Renaissance Center (deposit photo)
General Motors tells the Detroit Free Press it will pay for the demolition of the RenCen's five towers if it, along with Dan Gilbert, can't secure public funding for the jdevelopment.
Violet Ikonomova of the Detroit Free Press reports:
GM confirmed in a statement to the Free Press that full demolition is a possible alternative to its proposal to partially demolish and renovate the complex, after it faced pushback from a chorus of lawmakers opposed to helping publicly fund a plan to tear down two towers and renovate three. That plan has also drawn critics from the architectural and preservation communities, who called it shortsighted and ill-conceived.
By threatening to tear down the group of skyscrapers that includes Michigan’s tallest if taxpayer support doesn't come through, the developers are trying to force their vision on the public, said Detroit-based urbanist and University of Michigan architecture professor Craig Wilkins.
“It’s not uncommon that big corporations, when they want to do large-scale projects, present things in an either-or fashion to shape the debate in the direction they would like,” Wilkins said. “The idea of ‘if you don’t go with this, then we’ll just tear it all down’ seems like extortion to me, and I don’t think the public should allow itself to be extorted.”
