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  #21  
Old Posted May 26, 2014, 2:27 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Guiltyspark View Post
GM wanted to move to their headquarters to their Warren office but that was vetoed by the POTUS.
That would have been a traffic nightmare. I mean, traffic around the Tech Center is bad enough as it is now.

Anyhoo, here's some night time shots. The lights can be fairly bright (which I think GM got in in trouble for because it apparently messes up the flight patterns of some birds or something) but they're an interesting contrast to the sodium yellows. Still seems like a love it or hate it quality.


Fireworks over Downtown Detroit by wintershrooms, on Flickr


Detroit Skyline by Mike Swiech, on Flickr


Detroit Skyline by Mike Swiech, on Flickr


Detroit Skyline by Mike Swiech, on Flickr


20 miles til Detroit by MrsEmpty, on Flickr


IMG_2623-5 by George Clarence, on Flickr


Summer 2013 in Detroit by Jaybird30761, on Flickr
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  #22  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 3:35 PM
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It does look great at night with the new lighting scheme.
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  #23  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 4:52 PM
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I don't mind the complex, but if only it weren't an island, almost completely separate from the city core and if it could be better integrated into the urban fabric.
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  #24  
Old Posted May 28, 2014, 10:32 PM
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Originally Posted by MolsonExport View Post
I don't mind the complex, but if only it weren't an island, almost completely separate from the city core and if it could be better integrated into the urban fabric.
Yeah, but the city was a bit of a warzone when it was built so even though the architect said he was trying to link the city to the river what he really built was a fortress of surburbia dowtown. Just a product of the times I guess. It does look good from Comerica Park, so its location away from the city core isn't all bad.
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  #25  
Old Posted May 28, 2014, 11:35 PM
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GM has done a nice job with the lighting schemes, they're always changing and have different themes depending on the time of year. The building is an icon for this region. You can see it looming from pretty much anywhere in Windsor...makes us feel like we're in a big city when we really aren't.
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  #26  
Old Posted May 29, 2014, 12:01 AM
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Hmmm... I'd be worried about being on the 65th floor of the central tower during a fire. That podium is huge and you'd be stranded in the middle of it.
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  #27  
Old Posted May 29, 2014, 1:01 AM
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Originally Posted by texcolo View Post
Hmmm... I'd be worried about being on the 65th floor of the central tower during a fire. That podium is huge and you'd be stranded in the middle of it.
That'd have to be a pretty unusual fire because the interior podium is mostly bare brutalist concrete with lots of wide open space. I don't imagine any fire would have easy time spreading. Plus, smoke inhalation would only be a problem for those immediately next to the fire in one of the retail sections or something which are nearer to the edge of the podium. The elevators to the hotel (the central tower) are 2 floors/levels below the roof of the podium so even if the smoke rises within, you'll still be mostly fine. As with any building, the biggest danger during a fire would be in confined spaces.
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  #28  
Old Posted May 29, 2014, 1:04 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blitz View Post
You can see it looming from pretty much anywhere in Windsor...makes us feel like we're in a big city when we really aren't.
Yeah, I love looking across to Detroit when I'm visiting family in Windsor.
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  #29  
Old Posted Jun 6, 2014, 9:34 PM
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Without a visual of the river, it's indeed hard to tell where Windsor ends and Detroit begins.

rdw by jodelli, on Flickr





Something old, something new... by mgsmith, on Flickr


A view by chuckh6, on Flickr


A Winter Morning by Bryan Levy Photography, on Flickr


Into the open water by LindaB., on Flickr


Detroit - Windsor by lectricegg, on Flickr

Last edited by animatedmartian; Jun 6, 2014 at 9:46 PM.
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  #30  
Old Posted Sep 6, 2014, 7:29 AM
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Kind of interesting that it's a wrap. These often look more like LED screens at night.

Quote:
GMC's 'Monday Night Football' wrap is RenCen's biggest yet: How it came to be
By Bill Shea. Crain Detroit Business. September 4th, 2014.



The signature element of Detroit’s skyline —the Renaissance Center — is adorned with a massive GMC advertising wrap for the Detroit Lions’ upcoming appearance on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast.

The graphic work, which includes the truck brand logo atop the network’s game logo, was done last week by Rochester Hills-based i.M. Branded, which is co-owned by Roger Penske’s Bloomfield Hills-based Penske Automotive Group.

