Black Bottom Street View exhibit at the Detroit Public Library Main Branch, 2018
Black Bottom Street View
The Black Bottom Street View (BBSV) was originally created in 2018 by architect Emily Kutil, alongside a team of students and community members and donated to BBA in 2019. Since then the exhibit has since traveled across metro Detroit, serving as a powerful tool to honor the legacy of Black Bottom and its people.
The panoramas stitch together over 2,000 archival photographs taken from 1949 – 1950 by the City of Detroit as part of the eminent domain process that led to Black Bottom’s demolition. The BBSV exhibit is regularly exhibited in local public and community spaces and paired with community events, allowing visitors to walk the streets of Black Bottom and learn the history from the voices of the people who once lived there.
BBSV was awarded the Great Places Award for Place Art by the Environmental Design Research Association and Project for Public Spaces in 2022.
The full Black Bottom Street View exhibition consists of:
Panoramas composed of over 2,000 photographs, showing 20 blocks of Black Bottom
32 portals made of plywood, and attached together with metal poles and cables
A large map that shows all of Black Bottom in 1951
Two large occupiable “porches” that can be used as stages
“Black Bottom Street View (BBSV) is a project to visualize and help preserve the history of Detroit’s historic Black Bottom neighborhood.
Our hope is that BBSV helps to make the legacy of the Black Bottom community more visible to us all and provides a better understanding of how this history still teaches us something about the current forms of displacement that are shaping Detroit today.”
Black Bottom Street View is currently on view at the Michigan History Center until November 2025.
To stay up to date about future showings, sign up for our newsletter. If you are interested in hosting the Black Bottom Street View Exhibit, please reach out. We are always seeking new places!
Since 2025 Black Bottom Street View has been shown at the following locations:
Detroit Public Library - Main Branch
Liggett University
Dequindre Cut in partnership with Detroit Riverfront Conservancy
Bert’s Warehouse located in Eastern Market
Michigan History Center