As the future of the Renaissance Center is being decided and one of the towers goes up for auction, Detroiters who have memorialized it as part of the iconic city skyline on their bodies have plenty of thoughts.
Inked Detroiters’ reactions about a proposal from General Motors Co. to partially demolish the RenCen as part of a $1.6 billion redevelopment plan range from heartbreak to pragmatic acceptance.
Denisse Lopez, 40, got a matching tattoo of the Detroit skyline 12 years ago with her best friend because of their love of Detroit. It was done by Southwest Detroit tattoo artist Cruz Castellanos.
“We love Detroit, downtown Detroit for so, so many reasons and we have so many stories,” she said.
The tattoo means a lot, she said, and she views it as a representation of all of her shared memories with her best friend.
“I think of the times, the festivals, the riverfront, just so many great memories,” she said. “(The demolition) breaks my heart. That’s a landmark of Detroit. My tattoo – it’s in there too –so yeah, that breaks my heart.”
On Monday, one of seven of the Renaissance Center’s towers went up for auction with a starting bid of $2.75 million. It’s the latest development in the ongoing discourse around the site’s uncertain future after owner General Motors Co. and Bedrock Detroit in November proposed a partial demolition as part of a $1.6 billion renovation plan. The proposal would remove the two towers closest to the Detroit River and replace office space and hotel rooms with housing, while adding public park spaces to better connect downtown to the riverfront. The owners are requesting $350 million in public subsidies for the demolition.
The public and elected officials are divided on the proposal. In March, after Detroit City Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway urged a historic designation assessment to protect the RenCen from demolition, council members voted 8-1 against studying if the center should be designated as a historic district.
Sarosh Irani, 25, has been following the discussion around the RenCen closely and has more of a business view of the possible demolition.
“I would rather it be demolished if there’s no viable use for it,” said Irani, who got his tattoo in 2022. “I know there’s really no need for that much office space nowadays, and the dimensions and the size of the Renaissance Center’s floor plan makes an office-to-housing conversion really difficult.”
The 21-story tower up for auction is 11% occupied, according to the online listing.
“If it does get demolished and that space is used for something more productive I think that would be great,” he said.
Irani, an amateur photographer, got his tattoo done by Kelli Doneganat Lucky Monkey Tattoo based on a photo he took from Riverside Park, a place where he has many fond memories.
“The tattoo was like a snapshot in time, so my tattoo doesn’t have the Hudson’s tower and I’m sure the skyline will continue to change,” he said. “Skylines of all cities change and evolve over time so I’m kind of ambivalent about it, from that perspective. If it gets demolished that doesn’t mean my tattoo is any less meaningful.”
Stephen Wallace, 28, has the freshest ink, but isn’t too upset about a possible demolition. Wallace got his skyline tattoo done in June by BCOSTON.INK because he always wanted something related to Detroit.
“All my tattoos mean something to me, something that’s important to me and the only one I didn’t have that’s very important to me was the city I was raised in, and that’s Detroit,” he said. “If they do tear [the RenCen] down I guess I’ll always have history on my body. I’ll be able to tell my son ‘This is how the Detroit skyline looked before you were an adult.’”