Here’s what attendees from around the country had to say about the Southfield City Centre workshops, part of the American Planning Association’s 2026 National Planning Conference.
Workshop: “America’s First Suburban Mall: Northland City Center Redux”
• Heather Clevland, Washington – “It’s so helpful to see how Southfield is making it all work – how the resources came together to get all this accomplished.”
• Donquetta Singleton of Collierville, TN – “This is a great example of revitalization, and it is something I hope my community is able to do one day.”
• Jerry Rusthoven of Sunset Valley, TX – “I think the tour is great. I just finished a book about the history of malls in America, and this fits right into what I read about.”
Workshop: “The HeArt of Placemaking in a Suburban Community”
• Logan Witter of Sugar Hill, GA – “I am absolutely enjoying it. This area is very similar to the city where I work and grew up in, so I was interested in how other people do these things.”
• Erin Brown of Dayton, OH – “I love the workshop so far. It’s great to see that not everything has to be done at once. What we’re seeing in Southfield is kind of an incremental approach – that over time the whole effect builds up and affects real change.”
• Ravi Venkataraman of South Burlington, VT – “It’s been great. It’s tapping into how we can have more projects in the city I work for – how to generate funding and interest and how to implement the projects.”
• Erin Smith of Carver, MN – “Terry Croad is doing an excellent job. Southfield is great in the way it’s committed to art and making it accessible — and showing us real ways a city can start an art program. They’re giving us real actionable ways we can start small and build art in the communities where we live and work.”
