This was a student project by Caitlin Grohnke for Jane Murphy's ARCH 4410 course in Autumn 2018. This performing arts high school, located in Detroit Michigan, aims to mitigate the effects of the existing separation found within the city’s population due to geographic, economic, and other factors. The building becomes a space that is not only an academic institution but also a center for the arts for the surrounding community. By using studies of circulation through the site, the form of the building naturally draws pedestrians into its four distinct corners to help facilitate interactions between the community and students. As the community navigates to the public program located at the four corners, their paths cross visually and physically with the paths of the students; where these intersections happen, the public is offered views of the performing arts. Through these controlled interactions between two very different groups of people, the building challenges the notion that academics take place in a closed system; the building, therefore, begins to fulfill a larger role in the community by creating a more dynamic academic environment that serves both the everyday students as well as the public.
