Preservation Detroit suggests local historic district designation for RenCen
Preservation Detroit is adding its plea for "adaptive re-use" to the discussion of what to do with the Detroit Renaissance Center complex known as RenCen when General Motors moves out.
"While we understand that only two towers are currently being considered for demolition, we believe this decision would have a lasting negative impact on the City," the organization said in a statement posted on its social media.
"The RenCen is a unique and integral part of Detroit's civic and architectural history, prominently featured in images of our downtown skyline and nearly as recognizable as the Old English D. Any changes being proposed to this iconic landmark should be approached with the utmost care and diligence."
The office complex that became a recognizable multi-tower landmark for the city opened in 1976. General Motors purchased the facility in 1996 and made it the company's world headquarters.
Almost a year ago, GM and real estate firm Bedrock announced an agreement that called for plans to redevelop the Renaissance Center as GM moves its headquarters to the site of the former J.L. Hudson Department Store in downtown Detroit. As a leadup, GM, Bedrock, the city of Detroit and Wayne County have been involved in discussions on what to do with RenCen.
By last fall, redevelopment plans for the Renaissance Center had morphed into a redevelopment of the site. Two towers would be removed under that proposal, creating a new pedestrian promenade and allowing for direct access to the riverfront.
Preservation Detroit pointed to its status as "the city's oldest and largest preservation organization," and support from co-signers in another idea presented this week. The co-signers were The American Institute of Architects, Detroit; Docomomo_US/MI; the Michigan Historic Preservation Network; and the National Organization of Minority Architects, Detroit.
The idea as explained by Preservation Detroit:
"We urge the City of Detroit to pause and more thoughtfully consider the future of this famous, historic, and renowned Detroit structure. One way of ensuring protection of the entire property, including all five towers, is designation as a local historic district. Additionally, we recommend that the Historic Designation Advisory Board be empowered to study the eligibility of the RenCen for listing on the National Register of Historic Places."
A letter detailing that request, and sent to Detroit City Council, was dated Monday.
"The story of the Renaissance Center is essential to Detroit, as it has a close association with a profoundly transformational era of our history. The modern and vibrant architecture of 1970s Detroit directly mirrored the changing landscape of its politics. The RenCen was a key inflection point in city history and represents an unprecedented cooperative effort between the business community in Henry Ford II and the new city government of Coleman A. Young," that letter said.
CBS News Detroit reached out to the City of Detroit media relations office for comment, and got the following response:
We support the plan to save most of the Ren Cen through demolition of two towers and preservation of the rest, as that is the only viable plan to keep any of it. The only other realistic options are either full demolition, or for the five towers to remain vacant indefinitely as a new international symbol of blight in Detroit.
The partial demolition and reuse approach also allows us to fix a historic wrong by removing the multistory pedestal that has made the Ren Can a confusing "city within a city" and make it an accessible destination that ties in with a newly redesigned water front area between the remaining buildings and the river.
What preservation advocates would be preserving would be five ghost towers that would be an albatross not only to the downtown real estate market, but to the region's. We've lived through that once with the massive Hudson's building, which sucked the life out of the downtown real estate market for years because there was no vision or leadership to address it once it went vacant. Detroit is not going to make that mistake again with the Ren Cen.
The video above previously aired on April 11, 2024.