The Past, Present and Possible Future of the RenCen (ft. Mark Nickita)

The Renaissance Center has been at the center of Detroit's skyline since the 1970s - and it's a building with a fascinating past, present, and future. 

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With General Motors moving out and going to two floors of the Hudson's Detroit up Woodward Avenue, in the next year GM and Bedrock will be working together to try to find new uses for the 5.5 million square foot complex that today is mostly offices and a hotel.

I felt like we should learn a bit more about the building, and talk about way to not only redevelop it, but connect it to the rest of the city of Detroit. I say "connect" because the initial design was very intentionally separated from the rest of the city.

Through a number of interior redesigns, the RenCen of today is quite different than what was built. And what we see going forward? Might be quite a bit different than today - even on the outside.

And did you know - with all the talk of residential units being added today - that residential was in the original plan?

To talk about the history, what's going on now and the future? Mark Nickita is our guest. 

Mark Nickita, FAIA is an urbanist, architect, retail entrepreneur, developer, educator, an elected municipal leader, and co- founder and President of Archive DS. He has vast experience in the development, enhancement and the regeneration of pedestrian-oriented urban environments including downtowns, neighborhoods, developed corridors, mixed-use areas and underutilized districts of post-industrial cities. Architectural and urban design projects include adaptive-reuse, historic rehabilitation and new infill buildings in a variety of cities, typically on challenging urban sites that require unique design solutions. 

I hope you enjoy (and learn something) from this conversation. 

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