Located along Detroit’s historic Avenue of Fashion, the B. Siegel building, a former mid-century modern retail anchor, stood vacant. Embracing an important corner site in the famed retail district, we reinvented the block to create a mixed-use hub that contributes to a walkable, engaging, and vibrant urban environment.

Our client, a local entrepreneur, had bought the B. Siegel building and two adjacent abandoned structures without a program in mind. We studied the site carefully to determine the best use for each building and how we could maximize rentable space with a limited construction budget.  

Our design restored the B. Siegel building’s façade, revived its ground-floor retail space, and created apartments above—a housing type that was sorely needed in the low-density neighborhood. We replaced the corner structure with a two-story commercial building, and included infrastructure that can support vertical expansion in the future.