With Pop-Up Project, Detroit Becomes a Beach Town

With 150 tons of golf-course bunker sand, the Downtown Detroit Partnership has turned a traffic island at the southern end of the Campus Martius into an urban beach, part of a larger effort to revitalize they city's downtown.

1 minute read

June 28, 2013, 12:00 PM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


"The beach, at the southern end of Campus Martius, is modeled after a similar program in France called Paris Plages, according to [Downtown Detroit Partnership] Senior Vice President Bob Gregory. It has been operational since earlier this month, though the official grand opening is Friday," reports Zlati Meyer.

“It’s all about activating public spaces, including parks, streets and sidewalks, so people have a great experience in the public space,” said Gregory. “The point of it is to revitalize downtown Detroit and the city of Detroit by getting people outside and enjoying their city and generating new business, restaurants and cafes. It’s both social for the people and economic development. ... It was done as a fun experiment to see if people like it. If people like it, we’ll bring it back.”

Friday, June 28, 2013 in Detroit Free Press

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