Endemic Architecture

Site_DetroitBell Tower & BumpsSphere, Cones, Cylinder + CubeSectionSite Plan

The seemingly anachronistic typology of a bell tower offers the possibility for revitalized architectural and civic expressions. The Bell Tower & Bumps appropriate an abandoned Surface-To-Air Nike Ajax missile site outside of Detroit. There are 12 of these defense sites located around the perimeter of Detroit, many of which are adjacent to neighborhoods that not only do not have access to the sites, but are entirely unaware of what was once there. In fact, many cities were fortified by rings of Nike Defense Missile sites, including Chicago, New York, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and many others. The Bell Tower & Bumps establishes a new civic site in the populated neighborhood of River Rouge. The peripheric urban context becomes a site of civic transformation. A plinth indexes the former Nike missile site. The Bumps in the landscape create a lawn of small lumps for sitting, laying, rolling, or playing while bound by the boundary of the former missile pit. What once was smooth and flat is now dimpled and hillish.

Copyright, Endemic Architecture 2024