For more than fifty years, Red’s Jazz Shoe Shine served as a cultural and commercial anchor in Detroit’s North End. Modest in scale, the space operated as a site of convergence, where musicians, politicians, and neighborhood figures crossed paths. Behind the everyday ritual of a shoeshine, the venue doubled as a speakeasy, hosting figures such as the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and Aretha Franklin.
In collaboration with Oakland Avenue Urban Farm, Akoaki developed a strategy to reactivate the site as a hybrid urban attractor. The proposal reimagines Red’s as a space where service (shoeshine and cobbler), commerce (boutique), and social gathering (intimate performances and family-scale events) intersect—honoring the site’s cultural legacy while extending it into contemporary public life.
2017
Detroit, Michigan
Support:
University of Michigan OVPR
Principals:
Anya Sirota, Jean Louis Farges
Design Team:
Christopher Campbell, Jonathan Watkins, Megan Mohney, Morgan Stackman