Lafayette Park, Detroit

Mies van der Rohe Residential District, Lafayette Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
View of Lafayette Park from Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 2007
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Location	Roughly bounded by Lafayette Ave., Rivard, Antietam, and Orleans Sts., Detroit
Coordinates	42°20′22″N 83°01′55″W / 42.3394°N 83.0319°W / 42.3394; -83.0319Coordinates: 42°20′22″N 83°01′55″W / 42.3394°N 83.0319°W / 42.3394; -83.0319
Area	46 acres (19 ha)
Built	1956
Architect	Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig Hilberseimer, et al.
Architectural style	International style
NRHP Reference #	96000809
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	August 1, 1996
Designated NHLD	July 21, 2015

Lafayette Park is a historic urban renewal district east of Downtown Detroit and contains the largest collection of residential buildings designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The northern section planned and partially built by Mies is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015 it was designated a National Historic Landmark District. Lafayette Park is located on the city's lower east side directly south of the Eastern Market Historic District. In general, the neighborhood, including portions developed by other architects, has been regarded as an incubator of progressive architecture and one of the few historically stable urban renewal zones in the United States.

Lafayette Park is principally composed of two superblocks that combine low- and high-density housing in the manner favored by the Federal Housing Administration following World War II.

The first phase, formerly known as the Gratiot Redevelopment, was bounded by Hastings Avenue (later the Chrysler Freeway and ultimately, I-375), Gratiot Avenue, Orleans Street, and Lafayette Street. The developments in this section include:

The second phase, formerly known as the Lafayette Extension, is to the south, bounded by I-375, Lafayette, Orleans Street, and Jefferson Avenue. The original developments in this portion include:

In 1963, considerable confusion was eliminated when these two phases, along with prior contained (and overlapping) developments variously called the Gratiot-Orleans Development Area, Lafayette Plaisance, and Lafayette Park-University City were consolidated by the Lafayette Park Development Association under the name "Lafayette Park."

A greenway runs through the center of the entire development, beginning at Gratiot and continuing to the two blocks to the South. This is known as Lafayatte Plaisance (between Gratiot and Lafayette), Lafayette Central Park (between Lafayette and Larned), and Lafayette Entry Park (between Larned and Jefferson). From 1960 onward, both of the superblocks are known as simply Lafayette Park. The conventional city block between Larned and Jefferson also contained two of the indigenous buildings that survived the clearcutting: the University Club and Somerset Apartments, and several pre-renewal commercial buildings and one church line Gratiot to the north.