Honorable Mention: American Architecture Awards 2023
The Power Plant | Detroit - Michigan | 2022

Architects: Undecorated
Lead Architect: Ishtiaq Jabir Rafiuddin
Associate Architects: Preview Architecture + Planning, LLC.
General Contractor: Prince Concepts
Client: Olu & Company
Photographers: Chris Miele

Prince Concepts is well-known for creating a distinct urban community within Detroit’s Core City neighborhood, their projects celebrate architecture, public greenspaces and lush, generous tree plantings. Core City is bounded by three award-winning Prince Concept projects, all walkable within five minutes from this one: True North, a community of eight Quonset huts on 25,000 square feet of land; Caterpillar, a 9,000 square foot eight-unit Quonset hut nestled in a 180-tree public green space designed by award-winning architect Julie Bargmann of D.I.R.T studio; and Core City Park, also designed by Bargmann, a former parking lot transformed into an urban oasis with more than 100 trees across 8,000 square feet of land.

Core City Park is the nexus of the neighborhood, home to the celebrated Argentinian restaurant Barda and welcoming new cafe and coffee concepts this Fall. Most recently, Prince Concepts completed The Power Plant, an adaptive reuse and new construction project that adds a new second story to a 1915 building, and encloses an ally, converting it into a private lobby. The first phase of the project renovated the 3,000-square-foot annex of the building into Core City Fitness.

Next, it added a 3,000-square-foot second story above the annex, renovated the ground floor of the existing building for a retail “bazaar” and turned the entire second story into a bright new headquarters for world-renowned animation agencies, Gunner and Hobbes, which was recently acquired by public company, Duolingo. The project was an exercise in using existing conditions to an advantage. By enclosing an ally, building on top of the existing structure, and connecting the new addition to the existing second floor, all pre-existing spaces and structures were repurposed to serve as the backdrop for the new addition.

The Power Plant was named for the civic-style brick design which resembles early 20th-century power plants and is the final building to be renovated on the street. The building will serve as the block’s capstone, invigorating an already active public park and commercial corridor.