Top urban designers from across the nation teamed with Detroit’s leading design professionals Jan. 9-12 in an intensive planning and design workshop focusing on west riverfront area redevelopment.

The A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture Urban Planning’s (TCAUP) annual urban design “charrette” concentrated on the area of downtown Detroit’s west riverfront between the Civic Center at Hart Plaza and Riverside Park.

The University’s sixth charrette in Detroit culminated in a public presentation of the results at Detroit’s historic Fort St. Presbyterian Church. The presentation offered the opportunity to view drawings and hear proposals from each of the four design teams, as well as proposals for implementation and economic impacts for each design.

Last year’s charrette proposed strategies for redevelopment of the east riverfront, with an eye toward supplementing the work of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s design consultants. This year’s event aimed to inform the conservancy consultants’ efforts on the west riverfront.

The two drawings show a birds-eye perspective of one team’s concept of a renovated Cobo Center extending out over the Detroit river, with a new luxury hotel completing the site, and an “x-ray” view of one Cobo Center proposal.