GM Renaissance Center (Detroit, Michigan)

Canada / Ontario / Windsor / Detroit, Michigan
 hotel, office building
Address:
GM Renaissance Center
P.O. Box 33170
Detroit, Michigan 48232-5170
United States
Phone: 313-556-5000
Fax: 313-556-5108
Website: www.gm.com/

A bit of irony: General Motors World Headquarters is located in a complex of buildings originally proposed and championed by Henry Ford II.

The Renaissance Center, nicknamed the "RenCen," is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in downtown Detroit designed by noted architect John Portman. Now entirely owned by General Motors, the complex has 5.5 million square feet of space. The centerpiece is a 1,298-room hotel, the 73-story 727 foot (221 m) Detroit Marriott at Renaissance Center. Famous for its cylindrical design, the central hotel tower's diameter is approximately 188 feet (57 m). The hotel features a major conference center with 100,000 square feet of meeting space for up to 2,200 guests, including a ballroom with 11,500 square feet, one of the largest in the United States.

In 1977, its central tower opened as the tallest hotel in the world. It remains the tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere and it is still the tallest building in Michigan. The smaller cylinders on sides of all the towers house the elevators. The four surrounding 39-story office towers each reach 522 feet (159 m) and have a total of 2.3 million square feet of office space. Each 39 story tower has a base podium structure with 165,000 square feet for retail space (660,000 ft² total). A major portion of the central atrium area now houses "GM World", a showcase for GM vehicles. In 1981, two 21 story towers (500-600) were added each of which reach 339 feet (103 m). GM gained control of Tower 500 and 600 in 2001. Original plans called for additional office and residential towers which were never built.

Of the more than 8,000 people who work in the complex, about 6,000 are GM employees. In 2003, GM completed its $500 million renovation of the Renaissance Center.
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Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Center
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   42°19'45"N   83°2'21"W

Comments

  • like how they made the towers all glass. the high speed elevator is the best part of the buiding, AND ALL OF YALL THAT HASN'T SAW GM WORLD NEED TO GO SEE IT !
This article was last modified 11 years ago