A home for social justice & creative community
The LOVE Building is located at 4731 Grand River in the Core City neighborhood of Detroit. It is the home of Allied Media Projects, Detroit Community Technology Project, Detroit Narrative Agency, Detroit Justice Center, Detroit Disability Power, and Paradise Natural Foods.
Our Vision
The LOVE Building grows out of the collective need of six Detroit-based social justice organizations for a permanent, centrally-located, accessible home. While our individual organizational missions vary, we share a vision of cultivating liberation, justice, and joy, for all Detroiters.
The LOVE Building tenant partners are a majority Black and POC-led organizations. Our communities are most often on the receiving end of harmful developments, with few opportunities to shape the built environments in which we live.
We recognize the LOVE Building as a unique opportunity to model a different form of community development than the profit-driven, exclusionary model that is rooted in racism. We need development that provides tangible community benefits, that supports longtime Black residents to remain and thrive in place, that removes barriers of access for disabled residents, that offers free and low-cost resources, and so much more.
The LOVE Building is attempting to embody this different form of development, one that is rooted in community needs. We call it an experiment because we know that we will make attempts that succeed and also fail along the way. We know that we will be learning from all of it and contributing those lessons to the larger movement in Detroit and globally, for more just, livable, thriving places.
Community Engagement Process
The vision for the LOVE Building grew out of a collaborative design process with all of the organizations who will be tenants of the building. We are also committed to ensuring that the LOVE Building is a valuable resource to the surrounding Core City neighborhood. Towards this goal, AMP partnered with Sidewalk Detroit to facilitate a deep and meaningful community engagement process in Core City. The goal of this process was to learn about our neighbors and what they want to cultivate in their community. Through this we created an 11-member Neighborhood Advisory Council. We will meet with this group monthly until September of 2021. Their input helped shape the LOVE building’s public programming, services, and visual identity. The end result of this process is our Community Benefits Agreement that outlines the commitments that AMP and our partners are making to the neighborhood.
Meet the Neighborhood Advisory Council
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Andy Chae,
Fisheye Farms“I’ve been here three years. We’re tryna survive and pay bills and do it with the community.”
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Bruno V,
Grand on River“As a rehabber of a historic building in Core City, I strive to learn more about the neighborhood history and am excited to see the future of the community.”
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Cornetta Lane,
Detroit Narrative Agency“I am a former resident of Core City; I have lived there for 27 years. Although I no longer live in Core City, I still consider it home because my mother remains a resident there.”
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Elanor Parnell
Elanor Parell has lived in Core City for over 30 years.
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Jerry Martin
“I grew up on West Warren and Livernois. I spent my entire childhood here. I just had a daughter, and when I think about her I think about the opportunities I’d like to give her that I didnt have. I want the kids to have opportunity and resources.”
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Laura Amtower
Laura is an artist, educator, and creative advocate. She has lived in Core City for four years and is a member of Temple of Print Studio, a cooperative art studio located at Grand on River.
