Two of the five towers that comprise Detroit’s Renaissance Center will be razed as part of a major renovation plan for the skyscraper complex. However, how exactly GM and real estate firm Bedrock will make them disappear is uncertain. Based on a list of issues that go along with imploding Tower 300 and Tower 400 in such a confined area so close to the Detroit River, it sounds like the costlier option of dismantling them is the more likely route.
“The risk with implosion is obviously significant in that area because it’s such a confined area,” North American Dismantling Corp. business development director Michael Phillips told the Detroit Free Press. “You don’t want to damage the other property, but also, you don’t want it to get in the river. So protecting for that would be challenging – if that’s the route they choose.”
“Taking down the building, that’s not the problem,” Renaissance Center lead structural engineer David Ruby said of demolishing two of the towers he engineered. “The problem is how do you take it down without damaging any surrounding property and without polluting the air with asbestos and a thousand other things.”
GM and Bedrock are considering using the dismantling of the Union Carbide Building in New York as a model for what to do with the Renaissance Center. Built in 1961, the Union Carbide Building was dismantled one floor at a time starting in 2019, and it took a little over a year to complete the job. It was covered in netting and scaffolding to prevent debris from falling on the streets and sidewalks below.
David Ruby said since the Renaissance Center uses “a fairly simple design” architecturally, the towers “will remain stable as you take down parts and pieces of it.”
“That is certainly more expensive, taking it down piece by piece,” Ruby added. “Because in order to get to the structure you have to take all of the interior finishes out – all of the walls, the glass – it all has to be taken out. But if I implode, then I’m going to have all of the glass in little pieces all over the place.”
Until details like these are worked out, the timeline for the Renaissance Center’s partial demolition is unclear. If the redevelopment goes the way GM and Bedrock are planning, three towers will remain for office, residential, and hotel space, the podium at their base will be gone, and a new riverfront park resembling Chicago’s Millenium Park will be open for the public to enjoy.
Comments
Asbestos? In a building built in the ’70s? I wouldn’t think so.
And, you’d be wrong….
Gut the inside and you got a giant greenhouse to grow weed.😀
What a waste
So, whose fault is it: the engineers who specced the asbestos, or the government agency that mandated it be removed?
Likely? No. Its going to have to be if it needs Asbestos Abatement. Unfortunately its a costly process but probably less costly to fully renovate the building only to suffer from low occupancy as a commercial space.