New renderings for what will be Detroit’s tallest building have been released by SHoP Architects and Detroit’s Hamilton Anderson Associates. The new building will be located on a 2-acre plot in Downtown Detroit; a plot which was occupied by Hudson’s Department Store before it was demolished in 1998. The released images show a residential tower that extends 734 feet high, standing on a 9-storey podium. The total area of the project is 1.2 million sq ft which include office, commercial, technology, arts and cultural facilities, in addition to a parking garage for 700 cars.
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The project is expected to be the core of downtown Detroit as SHoP principal William Sharples explains, “The building is conceived around a huge and inspiring new public space; a year-round civic square that, both in its architecture and its culture, will foster and convey the feeling we all share when we work together to imagine what this great city can become.”The project developer, Detroit real estate firm Bedrock, is hopeful that the project will revitalize the seemingly lifeless downtown area ever since the Hudson Department Store was demolished.
© Flickr user gab482. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
The 25-storey building was once the highest department store in the world and it was the heart of the city’s shopping district. Its site has been left vacant for the past 19 years.“Our goal is to create a development that exceeds the economic and experiential impact even Hudson’s had in the city,” said Dan Gilbert, co-founder of Bedrock. “We believe this project is so unique that it can help put Detroit back on the national — and even global — map for world-class architecture, talent attraction, technology innovation and job creation. The project construction will start in December 2017 and is expected to finish in December 2020.
Yosra is an architect, writer, and teacher. She is always into learning something new. Her life motto is: "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” One day she will travel the world and visit its architectural wonders. In the meanwhile, she contends herself with reading and writing about them.