|
Detroit Links Scott
Campbell (734) 763-2077 Thursday, September 25, 2003 |
(Draft version under construction -- additions & corrections welcome via email)
"To understand the Renaissance Center, you have to understand the basic situation of Detroit when we started the project. The first time I went, at the request of Mr. Ford, I stayed at the Pontchartrain Hotel. I got out of a taxi, and as I was checking in I was told to not walk on the streets. If I left the hotel, I had to take a taxi to go to a restaurant and when I came out of the restaurant I had to take a taxi back. This was the circumstance in which we found ourselves." -- John Portman, quoted in Diamondstein, 1985, p. 217.
"I've been criticized for turning my back on the city and building these great interior spaces, or building a plastic environment so that people don't have to go out to the streets. That criticism is beyond belief. It's like saying you shouldn't build these great spaces in a city even of the people enjoy it ... a city is a great and glorious thing. A city can stand great interior spaces as well as great exterior spaces; it's an orchestration of all kinds of environments that adds variety and interest and excitement to a city." John Portman, quoted in Mullen, 1985, p. 180.
| 1967 | Detroit riots/civil unrest. |
| 1970 | Detroit Renaissance, a group of business leaders, was founded to help formulate Detroit's future |
| November 24, 1971 | Henry Ford II, head of Detroit Renaissance, Inc., announced plans (to the mayor and city council) for the construction of the largest privately-financed project in the world -- the Renaissance Center. He also announces selection of the architect John Portman. |
| April 25, 1972 | The Detroit City Plan Commission unanimously approved the rezoning for the the project. (though apparently there was some concerned voiced about the the high-rise concept.) The City Council would then approve the rezoning on May 3, 1972. (Already there was criticism by others that the project was not the best strategy to revitalize the downtown, and in fact that it would do the opposite.) |
| May 22, 1973 | Ground is broken for the Renaissance Center on Detroit's river front. Under construction is the first of the project's three phases (office space and condos that were to be Phase III were never built), which include a 70-story, 1,500-room hotel (the tallest in the US?) and four 39-story office buildings owned by Ford Motor Land Development Corp. (on a 32 acre site of river front warehouses, etc.). |
| 1974 | Coleman Young elected as first black mayor of Detroit (mayor until 1993), replacing Mayor Roman S. Gibbs (1970-73). |
| March 15, 1977 | Renaissance Center officially opens (designed by Atlanta-based architect John Portman, who also designed Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, and the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles) |
| 1978 | Mayor Young and the city's Downtown development Authority (DDA) invite a team of architects from the study the RenCen. The resulting study is critical of RenCen's design features, especially the resulting isolation. The study was also critical of the city's poor river front planning and its general lack of overall planning. |
| 1979 | Groundbreaking for Phase II. Towers 500 and 600, with each containing 285,000 square feet, will be built. |
| 1981 | Phase II opens (two office towers to the east). |
| 1982 | City of Detroit statistics measure the population of the CBD in 1982 as 37% lower than the population in 1970 (Mullen, 1985: 184). |
| 1983 | The DDA writes a study (not immediately published) critical of the unusually high vacancy rate (38%) for the retail space in the RenCen, and observes that the RenCen's shops failed to become a successful regional shopping center or even capture a significant share of the local market. (Mullen, 1985: 184). |
| 1983 | Four insurance companies that bankrolled the center's construction -- Equitable Life, Aetna, John Hancock and Travelers -- plus a Ford subsidiary, assume 63 percent (or 53%?) ownership. (the Center was in default in its mortgage payments for the second time in two years). (Mullen, 1985: 184). |
| 1984 | American National Resources buys Phase II. Chicago-based Rubloff takes over management of RenCen. |
| 1985 | Building gets a multimillion-dollar renovation, including a new Jefferson Avenue entrance, pedestrian walkway and remodeled hotel lobby. |
| 1987 | People Mover begins operation (a small-scale aerial train linking the RenCen, Greektown, and other downtown attractions). |
| July 1993 | California-based Koll Co. buys Rubloff and assumes control of RenCen management. |
| May 1996 | General Motors Corp. announces it will buy RenCen from Highgate Hotels in Texas (to relocate GM from its Alfred Kahn-designed headquarters -- occupied since 1921 -- a few miles north in the city's New Center area on West Grand Boulevard). Price? $73 million. (original construction cost? various sources place it at $337 million or $460 million). GM will spend $500 million (one source's figure) for renovations. |
| Jan. 1998 | Ford announces that its Lincoln-Mercury division will move from Detroit's Renaissance Center to Irvine California (to be closer to the California design centers). |
| Dec. 1999 | GM officially moves from their New Center location into the RenCen. (last of the remaining GM employees scheduled to move by Oct. 2000). RenCen will eventually house 7,000 - 8,000 GM workers. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (of Chicago) will do the redesign. Among other changes, the 2-story berms along Jefferson will be removed to create a more "pedestrian-friendly entrance." also plans for redevelopment of a 25-acre site to the east into River East" |
| Sept. 2000 | GM hires Taubman Centers Inc. to fill the retail space at the Renaissance and Millender Centers. |
| Jan. 2001 | scheduled completion of Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center renovation. [confirm date] |
| December 2001 | scheduled opening of new Wintergarden (a set of shops and restaurants / food court at the south end of the RenCen within a 5-story glass atrium, facing south to the Detroit River). |
| early 2002 | scheduled opening of GM Heritage (an interactive display of the automaker's history), and the opening of a new entrance along East Jefferson. [confirm date] |
Sources include:
Detroit News
6/21/00
Detroit Free Press
www.visitdetroit.com
Rachel B. Mullen. 1985. "Renaissance Center," in Tod A. Marder (ed.),
The Critical Edge: Controversy in Recent American Architecture.
The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers University) and the MIT Press.
(pp. 175-188).
Barbaralee Diamondstein. 1980. American Architecture Now.
New York: Rizzoli.
Two exposures of downtown Detroit (early 20th Century)