MODCaR, launched in 2012 by Assistant Professor of Architecture Anya Sirota, Jean Louis Farges, and Associate Professor of Architecture Mireille Roddier, was awarded $25,000 by the Detroit Knight Arts Challenge for their idea to use the power of design to produce vibrant civic spaces by bringing together architects and creatives with community advocates.

MODCaR was one of 56 projects chosen from a pool of more than 1,400 applicants from metro Detroit's arts scene by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Miami-based nonprofit, which gave $2.1 million to fund the inaugural Detroit Knight Arts Challenge.

The month-long application process opened March 25 and gave individual grants ranging from $5,000 to $200,000 to those who best answered the question: "What’s your best idea for the arts?"

MODCaR (The Metropolitan Observatory for Digital Culture and Representation) was launched in 2012 with support from a Taubman College Research on the City grant by Anya Sirota, Jean Louis Farges and Mireille Roddier. As an open platform, MODCaR promotes contemporary architecture, design and urban research by building multidisciplinary collaborations between people who share an interest in public space and a belief in its social, collective and conceptual value.

Read this Detroit Free Press article for more on the Detroit Knight Arts Challenge and for information on other projects funded.