September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 27

received 172 detailed responses for
both the park and center. Because
of the multiple forms of outreach
and efforts to meet community
members where they were at, EJDevCo
was able to gather detailed
opinions and keep people safe. The
first engagement was held online
in June 2020 and was well attended.
To keep the conversation going,
staff members held weekly virtual
office hours for six months to keep
abreast of community needs.
A Change of Plans
On August 5, 2020, GSD shared the
results of the survey and INFORM
Studio, which was contracted to
design the center, presented initial
observations of the existing conditions
of the park and center. When
they shared the survey results, the
overwhelming majority of residents
agreed with the resulting data. The
park was unsafe and filthy. Residents
were more concerned about
the flagrant criminal behavior that
was happening on the site than
the design. The topics were wideranging,
but the community expressed
two important values. They
wanted the park and building to be
clean and safe.
Then, INFORM Studio let the
building
community
they
know the
expected
to be remodeled
would instead have to be moved
and rebuilt because it was located
in a floodplain. Visibly upset residents
shifted their concern to the
building being demolished. Why,
they asked, would the building
have to be moved out of the floodplain,
when most residents in Jefferson
Chalmers live in homes that
are in the floodplain?
On September 12, 2020, to
answer that question, the team
A visual representation of the impact of
potential flooding showed community
members why the Lenox Center had to
be relocated out of the floodplain.
held an in-person park event to
ask residents for feedback on the
building and park design, as well as
their priorities. The existing Lenox
Center was used as the staging
ground and painted on the building
was a line that showed how high
flooding could be on the building if
another 100-year floodplain event
occurred. This visual representation
helped drive home the urgency
of the building relocation. Once
the community saw the necessity
of relocation, the team spent the
remaining fall and winter months
refining the design.
The Lenox Center and A.B.
Ford Park project shows that engagement
requires community
trust, and much of that is fostered
through longstanding partnerships
with community
organizations.
In the summer of 2021, the Jefferson
Chalmers
suffered
neighborhood
unprecedented rainfall.
A residential declaration of emergency
was issued. Due to damage
to water and sewage facilities, extraordinary
amounts of combined
sewage were discharged into Fox
Creek on the community's eastern
edge. While the JEI team was
The Lenox Center and A.B. Ford Park
project shows that engagement requires
community trust, and much of that is
fostered through longstanding partnerships
with community organizations.
working to help residents with
flooded basements, the center
design team focused on building
them a clean, safe resiliency hub.
Tragedy showed that the course
the team was on was necessary.
The work continued over the next
two years with continued engagement,
and physical building began.
The building framing and exterior
are scheduled to be completed
by the end of summer 2023. The
city is leading the renovation of
the parkland based on the lessons
learned from the shared experience
of a pandemic, floods and years of
building community trust.
Lutalo Sanifu, MURP, is Director of Neighborhood Resilience,
Safety and Business District Services for Jefferson East Inc. (lsanifu@
jeffersoneast.org).
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | SEP T EMBER 2 0 2 3
| Parks & Recreation
27
PHOTO AND IMAGE COURTESY OF CITY OF DETROIT
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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