Dan Pitera

Full-time 2004-2005

Photo by Doug Cogger

Dan Pitera is the Director of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center which is affiliated with the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. The Design Center provides architectural and other design services for community organizations and other non-profit organizations. The work of the center focuses on design processes that empower communities with which they work, and the production of excellent design for the buildings and art installations they create. Dan is particularly interested in the phenomenon of shrinking cities and has been involved with international efforts to study conditions in various cities sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. He has served as a past president of the Association for Community Design. As a Loeb Fellow, Dan will examine the interaction of numerous issues for shrinking cities, including race, urban economics, cultural histories, and urban planning policies and the ways in which design and planning practices can respond to those issues. His investigations will focus on the Detroit Metropolitan Area as a case study.