The latest batch of architecturally distinct residential duplexes have opened in Detroit developer Phil Kafka's Core City Project, which could nearly double in size in coming years under a new master plan.
The units are Phase Two of The Canopy, a set of a dozen duplexes containing 24 units of rental and for-purchase housing that is situated at 15th Street and West Forest Avenue.
The project expands the total number of new residences within the village-like Core City development to 53, of which eight are privately-built houses.
Kafka's real estate and development firm, Prince Concepts, began the overall development 10 years ago in an area of Detroit — Warren and Grand River avenues, an area known as the Core City neighborhood — that hadn't seen
much development in decades.
Besides housing, the development includes a mix of restaurants and businesses, including Bev's Bagels, the Bardaand Puma restaurants, 313 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and a bakery, Nuvrei MC, that recently opened in the former space of Cafe Prince.
The Canopy residential duplexes are highly unique in appearance and were designed by Los Angeles-based architect Edwin Chan, who is a former design partner of the late architect Frank Gehry.
Gehry, whodied last December at age 96, was one of the most celebrated American architects of the 20th and early 21st centuries, designing numerous mind-bending buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain.
The Canopy was designed like a multifamily building, but one deconstructed as 12 separate three- and two-story buildings spread across two city blocks. The duplexes have lots of windows and a minimalistic feel inside. Outside, they are connected by footpaths and surrounded by landscaping with a mix of old and new trees.
“Edwin’s architecture is designed specifically to frame and celebrate the landscape," Kafka said Sept. 8 during a tour of the development. "The most important element of this project is the way that the buildings and the landscape meet the neighborhood.”
Turning vacant land into a community
The project was built on what had been mostly vacant land, some previously owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority. The asking rents range from $1,450 to $2,500 a month. The for-purchase units are being sold at about $215 per square foot, although with unfinished interiors so that buyers can customize them.
The project's Phase One finished in September 2024 and quickly rented out. According to Kafka, many of the project's renters and buyers work in creative industries and include architects, urban planners and those in the music industry. Several couples moved to Detroit from out of state.
Architect Chan was visiting Detroit the week of Sept. 7 and touring the finished Canopy units. In an interview, he described three reference points that influenced his design for the project.
One was the impressive tree cover and landscaping in Detroit's Lafayette Park, and "the connection between the living spaces and nature” there.
Another reference point was the alleyways found in some residential neighborhoods in Beijing, China, he said.
“It’s about the scale of the spaces in between that encourage a kind of community interaction," Chan said.
A third reference was the old Continental Motors Co. plant in Detroit, which was situated at 1610 Algonquin St. before its demolition in late 2022. Kafka briefly own the abandoned plant before selling it in 2021 to a Florida firm that went on to demo the property.
Chan designed an earlier project within Kafka's Core City development called True North, which is a live-work community of 10 Quonset huts.
Most recently, he led the design for Core City Project's new master plan, which envisions building 50 more residential units and an additional 60,000 square-feet of commercial space over the next five years.
The centerpiece of the master plan is a public greenway that would cut diagonally through several blocks, between The Canopy on 15th Street and an old industrial warehouse at 17th Street and Warren Avenue that will be rehabbed as commercial space. A string of future duplexes and single units would line the greenway.
“The idea has always been that Core City becomes a public space with private moments sprinkled in it — and this really realizes that," Kafka said.
Those interested in leasing or buying the newly finished residences can email MS@princeconcepts.com.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New Canopy homes debut as Core City project prepares major expansion
