Sunday, August 24, 2014

Aug 21 - From the Top of the REN CEN and some inside it


Our tour took us to the top of the Ren Cen, about 800' above the ground level. 

First image has a bit of Ann in it but a lot of the Detroit River. Near the ledge (but in the river) is the Detroit Princess boat that has been in other images. The Hart Plaza is just to the right of the ledge. The Circular building is Cobo Hall, the rectangular building behind it is the Cobo Convention Center.


The second image has some of the older towers of Detroit's financial district. The red building seen in the middle window is the Guardian Building noted earlier. The one next to it is One Detroit Center which was built in the early 1990s and is the foremost Neo Gothic office building in the US. It is sometimes called the Twin Gothic because of the two towers (both are made of granite). It is 43 stories and occupied by law offices and Comerica financial corporation.



The third and fourth images show Martin on a huge chair that was made for a single comedy skit on Saturday Night Live. In the skit, Lilly Tomlin played a little girl and to make her look little, the chair was made big. The Marriott Corporation bought the chair in the 1990s and moved it to the bar at the top of the Ren Cen.



The 5th image is not actually taken at the top of the Ren Cen but at the 3rd floor level. It shows an example of how GM has been making the building less austere. When GM bought it, the floor had bare grey structural concrete all over the place. GM has put things like murals on the walls to soften it (they still have a ways to go).



The 6th image (its from the Internet) is of the Borealis. This is a glass sculpture in the North lobby of the Ren Cen (that is the side facing the street entrance). There are two walls both about 50 feet long with glass panels that tilt at incrementally different angles to create a 'wave' effect (installed in the Ren Cen in 2006).


The panels are over 20' high. Each panel is 4" thick and 12" wide. There are about 2000 panels each of which weighs about 50,000 pounds. The creator is Danny Lane who was born in Illinois but at the time of this post lives in England. The seventh image is from an article in a magazine.

August 21 - Of and From the People Mover


At the Ren Cen, we boarded the Detroit People Mover. This system is automated and serves 11 stops in the CBD (actually only 10 were in service that day). The first image shows the tracks leading from the Ren Cen with Cobo Hall on the left and the Detroit Princess on the right.


The second image shows the two car vehicle along a track in front of One Detroit (aka the Comerica Tower).





Image three shows the Comerica Building as seen from the street near the People Mover station (it is from the Internet). The image shows the twin Gothic towers on top. Neo Gothic buildings are pretty rare. One reason they haven't caught on is that they are too.... uh... Gothic. Another is that the expense of the Gothic elements is pretty high and actually reduces the square footage compared to a square tower cross section.








The 4th image shows a building abandoned. It can be seen from the People Mover and speculation is that the sight of abandoned buildings in the CBD, so prominently seen because of their location near the People Mover, led some investors to be frightened of Detroit.


The 5th image shows the base of a different building that is also abandoned. The phrase "Kwame loves Bubba" probably is not a salute to a teen age inter-racial Romeo/Juliet story.  It probably refers to Kwame Kilpatrick who was mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. He was convicted of a number of finance and corruption related felony counts in 2008 (he then resigned his office) but received a light 99 day sentence (this light sentence may be the inspiration for the "Kwame Loves Bubba" graffiti). However he violated the terms of probation and in 2013 was convicted of several dozen addition counts and sentenced to 28 years in prison (his wife was also convicted of felonies of the same nature). Personally, I think the corruption of Detroit (Kilpatrick was not the only corrupt official) was more likely the source of some investors taking a pass.

On August 22 we flew home and actually got to BWI about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and then fairly quickly got our super shuttle.