Parks Service Names Lafayette Park a National Landmark

and via Mies Detroit

Today, the Department of the Interior and the National Parks Service designated Lafayette Park as one of four new national historic landmarks. Lafayette Park's 78 acres, developed in the mid-1940s, represented an attempt to replace Black Bottom, which the city viewed as a slum. Now considered one of the most successfully realized urban renewal projects in the US, Lafayette Park was planned by one of the 20th century's master architects, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Lafayette Park includes many low-rise apartment buildings and townhomes, a small neighborhood center, and two Mies-designed high-rises in the international style (simple lines, lots of metal and tinted glass) which continue to house hundreds of Detroiters today.

Once a struggling area—Mies' famous towers went into foreclosure as we reported in 2012—Detroit's the rising tide of a resurgent housing market has lifted many a Lafayette park boat, leading to condo listings and sales in the mid $200K range, and to Lafayette Towers' redevelopment. The other three sites named at today's media event include Red Rocks Park and Mount Morrison Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in Colorado, the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, VA, and First Peoples Buffalo Jump in Montana.

·The Official Lafayette Towers Foreclosure Notice To Residents[Curbed Detroit]
·3-Bedroom, 1.5 Bath Mies Van Der Rohe Townhouse, $249K[Curbed Detroit]
·Mies Detroit[Mies Detroit]