URBAN NEIGHBORHOOD RENEWAL
Case Studies: Detroit & Fort Worth
July 18, 2023
Tuesday, 6:30 pm
Complimentary Drinks at 6:15 pm
Angelika Film Center
Mockingbird Station
The Dallas Architecture Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing public education about architecture, design, and the urban environment, presents developer Philip KAFKA as he shares Urban Neighborhood Renewal – Case Studies of Detroit & Fort Worth.
Philip KAFKA
Philip Kafka is the President of Prince Concepts, a development company he founded in 2012. Kafka began investing real estate in Detroit in late 2012, where he has focused his work across a previously blighted and 99% abandoned neighborhood in Core City in Detroit. He currently owns 25 contiguous acres where he has completed the development and renovation of 63,000 square feet of previously derelict buildings slated for demolition. This development work has occurred across a variety of programs and manifests as small projects, including the True North live/work housing development and the Caterpillar apartments. Architect Edwin Chen, who previously was in the studio of Frank Gehry, has designed many of these projects for Kafka. The projects are constructed with a consistent attitude – one that promotes and prioritizes high quality space – public and private.
Prince Concepts has also planted over 600 trees across the various development projects working in tandem with landscape architect Julie Bargmann of D.I.R.T Studio. Kafka has also taken his development philosophy to Fort Worth, Texas where the inaugural PS 1200 project, designed by AIA Gold Medal Winner Marlon Blackwell, with landscape design by Bargmann, will have its official opening in Fall 2023.
Kafka’s projects have received many prestigious design awards. In 2021, Kafka’s company, Prince Concepts, was named Best Developer in the Midwest by Architect’s Newspaper, and in 2022, Prince Concepts was named one of the ten most innovative architecture focused companies in the world by Fast Company. PS 1200 is also a finalist for The Dallas Architecture Forum’s Design Recognition Looking Forward in the “Retail and Mixed Use” category.
Kafka serves on the boards of Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize. He is frequently invited to lecture in the architecture departments of Illinois Institute of Technology, Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas, the Harvard GSD, Yale, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University in Detroit.
Join The Forum for presentation which will give attendees the rare opportunity to learn about what an inspired developer is doing in needy neighborhoods to provide new opportunities for growth. We look forward to seeing you on July 18th at the Angelika Film Center for this chance to hear from Philip Kafka!
The Panel is free and open to the public. No reservations are needed to attend this Panel presented at the Angelika Film Center | Mockingbird Station.
