Joe Louis Greenway Framework Plan

Detroit, MI

Project Summary

Once the center of the automotive industry, Detroit, Michigan is working to reclaim its vacant rail corridors after years of neighborhood disinvestment and abandonment. In 2019, the City of Detroit hired Toole Design to lead the transportation assessment portion of the Joe Louis Greenway Framework Plan.

This 27.5-mile citywide connector will provide a safe, activated space that residents and visitors alike can use for transportation, fitness, social gatherings, and community events across 23 neighborhoods and 5 cities. It also honors the legacy of Detroit’s Joe Louis as an advocate for social and racial justice for Black Americans and acts as a guide for the future.

Expertise Applied

Concept design for corridor as part of the Joe Louis Greenway Framework Plan

Concept design for an alley as part of the Joe Louis Greenway Framework Plan

Toole Design assessed where the proposed greenway will cross corridors and how it will affect loading operations. To do this, we evaluated traffic patterns, safety, on-street parking, transit routes, and emergency access. Our team was a key contributor to design standards that will apply across the full length of the greenway. Among other topics, Toole Design developed user specific considerations, intersection and crossing design guidance, and bus stop design guidance to address safety, operations, and accessibility. We also developed a list of policy best practices and design concepts showing how to incorporate bikeshare and scootershare into greenway trailheads.

Meeting the needs of the local community sits at the heart of the Joe Louis Greenway Framework Plan.

Meeting the needs of the local community sits at the heart of the Joe Louis Greenway Framework Plan. To ensure we heard their voices, we participated in stakeholder and neighborhood meetings and public events to engage the City’s residents, emergency responders, and business owners. The result is process-built trust through shared authorship on the Plan.

Inclusive, multilingual public engagement brought a wide range of community voices to the table.

With construction starting in Fall 2023, the completed Joe Louis Greenway will make recreational space and connectivity accessible within a 10-minute walk of 10% of all city residents — a once-in-a-generation opportunity to empower and unify neighborhoods.

The American Planning Association awarded this project with the Advancing Diversity and Social Change Award in Honor of Paul Davidoff in October of 2022. The project also earned a 2023 American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Award in Planning and Analysis.

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