Renaissance Center (Detroit,MI)

   Located in Downtown Detroit  is the tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere that features the largest rooftop restaurant called the Coach Insignia.  It has been the tallest building in Michigan since its 1977.  It is home to one of the big three car company's in North America, it has a movie theater, and a great view of the Detroit River.  This place is the Renaissance Center. 
  
    In 1970, Ford Motor Company Chairman Henry Ford II teamed up with other business leaders to form Detroit Renaissance, a private non-profit development organization, which he headed in order to stimulate building activity in the city.  In 1971 the Renaissance Center became the world's largest private development with a building cost of $500 million. In its first year of operation it generated over $1 billion in economic growth for the downtown.
  
   The first tower of the Renaissance Center opened on July 1, 1976.  For tower 1 of the first five towers was covered with 2,000,000 square feet of glass, and used about 400,000 cubic yards of concrete.  Phase I of the Renaissance Center cost $337 million to construct, employing 7,000 workers.  Thousands of people moved Detroit, because they saw the opportunity of jobs here so in 1977, the central hotel tower of the Renaissance Center, which opened as the Western International Detroit Plaza Hotel or better known as the Detroit Marriott. Since 1986, the Renaissance Center's central tower has held the distinction as the tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere.  Since more and more tourist were coming to see the Renaissance Center the city of Detroit decided that the Renaissance would be one of the stops on the people mover.  Also they placed a GM World exhibit down stairs of the Renaissance where you can look at and even get in the new cars from GM.
   

The Wintergarden

   Down the line they wanted to remodel the Renaissance Center so all the offices was in one building and the entertainment was in another.The $500 million renovation of the Renaissance Center completed in 2003 has helped improve Detroit's economy. Together, GM's renovation of the Renaissance Center and the Detroit Riverwalk exceeded $1 billion; the project constituted a substantial investment in downtown. More than 10,000 people work in the complex.  In 2001 the Wintergarden was added to the Renaissance Center faces the Riverfront and provides panoramic views of the Windsor skyline. The complex connects offices, the hotel, retail specialty shops, restaurants, a jazz club, and a movie theater. A pedestrian-friendly glass entryway has replaced the former concrete berms along Jefferson Avenue. The redevelopment provides the GM World display of vehicles, a restored hotel, a renovated rooftop restaurant, and the addition of GM's corporate logo to crown the top of the building. Construction of the lighted glass walkway facilitates ease of navigation encircling the interior mezzanine.The completion of the Renaissance Center was in 2004.