The Renaissance Center complex of skyscrapers in Detroit began construction in 1973 and opened in 1977, which was right around the time the U.S. government started regulating asbestos in construction products. Because of the timing of their construction, there is asbestos in Towers 300 and 400, which will be demolished in the $1.6 billion redevelopment of the GM headquarters. The presence of asbestos in these towers could lead to some complications, according to The Detroit News.
The asbestos in the Renaissance Center comes from a fireproofing material called Monokote, produced by W.R. Grace & Co. In its day, it was pitched as a “fast and economical” fireproofing application. Monokote was reformulated in the early 1970s, but W.R. Grace was found to still be using an asbestos fiber called tremolite as recently as the mid-1980s.
Although it’s become fairly routine to remove asbestos before demolishing old buildings, the process can add to the cost of demolition by at least 20 percent, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (ELGE).
W.R. Grace, GM, and real estate developer Bedrock, LLC, haven’t publicly estimated the magnitude of the Renaissance Center’s asbestos problem. According to Michigan State University’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety contractor safety manager Zach Hansmann, the standard price for asbestos abatement work is between $15 and $20 per square foot. The combined square footage of Towers 300 and 400 is about 1.1 million.
“If you could find a way to put asbestos into it, they did it,” Hansmann said. “There was asbestos in cigarettes. They put asbestos in baby pajamas and milk warmers for bottles. … It’s in concrete. It’s in just every possible thing.” He also spoke of the abundance of caution when dealing with building materials that may contain the cancer-causing substance. “Generally speaking, if there’s any asbestos material that we detect, we treat it as asbestos-containing,” Hansmann said.
Asbestos removal is a required part of the planned Renaissance Center renovation, but it could add to the project’s time and cost. GM and Bedrock are planning to get around $250 million in public subsidies for the project, a good portion of which could go toward the asbestos removal process.
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like the 1952 United States ship in Mobile Alabama, icon of ex US ship industry to dissapear as an idea strange of artificial reef instead metal recycle, this another icon of detroit is gonna disappear, what happened to you north-americans ? dont you do not like USA FAMOUS sysmbols anymore ? is hollywood also gonna dissapear ? how about empire states building ? yesterday heard on Tv a french smart guy wantth freedom statue back to france, what is happening to you ?
They can fix Asbestos problems, but not the lifters. Wow.
They can save 100% of the demolition costs by having another “911 attack “ . The twin towers had an asbestos cost issue that prevented the demolition until the “terrorist” took them down and the owner conveniently had just increased the insurance on the buildings. He made a future and didn’t have to pay a dime for demolition.
I heard each floor was costing $600K to 900K to remediate prior to the collapse
Yes. And I have said this before. The “A” word is probably the biggest reason GM decided to sell the Renaissance Center. It basically became too large of a moneypit not worth renovating. Their HVAC system is still original from the 70s and to replace it, would require asbestos abatement. Not to mention, they are stuck with an oversized HVAC system consuming a ton of power to serve a bunch of unoccupied floors. The cost of maintaining this building must be staggering.
Its sad to see them move out of this iconic Detroit skyscape building, but its probably a wise financial decision on GMs part. That’s money they can focus on R&D.
Really don’t understand why Detroiters love this place so much.
Obsolete in every way, not that great architecturally, AND full of asbestos?? How much more “Put it out of its misery” do you need?
The sooner the site starts generating tax revenue (versus costing it) the better for everyone.