Back in 2018, Chevy invited me to attend the Detroit Auto Show on the company dime to get an early preview of the then-newly redesigned Silverado. The trip involved a stay at the Renaissance Center — just a quick People Mover ride from the show. I’d been visiting Detroit in January for nearly a decade, and not once had I set foot inside General Motors’ glass-sided headquarters. I was intrigued, to say the least.
My second and more pertinent observation was that the RenCen doesn’t really feel like it’s in a city at all, much less one as populous as Detroit. The complex is effectively severed from its surroundings by swirling ribbons of both river and asphalt. To the west sits the Windsor tunnel entrance; to the east, parking lots for nearly as far as the eye can see. To its north is the massive Jefferson Avenue and to its south, the Detroit River.
Even after packing up for the RenCen in 1996, GM's investment in New Center continued to fortify the community against the blight that crept through surrounding neighborhoods. To this day, it provides convenient housing for employees of neighboring Henry Ford Hospital and the occupants of GM’s old headquarters building on West Grand Boulevard, not to mention the surrounding arts and business districts, which include Detroit icons such as the Fisher Building and Motown Museum.