Midtown Detroit, Inc. has unveiled a final design concept for a $2.4 million Peterboro streetscape project meant to recognize the area’s historic Chinatown roots and ensure its attractiveness into the future.
Designs shared with BridgeDetroit ahead of a private Monday news event include enhanced street lighting, repaved sidewalks, patio seating for adjacent businesses, modular plant boxes and bike racks. Midtown Detroit, Inc. Executive Director Melanie Markowicz said design elements will celebrate the cultural identity of old Chinatown without attempting to recreate it.
“What we’re really talking about is reinvigorating, reenergizing and redeveloping a historic community and paying homage to those that were there before,” Markowicz said in an interview. “People can smell inauthenticity. There are business and property owners that have been really in the fight for a long time before this effort to celebrate communities that once lived here. I want to be forward-thinking about the future while honoring the past.”
Renewed interest in Detroit’s second Chinatown was sparked after the Chinese Merchants Association building was demolished in 2023. The demolition wiped away one of Chinatown’s last structural remnants but mobilized descendants of immigrants and community stakeholders.
State Rep. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, helped secure a $1 million state grant to improve infrastructure on Peterboro between Cass and Second avenues and include Chinese American elements. A fundraiser is being launched to cover the remaining $1.4 million with hopes of completing construction in 2027.
Other design elements will include bronze displays installed in sidewalks outside historic locations and cultural assets like the famed Chung’s Cantonese restaurant, which was redeveloped by American Community Developers. The signature red roof was recreated and developers previously expressed intent to fill the building with Asian food businesses.
An iconic pagoda signpost on the corner of Cass Avenue and Peterboro Street will remain, and Markowicz said a duplicate will be built on the other end of the street. The design also leaves areas open for future public art installations and gateway features if funding is secured.
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Markowicz said the street and sidewalk is in extremely poor condition today. The majority of the street isn’t accessible for people with disabilities and is only lit on one side. Markowicz said restoring pedestrian access and creating flexible public spaces for festivals and events were major goals.
“I want this to be a place of discovery and of connection and gathering,” she said.
Markowicz said Midtown Detroit, Inc. plans to collaborate on cultural programming with the Chinatown Visioning Committee, a volunteer group that came together after the merchant building’s demolition. The committee helped advocate for giving Peterboro Street a secondary designation last year to honor Vincent Chin, who was killed in a racially-motivated beating in 1982.
The Chinatown project is one of several ongoing efforts in the lower Cass Corridor. Markowicz said the streetscape design will improve connections to Brush Park and downtown.
“We’ve had long-time invested property and business owners, people who bought buildings rehabilitated and started these vibrant businesses,” Markowicz said. “They’ve come together to create this beautiful energy and they’re coming together to plan what the future looks like around them.”