The Dallas Architecture Forum will present developer Philip Kafka as he shares Urban Neighborhood Renewal: Case Studies of Detroit & Fort Worth.

Kafka is the President of Prince Concepts, a development company he founded in 2012. He began investing real estate in Detroit in late 2012, where he has focused his work across a previously blighted and 99% abandoned neighborhood in Core City in Detroit. He currently owns 25 contiguous acres where he has completed the development and renovation of 63,000 square feet of previously derelict buildings slated for demolition. This development work has occurred across a variety of programs and manifests as small projects, including the True North live/work housing development and the Caterpillar apartments. Architect Edwin Chen, who previously was in the studio of Frank Gehry, has designed many of these projects for Kafka. The projects are constructed with a consistent attitude, one that promotes and prioritizes high quality space, public and private.

Kafka’s projects have received many prestigious design awards. In 2021, Kafka’s company, Prince Concepts, was named Best Developer in the Midwest by Architect’s Newspaper, and in 2022, Prince Concepts was named one of the ten most innovative architecture focused companies in the world by Fast Company. PS 1200 is also a finalist for The Dallas Architecture Forum’s Design Recognition Looking Forward in the "Retail and Mixed Use" category.

Kafka serves on the boards of Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize. He is frequently invited to lecture in the architecture departments of Illinois Institute of Technology, Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas, the Harvard GSD, Yale, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University in Detroit.