Metropolis Digital Optimism Talks logo

Join us every second Tuesday of the month for a dose of optimism with thought-provoking guests who are revolutionizing their fields. Innovators will lead virtual workshops for an hour of discovery, inspiration, and community. Led by editor in chief, Avinash Rajagopal, these workshops will be guided by our audience, where questions are not only welcome but encouraged.

Register Now
natural habitat cold spring home exterior

Metropolis Editors, Natural Habitat, sustainability, sustainable architecture

METROPOLIS Introduces Natural Habitat, a Sustainable Homes Video Series

The series debuts with a tour of a tranquil upstate New York retreat designed with Passive House principles.

Read more

Albert Kahn (35)

  • Projects

    3 Adaptive Reuse Projects Prioritize Flexibility for the Future

    … Depository Building, a brick-clad Art Deco structure next to Michigan Central originally known as the Roosevelt Annex. Designed by legendary Detroit architect Albert Kahn in the 1930s to serve as the city’s main post office and mail sorting facility, it had an open, concrete-supported skeleton that allowed it to later become …

  • Projects

    NewLab Puts Down Roots in Detroit

    … EV charging solutions provider Plug Zen are set to take up residence and set to hire and train with better inclusion in mind. COURTESY BRIAN FERRY Revitalizing Albert Kahn’s Book Depository Building Sitting adjacent to the monumental Michigan Central Station—currently undergoing a painstaking restoration of its own—the Albert Kahn-designed Book Depository …

  • Projects

    Detroit's Old General Motors Research Lab Now Site of Design Innovation

    … for Design Education, née the Argonaut Building, is at the heart of this resilient energy. Built in 1928, the 760,000-square-foot building was designed by Albert Kahn for General Motors as a research and engineering plant. Later, it housed the first automotive design studio under Harley Earl. With innovation part of its DNA …

  • The founders of Rael San Fratello

    Profiles

    Rael San Fratello 3D Prints Architecture with a Political Edge

    … Makes Art Accessible for AllFrom Our Partner: With the goals of enabling art lovers to curate their lives while also empowering the artists, SINGULART, brings transparency to the art market.ProjectsNewLab Puts Down Roots in DetroitArchitecture firm Civilian helps transform Albert Kahn’s Detroit Book Depository into a sprawling incubator for innovations in mobility technology.

  • Viewpoints

    Can Architecture and Design Facilitate Healing?

    … sealed box meant that hospitals could again turn inward, swelling and rising in ways that natural ventilation would not have permitted. Albert Kahn’s commission for the University Hospital in Ann Arbor (complete with two miles of hallways) leaps off the page as emblematic of this scaling-up, “it was a closed system in …

  • street temperature vegetation map

    Projects

    Three Technology Projects Represent Change for the Better

    … Makes Art Accessible for AllFrom Our Partner: With the goals of enabling art lovers to curate their lives while also empowering the artists, SINGULART, brings transparency to the art market.ProjectsNewLab Puts Down Roots in DetroitArchitecture firm Civilian helps transform Albert Kahn’s Detroit Book Depository into a sprawling incubator for innovations in mobility technology.

  • Viewpoints

    Design Excellence 2015: Part 2

    … renovated cigar factory designed by Albert Kahn that provides services to support the psychological and physical wellbeing of Detroit residents. Courtesy American Institute of Architects The green roof demonstration project on the American Society of Landscape Architects’ headquarters in Washington DC illustrates the aesthetic and environmental benefits of sustainability. Courtesy American Society of Landscape …

  • Page

    Save the Date: April 27, 2022

    … Makes Art Accessible for AllFrom Our Partner: With the goals of enabling art lovers to curate their lives while also empowering the artists, SINGULART, brings transparency to the art market.ProjectsNewLab Puts Down Roots in DetroitArchitecture firm Civilian helps transform Albert Kahn’s Detroit Book Depository into a sprawling incubator for innovations in mobility technology.

  • Programs

    Building in the Tropics: HOK Finds Design Inspiration in Nature

    … performing? That evolved slowly into human-centric design. What does it mean to the people occupying the building? Learning from Albert Kahn and nature, our challenge was going from a big aircraft hangar to becoming a home for 800 people. How can we bring that to a single occupant? How can we assure that …

  • |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

    Viewpoints

    American Acropolis: The End of an Era in Detroit

    … Detroit’s downtown blight has been greatly diminished. People’s Outfitters, a once-celebrated then abandoned Albert Kahn building, has been replaced by a multilevel parking garage. The site of the old Statler Hilton is a vacant lot, and Hudson’s footprint is a field of concrete above an underground parking garage. The Metropolitan …