'U' alum helps to renovate Detroit

Raynal Harris and Dorian Moore, recent graduates of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, are spearheading efforts to renovate and restore Detroit to its status as a preeminent American city.

Harris, a 1994 graduate, explained some of the efforts he and his firm, SHG Incorporated, are performing in conjunction with the city government.

"There are several initiatives that the city has going on," Harris said. To illustrate his point, he turned on the room lights, illuminating an expansive model of the city.

Hovering over miniature wooden buildings, Harris pointed out newly built shopping centers, the prospective football arena and baseball park along a stretch of expressway, and the nearly finished Detroit Police Customer Service Center.

Harris led a tour of the Police Customer Service Center, which he designed.

MARGARET MYERS/Daily University alumnus Raynal Harris, who graduated from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, stands in the Detroit Police Customer Service Center, which he designed as part of Detroit's revitalization program.

"People come to Detroit and talk about what's not here," Harris said, driving past the central business district, onto a street near Gratiot Avenue. Harris motioned to a strip of gas stations and old fast food restaurants, surrounded by neighborhoods of neglected houses, overgrown lots and windowless liquor stores.

"Yeah, Detroit is, immediately, not a Chicago. It's not an Atlanta. But it has its own flavor. ... People have pride in this city," Harris said.

At the Police Customer Service Center, Harris led a tour through administrative offices, conference rooms and a dispatch center for emergency calls. The facility covers approximately 25,000 square feet of converted warehouse space.

Turning toward a curved open hallway lined with skylights, he pointed out locker rooms, a lounge and a stress-relief room for employees: Telephone operators, he said, sometimes work 12-hour shifts fielding emergency calls.

"I'm the designer. All these ideas are mine," Harris said, when asked about the center's features.

Harris explained that the nearly finished construction had been remarkably quick. "Typically, for a project of this size, it takes six to eight months. We're trying to do it in four."

A few minutes later, a group of city employees, led by police officer Sgt. Norton, stopped in to see their future workplace. "Hope you enjoy it," Harris calls down the hallway.

"Oh, they will," Norton said. "Everyone has so far."

Addressing the larger reemergence of Detroit as a city, Harris was confident. "The thing that's really interesting is that this is all going to happen by the year 2000. That's unprecedented." He qualified his remark, citing Atlanta's rebirth with the 1996 Summer Olympics as the only prior example of a city's complete turnaround.

"We cannot depend on large single developments to be the answer. They're the stimulus, but not the answer."

LSA sophomore and Detroit native Delacie Johnson said he is far more skeptical than Harris about the effectiveness of these projects.

"Obviously, it'll be welcomed," Johnson said. "But one thing is being overlooked - it's that they're not improving (Detroit) all over. Unless they're improving all over and improving the public schools, I could care less."

Harris is far from alone in his efforts to revitalize the city: Moore, whose firm Archive D.S. has been involved with several civic initiatives, also has ambitious plans for promoting the city's comeback.

The Detroit resident and native was quick to describe his city as a standout. "We're in it for the long haul," Moore said. "The city has a long way to go, but one thing we've seen different is the potential in Detroit."

The firm's projects have included restoration of a largely Mexican American public high school in southwestern Detroit, a structure which dates back to 1915.

Moore also related his University experience to his efforts, one that included undergraduate and architectural study. "I think one of the things that was good, in a way, about being (at the University is) it took me out of Detroit," he said.

But Moore expressed dismay that few of his University-trained peers have followed him to Detroit. "In my graduating class in architecture school, I can't think of one or a couple other students who came to Detroit after (graduation)."

Nonetheless, Moore said his experiences at the University left him with impressions that went beyond an education.

"The one thing about U of M, I always felt a sense of community. There's kind of a sense of pride there that you can't really feel unless you're there," Moore said. "What I look back at, when I am doing these projects, is trying to instill that sense of community in depressed areas."

Moore has been redesigning a nearly deserted office building on Woodward Ave. in the heart of downtown Detroit, making room in its upper floors for more than 20 contemporary loft apartments.

"Most of this two-block district is vacant. We're trying to turn it into a loft district," he said.

College of Architecture and Urban Planning Prof. Bob Beckley, himself a proponent of Detroit's projects, said that Harris and Moore's efforts are encouraging, but not unexpected.

"It doesn't surprise me that they've taken leadership roles, because they were both good student leaders while I was (teaching) in the program."

Beckley also noted the positive effect of having black leaders spearhead efforts in Detroit.

"The thing that's marvelous is African Americans are assuming a leadership role in a city that is an African American majority. With that leadership comes great responsibility. They have risen to that occasion," Beckley said.

09-26-97