Paradise Valley and Black Bottom was a thriving residential, business, and entertainment district with a densely populated African American constituency in Detroit. Celebrated as a popular destination from the 1920s-1950s, nearly all the buildings, streets, and neighborhoods have been demolished. This erasure, accepted as part of a national Urban Renewal initiative, caused a loss of immense cultural and historical significance to the city and the African American community.  

This talk will reprise the popular Detroit Month of Design event hosted in 2021 with new announcements about completed and proposed new developments in Harmonie Park, including Fixin's Soul Kitchen - owned by NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson, who was the first Black mayor of Sacramento; the Music Hall Expansion, designed by Tod Williams + Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA), which begins this fall; and Harmonie Club, a recently completed historic renovation by Hamilton Anderson Associates, the first to be completed under the…