Video History of the building of Detroit's Renaissance Center

**eriedearie** · September-11-09, 08:42 AM

Just got this today. I had not seen this before. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6RlUsi_-ZA

**jackie5275** · September-11-09, 09:42 AM

That was pretty cool. I was a little kid when this was being built. Does anyone know what was in that place before the rencen was built?

**eriedearie** · September-11-09, 09:51 AM

Jackie, if I'm not mistaken, I believe there were several pharmaceutical companies down that way. I remember going on a job interview at one.

The father of one of my childhood friends watched the structure being built. He would take the bus to the construction site every morning. He'd sit on a bench across Jefferson and watch the workers. I'm always reminded of him when I see the Ren Cen.

**KENSINGTONY** · September-14-09, 01:31 PM

There were two storage silos down there too.As I recall,they had a devil of a time knocking them down becuase they were highly reinforced.I believe they were designed to hold flour or grain.
I happened to be on jury duty the day the RenCen opened so I and some of my fellow jurists wandered over there to look around and of course promptly got lost in there.I rememeber thinking too how cold and unappealing all the concrete forms in the place looked to me and how generally dark it was in there.

**Detroitnerd** · September-14-09, 01:40 PM

Love the jazz keys.

**the rock** · September-14-09, 02:25 PM

In addition to the silos, the Robin Hood storage building had to come down too. I was delivering a closing argument to a WC jury in Judge Canham's court room on the front side of the CC Building when one of the jurors yelled "The Robin Hood factory is on fire". Well it was smoking that's for sure. So much for the closing argument. Canham let me start over after a ten minute recess during which time all the juror's went to the large front side windows and observed the [[furthur)demise of the Robin Hood structure.

I have e pictures of the construction of the RenCen which I took from the roof of the Guardian Building from the Spring of 1972 until March of '77 when the place opened for business, but my infamous/ill-fated closing argument is my favorite recollection of the construction.

**cman710** · September-14-09, 02:56 PM

Thanks for posting that very interesting video. I was a bit surprised to hear the claim that Detroit was the world's fourth largest financial center. I am not sure that was true at the time.

**Detroitnerd** · September-14-09, 03:00 PM

Oh yes it was true. And there's still a lot of wealth here. Just in a few hands.

**R8RBOB** · September-14-09, 03:19 PM

Thanks for the link.

IMO, the RenCen should have been built on the other side of Jefferson. The riverfront should have design like Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. For decades the riverfront was wasted because we had industry hogging the riverfront for themselves. Maybe in this century Detroiters will get it right and make the riverfront to be a true attraction.