About
Abir Ali is a first-generation Pakistani and Lebanese American designer born and raised in Detroit, where she currently resides. Formally trained in architecture, her career spans design, philanthropy, public art, economic development, and real estate, navigating diverse spaces through common threads of creativity and advocacy. Abir began her career as an affordable housing architect in Chicago with Landon Bone Baker Architects while also cofounding the acclaimed furniture design studio Ali Sandifer. Her hands-on approach to planning, design, and making cultivated an awareness of larger systems and investments impacting people in their day-to-day lives.
After returning home to Detroit, Abir's work expanded to philanthropy, supporting placemaking through the built environment, arts, and entrepreneurship. Abir has conceptualized and stewarded small investments with big impact from $500,000 to $5 million in public grantmaking initiatives with the Hudson-Webber Foundation, New Economy Initiative and the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation. The most recent initiative, Generator Z, was a visionary storytelling platform for teens to share their lives and influence their opportunities. 1,000 young people received a total of $1 million to reimagine their time outside of school during a global pandemic.
Abir also directs strategies for architecture and public art in real estate. She notably led the activation of the historic Fisher Building to incorporate accessible studio space for creatives, a first in its nearly 100-years. As the inaugural Director of Design and Culture at The Platform, she infused a $500 million real estate development portfolio with art, architecture, and creative partnerships, influencing nearly two dozen mixed-use sites across multiple neighborhoods in Detroit. Abir is currently developing three vacant lots with Women of Banglatown to provide a safe and supportive space by and for immigrant and first generation girls and young women in Detroit’s Banglatown neighborhood.
Abir considers design to be a local action that reverberates on a global scale. She is a sought after juror, critic, and panelist, contributing to discourse around design as a social practice. With a keen awareness of inherited systems and their impact on resources and space for youth, women, immigrants, and people of color, she contributes extensively as an advisor and board member at national and local levels.