When Tyree returned to the same neighborhood again as an adult after serving in the Army, things had only gotten worse. In his words, his neighborhood, and Detroit in general, looked as if “a bomb went off.”

Started in 1986, Tyree Guyton’s Heidelberg Project was his attempt to reclaim an area that had become so run-down and unsafe that people were afraid to walk through the area, even during the day time. Using paint, refuse from the neighborhood, and a small army of local kids, Tyree began transforming abandoned houses into massive works of art.

The project occupies the entire block and is made up of some 22 individual art projects.

Among the most significant are the “Dotty Wotty House,” “Noah’s Ark,” and “Faces in the Hood,” portaits painted on car hoods set into the ground.

Via Atlas Obscura for tons more pictures.