The Canopy In Detroit Reimagines Big Block Multifamily Housing

Like many neighborhoods in post-industrial cities, Detroit’s Core City has seen its share of difficult times. But for almost a decade, developers and investors have flocked to the four-square-mile area, buying up city-owned properties to create place-sensitive housing. The Canopy, a multifamily development designed by Los Angeles-based EC3, is one of the most recent additions to the neighborhood’s real estate boom. Highlighting site conditions and borrowing from nearby architectural landmarks, the ten new housing units depart from the slick design tropes of broad-scale "gentrification" in favor of a quiet nod to existing community fabric.

Edwin Chan, architect and founder of firm EC3, has been working in Detroit for almost a decade. He was initially brought to the city in 2016 to visit his friend Philip Kafka, founder of development firm Prince Concepts, which focuses primarily on Core City. After his visit, Chan decided to accept an invitation from Kafka to design a new housing development that became True North. On a formerly vacant 25,000-square foot site are now nine freestanding buildings in the style of Quonset Huts; the development includes seven rental live/work units, a yoga studio, and a short-term rental. True North was received with much acclaim when it was completed in 2017, winning or listing several design awards; However, Detroit Development News, a Substack publication that covers timely changes to the city’s built environment, claims that while Kafka has done some amazing work, he "also has his own philosophies and way of doing things that sometimes draw a side eye from some residents. The Quonset huts were new and interesting, but they certainly don’t blend in with the architecture of the area." 

When Prince returned to Chan with the opportunity to design another multifamily development in 2020, it was a chance to show how disinvestment has yielded a flourishing landscape—overgrown trees and plentiful native plants—that had the potential to become social space. He took inspiration from the 186-unit Lafayette Park townhomes designed by Mies Van Der Rohe, where Kafka lives. Notably, Chan was drawn to the building’s transparency—glazing known by Mies fans—that, he says, would filter light through surrounding trees and provide sightlines through to the shared courtyard. "When you’re making dinner in the units, from the kitchen through the living room, you have an interaction with the public landscape next door," he explains, "and you have this interesting relationship with your neighbors, and it creates a social context."

In designing The Canopy, Chan wanted to center the landscape to build a social context but also avoid the double-loaded corridor common to many new multifamily developments; the scheme provides only one exposed wall, limiting views and light. "As opposed to building the corridor, we thought that the units should be connected through this outdoor green space," says Chan. They separated the rental development into duplexes, with two units per structure including five studios, four one-bedroom, and one two-bedroom apartments. The site hosts a myriad of existing trees that Chan wanted to keep, and he oriented each building to ensure that windows would look out onto the courtyard, which was landscaped with native plants and flagstone walkways.

Each building includes generous windows and balconies that face inward toward this outdoor hallway and public spaces. The Canopy might take its cues from Lafayette Park’s connection to nature, but, like the homes at True North, they break from the typical Miesian grid. For both projects, buildings are arranged outside of typical tracked homes, with some sitting horizontally, and another structure oriented diagonally toward the lot’s corner. At The Canopy, situating the five buildings in relation to the existing trees meant adding some balconies and entryways at an angle to maximize exposure and access to the public space.