After visiting Detroit twice in the 2000s, I always saw the RenCen as sort of a tragic representation of Detroit - here was a majestic group office towers, surrounded by decay and de-industrialization of Detroit. The downtown core was horrible - I've never seen so many dilapidated & abandoned buildings. I always thought the Americans put on a band-aid on a gaping wound when they built that thing - the auto industry around them was crumbling and Detroiters were burning down their houses for insurance money and leaving the city. I hope it's better this time.
RenCen is cool but probably needs to be heavily redone from the inside out and this is probably the time to bail. I do hope RenCen 2.0 is more of a mixed use complex along the lines of the original concept which included more towers... More housing, more hotels, more retail and entertainment. It could/should/would be a major destination hub for the region under the right management...
yeah, why didn't they complete the project? there was supposed a whole ecosystem built around the towers and much of it was never completed. this project has been abandoned so many times by so many of these irresponsible people
It is time for American leaders to find messaging to help its citizens find peace with reality. America is no longer the center of manufacturing and automobiles. As a result, America can no longer spend with abandon and must reimagine what makes this nation great and refocus our limited resources otherwise, we will look like Great Britain (fixated on past glories while other nations pass it by).
Which building are you referring to? The original GM building on Grand Blvd known as Cadillac Place is still there across from the Fisher Tower. If you mean J.L Hudson's, yes, I totally agree with you. It was a huge mistake when that building was demolished back in '98. Huge mistake! Because it created a void to what we see today and building two boring structures in place. The least they could have done is copy the same architecture and materials as the original Hudson's building.
It is a sign of GM’s brass idiocy as usual. Then and now. The Reinassance Center is an eyesore. Developing a glass skyscraper in a sprawling land when there were plenty factoriy buildings rotting away. A monument no less to their arrogance and self absorbency . And now leaving it behind to lease a shiny new building. . Guarantee they won’t find tenants , while paying property taxes , on the old one. No one will want to take tenancy in that mausoleum. Little wonder they make lousy cars, close doen US plants , have to import vehicles from China ,their EV program is a disaster, and had to go hat in hand to ask for a government bailout. The decision making was coming from some “ivory towers “!
Better figure out what to do with it because if you leave a place to be abandoned it will sprawl out and effect others. We need to stop neglecting and abandoning our cities. It only perpetuates issues. This building is an iconic Portman and should not fall into disrepair.
they should do something preservation wise, if they can retrofit the sears tower they can retrofit the ren cen, also the ren cen has arguably more architectural charm than the rather bland, generic 2020s era hudson tower, (people may like 2010s/2020s architecture now but gen z is already complaining about it)
Commercial real estate is dying. Companies don’t want to rent out big building when their workforce can stay home. Companies save money doing this. The only companies suffering are, you guessed it, commercial real estate companies.
Why would they do that? They own their massive complex in Auburn Hills, everything under one roof. Wouldn't make sense to move their corporate offices away from their product development and such.
@@n7y8c7 Stellantis no longer has any Americans in senior management. CDJR US management exist only to carry out orders from Europe. Just one reason why Jeep is trying to be a luxury brand. It isn't but try telling Carlos that.
GM was absolutely horrible for far too long, but current GM isn't near that old company anymore. They still have plenty of things that need to be fixed, but Buick has continuously been ranked pretty high in CR and JDpower studies.
Financially, it probably makes sense. Cheaper & better to lease two floors of a new building than to try and selectively renovate those old ren cen monstrosity buildings. My guess is they will become partially empty. Sad...
Sad. I see this as a symbol of GM's fall from being the world's biggest and mightiest company in the world to a sad little shell of themselves. Barra's tenure has been full of change for the sake of change, and this is another result of that. Sad to see. Maybe one day GM can rise again and dominate the industry as they once did...it'd doubtful, but it would be great to see.
Well, let's see...and if I'm NOT mistaken, Ford was one of the original inhabitants of the building back in the 80's when it was brand new right? They went out without ANY fanfare and GM moved in Hmm..! There's something more here than meets the eye or what's being reported. GM is in big-trouble and Ford may be as well. Chrysler, I think has its "WHQ" somewhere in a "strip-mall" along Woodward in the 6-8 mile Rd. area. I remember watching a Lee Iacocca video some years ago and the topic of "What was his opinion of the infusion of Japanese automakers in the world market"...to which he lightly "scoffed" and downplayed it ever happening. MAN !!! The guy was a freaking genius, but he was a mere mortal and had his shortcomings right? Ford on the other hand I THINK got it right by renovating the old MC station in Corktown but at what a colossal price.
I used to work in one of RenCen architect, John Portman's hotels, the Bonaventure. What a disaster of a building that was and probably still is. Inside it was like a cross section of an ant hill enclosed in glass. They loved him in China though.
A brutalist futurist master that few American's actually enjoy or appreciate. Not my cup of tea other but they are unique and uniquely American in many ways.. L.A., Atlanta, NYC, Detroit all have his stamp on their skylines...
General motors can stay in the Rencen ,. Or we can Liquadate and close down General Motors 's waste and corporate theft, #Bakertilly #Japan #Bandai 🙏 for Detroit #detroit #michigan #Toyota
A fast shrinking company gm no longer needs or has money to update the RenCen which it owns but just wants to lease a little bit of Gilberts new building and sell the RenCen to save money in the long run.
Makes a lot of sense to move into a brand new much smaller footprint when most of your people don't work on that specific location. Hopefully the renn cen gets redone into mixed use. Detroit has so much potential and the downtown areas are in a comeback mode
The only reason GM is in detroit in the first place is it's part of the deal with the bankruptcy. GM has less than 850 employees in the massive ren cen building. GM doesn't need that amount of space. Another fact is employees hate driving into and working in detroit. I don't blame them, the crime there is atrocious.
Ford & GM built the Auto industry and nowadays the competition is much steeper. Now they downsize, this is what happens with competition, growth decline.
So the RenCen is outdated... Just insure the heck out of it, do some internal prep work, and get some ideologues to fly planes into it. Then you get to build something new in it's spot! 👍
American car companies went to crap when they let the Government in. The union had better kick them out or they will be out of their jobs. The American government must keep its nose out of American businesses.
