Detroit’s iconic Renaissance Center was constructed in the 1970s as an answer to the destruction wrought – and social issues underlying – the infamous 1967 Detroit Riot, with the “Renaissance” symbolic of a rebirth of the city.
But now the five-building structure on the Detroit riverfront, viewed from Windsor, Ont., is about to go under the wrecking ball, at least in part.
The towering “rosette” style complex, a cylindrical central tower, the Marriott Hotel with 73 storeys, and four 39-storey surrounding office towers, are to be massively renovated (plans are still in the concept stage), transforming much of its use and footprint functionality.
When first completed almost 50 years ago the “RenCen,” as it’s popularly known, was the largest private development in the U.S. and hosted the tallest hotel in the world.
But over the decades the complex fell on hard times.
RenCen head offices moved to newer competing office parks in the suburbs and older downtown buildings saw massive restorations creating cool attractions for tech firms.
And the structure, though technically downtown, was seen as too “remote” from the rest of the CBD, separated by its brutalist architecture, a concrete berm (since removed), multilane boulevard and river location.
The complex has also been home to General Motors world headquarters and the auto company still owns the buildings.
But the final nail seems to have been the decision last year by the company to move to the new Hudson’s Detroit 49-storey skyscraper, nearing completion, just a few blocks away. Such has been its hollowing out that the RenCen now has only an astonishing less than 10 per cent office occupancy rate.
Jeff Horner, an urban studies professor at Detroit’s Wayne State University, called the RenCen “fortress-like” and “a great example of everything wrong with urban planning in the United States in the 1970s. That place is as divorced form reality as anything.”
The multi-level promenade configuration with byzantine walkways, notorious for people getting lost in, was a “completely wrong-minded building that even people who worked there could take or leave.”
The structure’s architecture aside, not to be disregarded has been the overall “softness of the commercial real estate market” in the Motor City, Horner said.
This has ironically even affected the new Hudson’s Detroit building, which was “scaled back from its original plans. It was supposed to be bigger, taller and higher.”
Regardless, GM and hometown developer Bedrock are partnering for a $1.6 billion total revamp of the RenCen.
The two towers closest to the river would be demolished and the remaining office towers would be reconfigured for housing and offices. Meanwhile, the central cylindrical tower would be rearranged into both a smaller mid-market hotel and higher floors apartments. Finally, the massive concrete podium at the base would be removed. In their places would be a six-acre park connecting to Detroit’s expanding Riverwalk trail with better connections to the CBD.
The project appears a go now that the quasi-public Detroit Downtown Development Authority kicked in $75 million for demolition and park construction. Developers are confident the state will soon approve brownfield redevelopment funds.
Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, a collaborative organization between public and private organizations to boost the city core, said he was “very excited” about the proposal.
“One thing that is really unique about the ability to renovate versus rebuild is you do have an existing shell and structure that reduces the amount of time,” he said. “While it will be a number of years in development, I think the commitment from Bedrock, who would lead the project, is to move very, very efficiently, very quickly.”
Said urban planning professor Horner, “it’s going to be more of a destination now” which ironically is what the original RenCen was meant to be but never quite fulfilled.
