With four days of celebration this week, the LOVE Building, a new hub for social justice and creative community, is officially opening its doors in Detroit’ s Core City neighborhood.

Led by longtime Kresge grantee Allied Media Projects (AMP), the renovated $14 million, five-story building is now a home for AMP and five other like-minded organizations: Detroit Community Technology Project, Detroit Disability Power, Detroit Justice Center, Detroit Narrative Agency and People in Education.

Detroit Justice Center, Detroit Disability Power and Detroit Narrative Agency have all been recipients of general operating support from the foundation’s Detroit Program, as has AMP, which has also received project support in past years.

The renovation of the building and related activities were also supported by a $900,000 cross-team grant from Kresge’s Arts & Culture and Detroit programs.

Besides housing the six organizations, the LOVE Building, at the intersection of W. Grand River and 14th Street, offers a versatile 1,300-square-foot community space for film screenings, art exhibits and other events; an 850-square-foot lounge for small gatherings and two medium-sized rooms equipped for various meeting needs, with special attention to ADA accessibility. A five-story tower structure that has been added to the front of the original building – a new neighborhood landmark – includes two elevators, maintaining ADA accessibility should one have mechanical issues.

“We’re excited to formally welcome the community at large into The LOVE Building and give them a glimpse of beautiful things to come,” said Kwaku Osei, the building’s executive director, of the grand opening. “In many ways this is our opportunity to show folks why we’re so optimistic for our collective future between sharing what our partners in the building are up to, what we’ve planned and what we’re considering, as well as how we’ll leverage this space to be a community asset and vehicle for empowerment of residents, social justice activists and creatives across the city!”

The opening celebrations have included an open house and a townhall meeting. They continue today with the unveiling of a mural honoring influential community members, the opening of an art exhibition and the unveiling of an interactive art installation. Festivities conclude Friday with a DJ party to activate the main event and restaurant spaces. (See the activities here.) Although the building had a soft opening last year, this week loudly announces its arrival on the scene.

“Among the goals here are comprehensive and equitable development for this community to increase density, integrate arts into development and initiate street and landscape improvement along West Grand River,” said Regina Smith, managing director of Kresge’s Arts & Culture Program. Key to that was robust community engagement in development of the project and the establishment of a community advisory board.

Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of Kresge’s Detroit Program, said establishing a well-resourced base in the LOVE Building advances AMP’s ability to support other grassroots organizations across the city while continuing their widely recognized role of providing thought leadership and more tangible support to social justice organizations.

One avenue for that leadership was through the Allied Media Conference. Last year, Allied Media Project announced a decision to “sunset” the conference after 23 years to “to more holistically support our staff, be diligent stewards of our resources and continue to provide quality programming to the AMP network.”

As AMP Executive Director Toni Moceri put it: “The LOVE Building under Osei’s leadership will bring the magic of the Allied Media Conference into the every day of living and working in Detroit for years to come.”

According to the AMP website, the group has provided fiscal sponsorship and other supportive services to for more than 150 groups across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

“Both in Detroit and far beyond, their work has been and continues to be inspiring,” said Jackson.

In an interview this spring with Detroit Metro Times, Osei compared the LOVE Building to a lab to “push the boundaries” on community-rooted economic development and community control and ownership, with programming “based around health, wealth and love.”

He continued: “I think once we’ve demonstrated it in this city, we will be creating a precedent or a model that a lot of cities are very interested in following.”

As to the name, Osei explained, it refers to a previous mural on one side of the building that depicted the letters L-O-V-E in sign language.

Detroit Justice Center, one of the building’s six partner organizations, was featured in the 2020 Kresge Annual Report in this video: