhoods today is neither a story of loss nor a predictable chapter in the well-known historical evolution from Fordist- to post-industrial city. Instead, using examples from neighborhoods where Interboro has worked for many years, Theodore will show how diverse groups of new and old Detroiters are shaping surprising new spaces, forms of assembly, and community out of the remnants of the former city.