Earlier this June, the many stakeholders of Oakland County’s historic downtown communities gathered at the Roxy Theatre in downtown Rochester for the 25th Anniversary Main Event celebration for Main Street Oakland County. The nation’s only county-wide Main Street program, MSOC hosts their annual Main Event to celebrate the county’s member organizations and their groundbreaking work – in both the literal and figurative sense – in economic and community development. It’s an awards ceremony that the downtown Farmington community and Downtown Development Authority leaders know well, routinely taking home at least one and often multiple awards at each of the past several events.

It was only last year when Downtown Farmington received the Spirit of Main Street Award; the event’s biggest prize is earned on the strength of a three-minute video produced and submitted by the winning organization, documenting their success in local placemaking and development efforts. And while Downtown Oxford would win this year’s top award, Downtown Farmington was by no means resting on their laurels since their last trip to the Main Event stage, having won both the District Placemaking award for the Masons Corner project and the Main Street Leader award for former DDA director Kate Knight.

“They’re creating this network of cool little public nodes, like Dinan Park and the Masonic park, and connecting them,” says John Bry, executive director of Main Street Oakland County.

A transitional era for Masons Corner in 2022.

MJ GalbraithThe award-winning Masons Corner in downtown Farmington.


That the Masons Corner project won the District Placemaking award as she herself receives the leadership award serves as a fitting final feather in the cap for Kate Knight, who recently left her longtime Farmington role as director of its DDA to become the executive director of the DDA in her hometown of nearby Northville. Jess Westendorf, who worked with Knight at the Farmington DDA since her own hire there in 2019, has since taken over her mentor’s role.

Westendorf worked closely with Knight in developing and executing many of the programs and initiatives that have helped to distinguish downtown Farmington these past several years, one marked by award-winning economic development programs, events, and initiatives that have resulted in new businesses, public spaces, and more. It’s a logical throughline for the downtown community to have Westendorf promoted, a throughline that she plans to extend, as she said upon her hiring, by continuing “to keep building on that energy in Downtown Farmington – creating spaces that bring people in and support the local businesses we all love.”

MJ GalbraithJessica Westendorf, recently named executive director of the Farmington DDA, is credited with public space initiatives and organizing events like the Grand Raven Festival.

Though the competition remains as fierce as ever in a county that buys into the power of placemaking as much as Oakland County does, it’s also no surprise that Masons Corner earned Downtown Farmington the District Placemaking award. The years-long project activated the most prominent yet passive corner in this historic downtown, at first introducing programming and seating to what was then an otherwise underutilized grass lawn. Downtown Farmington smartly turned the community’s attention to the location more and more, like having the signature parade of its Grand Raven Festival stop and play music at the corner each year. It only took a few years for that grass lawn to transform into Masons Corner, a brand new public park complete with interactive public art installations from the well renowned Nordin brothers at Detroit Design Center, artful seating and landscaping installed, and more. To do it, the DDA launched a $75,000 crowdfunding campaign that earned the project a $75,000 matching grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

The corner at Farmington Road and Grand River Avenue has changed dramatically in just a few short years, with the grounds surrounding historic Farmington Masonic Hall now punctuated with a sharply designed community gathering space and high-profile art installations. Even the historic building has received some TLC in recent years, with Blue Hat Coffee owner spending more than a few years, dollars, and jars of elbow grease to lovingly restore the building’s first floor as his coffee shop and cafe. Upstairs, where Farmington Lodge No. 151 still holds court and has since the building’s construction in 1876, the Masons plan renovations of their own.
The corner at Farmington Road and Grand River Avenue has changed dramatically in just a few short years.
What once was a grass lawn easily passed over is now a focal point in the community and a point of pride for many of the different people and organizations involved in its development.

"For the new pieces in Masons Corner, we hope our art pieces will attract visitors from near and far, inviting them to feel the warmth of the fire feature and reflect on Farmington’s rich history while dreaming of its future," says artist Erik Nordin, who created the sculptures with his brother Israel. "We hope the swing sculpture brings smiles and joy, encouraging people to linger, ponder the magic of art, and perhaps inspire someone to bring more art into their home or community."

There are scores of opportunities for Westendorf and plenty of others in the downtown Farmington community to build upon the placemaking prowess exhibited in recent years, with many already in the works.

The multi-million dollar townhome development currently under construction atop the old Maxfield Training Center site is found a block off the main drag of Grand River Avenue; demolition of select buildings in between the two will make way for a public art promenade that provides a direct route from the development to downtown parks and businesses.

The City of Farmington is in the process of developing an ADA-accessible shared-use pathway that connects Downtown Farmington to nearby Shiawassee Park, a project that will include pedestrian bridges, boardwalks, and, perhaps most importantly to downtown businesses, the potential for increased foot traffic.

The downtown location for Farmington Community Library, too, will soon improve upon their share of the public sphere, recently approving plans for a new outdoor amphitheater and outdoor play area with construction expected to begin at the start of the new year.

2025 is also the year where the general public has an opportunity to help shape the direction of downtown Farmington in the years to come. The city is currently in the process of developing not one but three master plans to be adopted come 2026: a City of Farmington Master Plan, Parks and Recreation Master Plan, and Downtown Master Plan. When it comes to city planning, master plans are those guiding documents developed through a long process of public input and expert analysis, ultimately determining the projects and programming to be pursued over the next decade.

These documents aren't just academic. Many of the recent improvements made in downtown Farmington can be found in the pages of the 2016 master plan, including plans for the Farmington Road streetscape improvements, improved public art programming, and, yes, even the creation of what would become an award-winning park at the corner of Farmington and Grand River.