Long before the Forest Campus, Detroit Space Lab served as its unofficial prototype. Starting with a single loft in 2014—a year after Detroit's bankruptcy—the project became a hands-on laboratory for testing how renovated space could function. Each property added to the portfolio (eventually four lofts and a duplex) was a new experiment: different layouts, different guest experiences, each iteration refined by feedback. Over twelve years and thousands of guests, the work spanned renovation and property management, building a working knowledge of what makes a space durable, livable, and financially sound, which was borne out in the portfolio's quadruple-digit returns.

That same build-test-refine approach is the model for the Forest Campus, where students experiment in the management of space through construction, management, and stewardship. Just as Detroit Space Lab treated each loft as a live experiment in the use of space, students will build and adapt structures on the Forest Campus, learning through iteration rather than instruction, and testing their own ideas about how space can be reshaped to serve the people who use it and the environment. As part of prototyping the Forest Campus, in 2024 we hosted four high school interns from the Nueva School at Detroit Space Lab for two weeks to stay overnight on property, participate in the management of our bed and breakfast, build raised bed gardens, and make physical improvements.

As of summer 2026, we have sold our entire Detroit property portfolio as we shift our operations to Massachusetts.