Lafayette Park is the largest collection of Mies van der Rohe architecture in the world and represents a successful urban renewal development. Its combination of Alfred Caldwell's landscape design and Ludwig Hilberseimer's planning make it a rare and progressive example of total community planning. The development replaced a former slum with a collection of high-rise towers and townhouses that accommodated new modern tastes, a suburban sense of landscape, and an urban proximity to neighbors, shops, schools and downtown Detroit. It has historically appealed to middle-class residents of varying ethnicities and has maintained this character from its completion to today.