The Gift

credit: Flickr User Jason A. Howie

When Detroit's historic North End was being ravaged by blight, Patrick Bouchain and Jean Louis Farges decided to turn a abandoned warehouse into a community library.

But instead of accepting a $250,000 grant from the philanthropic foundation that had offered it, Bouchain and Farges returned the money.

"It was a sobering declaration that the complexities of producing social impact design within communities marred by long-standing neglect, and highlighted the nuanced, occasionally fraught, nexus between philanthropy and the practice of architecture and urban design," they write at the Detroit Free Press.

"Thus, this story is as much about a project that never was as it is about ongoing discussions of the role of design in fostering social change, the stewardship of philanthropic resources, and the often challenging, contested paths to positive urban transformation," they continue.

Bouchain and Farges say they wanted to create a place where people could learn, work, and play.

But in Detroit, "the promise of collectivity and democratic resource distribution persistently clashes with reality," they write.

"The local government, stretched thin across a vast urban territory in decline, is ill-equipped to provide the very basics: public education, stable housing, transportation, and access to healthcare for its residents."

So they turned to Detroit-based nonprofit Const

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