GMC is the official truck of the National Football League, and the intent of doing the massive wrap is to get the brand in front of the “Monday Night Football” audience — the games averaged 13.6 million viewers last season — when ESPN does secondary shots of the city outside Ford Field during the game.

i.M. Branded, a dba for Automotive Media LLC, designs, manufactures and installs custom vinyl graphic wraps and images for buildings and vehicles. Since 2010, it has had a millwork unit that does the internal build-outs of auto dealerships (fixtures, desks, etc.).

The wrap is approximately 280 feet tall and 125 wide, and is a perforated vinyl window film applied to the exterior of glass that allows people inside the building to still see through the windows, said i.M. Branded President and founder Jim Whitehead. The film is similar to looking through a screen door.

The RenCen wrap was designed and printed, over about 50 hours nonstop, on the firm’s 2,400-pound HP Latex 850 printer, a $250,000 machine that uses eco-friendly ink, he said.

This is the largest wrap to ever adorn the RenCen, Whitehead said, larger than a wrap on the central tower for the Super Bowl and baseball’s All-Star game.

It took five i.M. Branded staffers a week to install the wrap, which will be lit at night this weekend and during the game, and will remain up through September.

While Whitehead didn’t disclose a cost, he said large building wraps begin at $100,000 and can top out at “multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

....

Detroit is Ready by bogray, on Flickr

Other themed wraps.


Superbowl Ren Cen by Ethan's Dad, on Flickr


GM World Headquarters by James Marvin Phelps, on Flickr


2013 Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix #flickr12days by memories_by_mike, on Flickr


Barbara Andrie 5-28-08 by Wordy Nerdy, on Flickr
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  #31  
Old Posted Sep 6, 2014, 10:49 AM
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I've always found the Renaissance Center to be a hard building to understand. On the one hand its massive and unique, the other uninspiring and brutal. The problem is there is just so little to compare it to. It's one of those futuristic 70s designs that there is so little of because not much of it was built during that time, besides the couple of other major buildings the architect did. If this thing was built in the 1980s it would have looked totally different.

Never quite been a fan of the buildings, although I will say the GM remodel of the lobby is impressive and so is the lighting they've added to the top at night. That always looks great!
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  #32  
Old Posted Sep 6, 2014, 2:37 PM
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Dystopian behemoth out of place in Detroit's skyline to date. Strange cause it's also the best known building complex locally, the absolute icon of the automotive empire, worldwide. It's historic and really massive as a single uniform complex, almost like a skyline on its own, distinctive from the actual downtown skyline. It just looks like a challenge to the entire city. It's gonna take quite a few highrises and some planning efforts to finally make it look like a smooth part of downtown.
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  #33  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2014, 8:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet View Post
Dystopian behemoth out of place in Detroit's skyline to date. Strange cause it's also the best known building complex locally, the absolute icon of the automotive empire, worldwide. It's historic and really massive as a single uniform complex, almost like a skyline on its own, distinctive from the actual downtown skyline. It just looks like a challenge to the entire city. It's gonna take quite a few highrises and some planning efforts to finally make it look like a smooth part of downtown.
That is unlikely to happen in the next 50 years unfortunately. Barring GM deciding to build a new modern headquarters.
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  #34  
Old Posted Sep 14, 2014, 5:02 PM
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My flickr images do not seem to be working. I don't know what I am doing wrong :-(

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  #35  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2015, 5:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Guiltyspark View Post
My flickr images do not seem to be working. I don't know what I am doing wrong :-(

There's also a little arrow pointing to the right next to the favorite button on your photo. If you click that and then click the tab that says "BBCode" it has a link ready for you to post on a message board.


293139_532869289282_4400097_n by Hawkeye142, on Flickr
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  #36  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2015, 5:56 PM
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Also, here's some archival photos of the complex under construction.

Via Facebook















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  #37  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2015, 10:25 PM
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  #38  
Old Posted Mar 13, 2015, 10:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by animatedmartian View Post
There's also a little arrow pointing to the right next to the favorite button on your photo. If you click that and then click the tab that says "BBCode" it has a link ready for you to post on a message board.


293139_532869289282_4400097_n by Hawkeye142, on Flickr
Thanks.
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  #39  
Old Posted Apr 26, 2015, 3:19 PM
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It's a massive behemoth of a structure, like the evil headquarters that runs the entire city, and I love it.
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