Towers Around the Country

Plans evolve in Detroit, Boston and L.A.

Skyscraper Plans Scaled Back in Motor City

In Detroit, plans for a 480-ft-tall skyscraper are on hold, and those for another, Bedrock LLC’s mixed-use tower on the former site of the J.L Hudson department store (ELEVATOR WORLD, December 2018), have been scaled back from 62 stories, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat reported in February, citing the Detroit Free Press and Curbed Detroit.

Michigan Opera Theatre, the entity behind the 480-ft-tall tower on the site of the 1922 Detroit Opera House, cited changing market conditions for its decision. Bedrock, meanwhile, announced in late January it still plans to create a “tremendously impactful” building, though it will not be the city’s tallest. Ground was broken on the site in December 2017.

Bedrock has hardly been idle in the Motor City, responsible for projects including the office-to-residential conversion of the David Stott Building, completed in summer 2019, that restored it to its 1929 Art Deco glory. Bedrock told EW that Schindler handled elevator modernization, which was particularly challenging since the floorplan involved a “huge core in the center containing six elevators.” The conversion, according to Bedrock, resulted in a few striking floor plans.

US$1.2-Billion Tower, Greenspace Plan for Boston Waterfront

Developer The Chiofaro Co. has applied to the Boston Planning & Development Agency to build The Pinnacle at Central Wharf, a 600-ft-tall, 42-story mixed-use tower and 28,000 ft2 of open space on the Boston waterfront, the Boston Herald reported in January. The US$1.2-billion plan includes a curved glass tower designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) housing ground-level retail and dining, 22 floors of offices and 200 apartments on the top 18 floors. Chiofaro founder Donald Chiofaro said the project, planned on the site of a parking garage between Harbor Towers condominiums and the New England Aquarium, aims “to promote access and activity along our harbor. . . and confronts the challenges of climate change.”

First proposed in 2007, the plan still faces hurdles, including a pair of lawsuits filed by entities that oppose waterfront development.

56-Story High Rise to Join the Fray in Downtown L.A.

Tribune Media Holdings plans to bring a 56-story tower with 608 residences to Second Street between Spring Street and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, Curbed LA reported in February. Streamlined from a previous, Tetris-like, 30-story iteration, the new Solomon Cordwell Buenz design features the tall tower with a shorter, garden-topped structure next to it.

AHBE|MIG has been tasked with landscape design that will link the development to the new Historic Broadway Rail Station, above which the tower will rise. The Tribune development is set to join other notable downtown L.A. residential projects rising now, including the Frank Gehry- designed The Grand at Grand Avenue and Second Street (EW, March 2017 and January 2019) and the Perla tower on Fourth Street (EW, December 2017).