Growing up in the late 1970s with a developer father and an artist mother, Michael Poris learned early on about the rich built environment of his native Detroit. “I met [Minoru] Yamasaki [the Detroit-based architect best known for designing the original World Trade Center], I grew up in a midcentury neighborhood that was designed by the guys who came out of [Eero] Saarinen’s office, Cranbrook was right there, downtown Detroit had great buildings from the early 20th century,” he says. “I was exposed to so much, but I don’t think I realized or appreciated that.”
After college in Ann Arbor, Poris explored the world. He spent a year in Israel, attended the Yale School of Architecture, and moved to Los Angeles, where after graduating from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, he cut his teeth with the likes of Frank Gehry and Richard Meier. In 1994, he returned to Detroit to establish McIntosh Poris Associates with his childhood and college friend, Doug McIntosh. “We were attracted by downtown,” Poris says. “There were all of these great intact buildings that were empty and offered interesting opportunities for young architects.”
His projects continue to revitalize Motor City. Here are a few of note:
3900 block of Woodward Avenue
A highlight of this mixed-use rejuvenation of a street that Poris says has been “underutilized for many years” is the refresh of a historic movie theater into a performance space.
3900 block of Woodward Avenue
DuCharme Place
The multiphase residential complex across from Mies van der Rohe’s Lafayette Park takes cues from that signature housing development. Poris will hide parking, provide courtyards, and “integrate everything into the landscape,” he says.
DuCharme Place
The Foundation Hotel
For the Aparium Group’s 99-key hotel, set in a 1920s brick and terracotta building that once served as headquarters for the city’s fire department, Poris—who is handling the architecture, while Chicago-based Simeone Deary Design Group will craft the interiors—reused the distinctive red doors and fire truck bays as the hotel’s main entrance and public space. Other original features were also retained, including high ceilings, a dining room with original glazed brick and tile work, a courtyard, and the chief’s bedroom, now transformed into a suite.
The Foundation Hotel
Prime + Proper
Located at the base of a recently renovated apartment building, the steakhouse’s dark woods and light stone will complement a black, gold, and white color scheme. A “great basement party room” features antique brass and cowhide that mingle with modern finishes, Poris says.
Country Club of Detroit
For the Grosse Pointe Farms site, Poris relocated the bowling lanes that covered the pool and turned the natatorium into a state-of-the-art fitness center, with a newly revealed arched ceiling. “Everything looks like it’s been there all along,” he says.
East Riverfront Framework Plan
Along with several other local firms working under the guidance of SOM, Poris is tackling an ambitious two-mile activation that “makes the river walk into a continuous park and builds on some of the heritage of the industrial buildings found there.”
