With a $150,000 grant from the William Davidson Foundation and $100,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town program, the DIA is exploring concepts for creating a public gathering space or "town square" on its front plaza fronting Woodward Avenue.

The project is the first part of a vision DIA Director Salvador Salort-Pons shared with Crain's almost two years ago after taking the helm of the museum.

Salort-Pons said he wanted to work with nearby institutions like the Detroit Historical Museum and Wayne State University to make their shared area into the main town square of Detroit, with the DIA at the heart of it.

He envisioned doing that by transforming the urban plan of the area to create more walkability and by creating inviting entrances and gathering areas, beginning with the DIA's Woodward Avenue plaza.

In announcing the Woodward plaza planning last year, Salort-Pons said feedback from the public and the museum's neighbors would play a vital role as the DIA looked at the best ways to connect the museum grounds to the surrounding community.

"The Davidson Foundation is encouraged by the DIA's early efforts to engage their neighbors, including Midtown Detroit Inc., and others working in partnership with the Erb Foundation in the cultural district," President and CEO Darin McKeever said in an emailed statement.

The museum declined to comment on the status of its planning effort in advance of a public announcement on the planning efforts expected by the end of March.

As the DIA planning launched, so too did planning for green infrastructure between the Wright Museum and science center to absorb stormwater runoff and tie to cultural and scientific educational lessons offered by the institutions. The project was funded with a $54,000 grant from the Erb Foundation.

The thrust of those efforts, beyond their stormwater abatement potential, has been to make the new, landscaped area both culturally beautiful and scientifically relevant, said Sigal Hemy, program officer for the Erb Foundation.

As an extension of that, educational materials tied to the garden would touch on both cultural and scientific lessons such as, perhaps, native plants that were used in healing.

When the Erb Foundation realized there were two outdoor projects taking shape in the Cultural District, it approached Midtown Detroit to see if it would be interested in coming on as an independent convener to lead the master planning effort by expanding the scope of the DIA's planning process and incorporating the stormwater management work happening between the Wright Museum and Michigan Science Center.

Beyond creating a cohesive, unified appearance for the cultural district, the master planning process could increase attendance for the cultural institutions in the district through shared programming and enable the institutions to gain cost efficiencies through shared vendors, she said.

The process is expected to culminate in a menu of options for the cultural district, rather than a single plan, when it wraps up in April 2019, Hemy said.