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The Ren Cen Thread


baldy

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Use this thread for all news or discussion regard the Renaissance Center.

While riding the PM this weekend, I noticed an advertisement that said there are free tours of the Ren Cen Sunday-Wednesdays at 4:30, I believe. Unfortunately, I only really commited the website to memory and the link they give, the www.shoprencen.com (allan, the one in the link section no longer works and has been changed to this), only mentions tours, but doesn't give any details.

Has anyone done the tour yet? I am planning on going down one of these Sundays since I can't go during the week.

It should also be noted that just about anyone can go up to the top of the Ren Cen and enjoy the view. Just tell them you are going to the bar/lounge and they should let you up (as long as you're not dressed like a bum). It doesn't open until 5:00 though on Saturday and 4:00 on Sunday.

Just some other general information about the top for those that may not know:

The elevator that takes you to the top only has 2 stops, 3 and 72.

This is located on the river side of the building and is a glass elevator offering a unique (sometimes nausious) experience.

Floor 72 (the elevator stop) is the lounge/bar floor and floor 71 is the Coach Insignia resaurant.

It no longer revolves as its predicesor, The Summit, did.

To go down into the restaurant, you need to walk down a flight of stairs.

There are two kitchens: a small finish kitchen in the restaurant, and a larger prep kitchen 820 feet below, near the Wintergarden shops.

The food is brought up a special elevator in building's central core. This is due to the fire hazards and everthing else involved with a restaurant and having to apply it the 71st floor of a building!

I belive this is now the highest restaurant in the world.

The menu for Coach Insignia is ala carte.

The 71st floor goes up to the windows, while the 72 floor stops about 8-10 feet short.

In addition, the big GM signs on the building occupy the 72nd and 73rd floors, so they are in the way on the lounge level and not on the restaurant level.

This is a big deal if you're trying to take pictures.

It is open to the 73rd floor.

A bottle of beer will only cost $4.00! Well, I can only vouch for Miller Lite and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

In my personal opinion, one of the best things GM did with their $500 million renovation (best was the removal of the concrete berms) was to add the white trim inbetween the 70 and 71st floors and changing the window tint on the top 3 floors, finally gives the building the "crown" it so desparately needed.

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  • 2 months later...

Detroit's Renaissance Center welcomes movie theater

Developers spend more than $1 million on new seats, modern projectors, speakers.

Detroit News - May 18, 2005

The business district's only first-run movie theater -- one of only two in the nation's 10th-biggest city -- is scheduled to reopen Thursday in a renovated corner of the Renaissance Center.

The four-screen complex opened Saturday for a $100-a-head charity showing of "Monster-in-Law" to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Tickets to regular shows will be cheaper: $8.50 for adults and $5.50 for senior citizens and kids, Slavik said. Parking will be free.

See the article here

Monster-in-Law? For $100 a head, you'd think they would have shown a decent movie!?!?!

Does any know where these are located?

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"Does any know where these are located?"

The theaters are located in tower 200 on the 2nd floor. There isn't any sign indicating where it is, but it's the tower that has the red GM promotions. Took a mini tour of the theaters on Sat, and they were pretty nice. I only hope we can get more theaters in the city in the future.

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Yeah, it's difficult to navigate. I had to ask security three times where the restrooms were. One of them told me to use the ones near the hotel lobby, which was beautiful during the holidays. It was actually kind of cool wandering around the place. It's confusing, but nice. The food court is a lot brighter, and the mall is coming along quite well. Not to mention the beautiful wintergarden. I'll try to post some pics of the inside. Usually they don't like you taking pictures for obvious reasons, but I asked and they let me take some to post online.

I'm glad you enjoyed the restaurant ebaldy. My father works for GM and we were thinking about having dinner up there so I would hope to get a lot of sunset pictures.

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It's always best to ask inside of a building, especially when it's privately owned. It kind of depends on the person. I've taken pictures on 4 different trips to the Rencen and was only asked to stop once. But when I explained my intentions they let me.

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  • 3 months later...

So on Saturday I attempted to take a group of people up to the lounge level for a few drinks, only to find out that 1.5 months ago, they changed the dress code to very formal and it is being strictly enforced. No shorts, no jeans, no tennis shoes, no hats, no sports clothing, no t-shirts, and on and on. She went on with a very long list and I got the impression you needed to be wearing a tie to get up. I was dressed in a polo/golf shirt with cachi shorts (no baseball hat) and the rest of the group was dressed decently. If I am going to hanging out and spending all day walking around downtown, I'm to dress comfortably, nicely, but comfortably. We were able to talk to the manager which is when I found out the how strict the new policy was and when it went into effect.

I can understand having some sort of dress code, like before, but this a little excessive, especially for just going to the lounge level. Every time I have been up there, there was never a large number of people in the bar / lounge level and was surprised they would turn down the business.

Oh well, I just thought that I would let people know that they have to basically wear a suit inorder to visit the top now.

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Well I guess that part of my Detroit trips can be scratched off, I usually go over there every time I'm in Detroit, except for the year or two it was closed. I was allowed into the lounge before with baggy jeans and a t-shirt, I hate those formal dress codes.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hotel resolves flushing issues

RenCen Marriott installs new toilets

From the free press - September 26, 2005

Detroit's Super Bowl headquarters hotel is ready to offer visitors a super flush.

The Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center recently completed the installation of new toilets in every one of its 1,298 guest rooms. The Kohler toilets were designed to correct the No. 1 complaint from hotel guests: toilets that flushed incompletely or not at all on upper stories of the 73-story Marriott, Detroit's tallest structure.

....

Those upgrades will continue, Jones said this week. Besides the new toilets and redesigned public restrooms, the hotel's $2-million makeover this year has included guest beds.

The new beds feature thicker, softer, fluffier mattresses, pillows and bed linens. Jones says the new beds are designed to guarantee guests a restful night's sleep -- even in the middle of Super Bowl week.

The Marriott will serve as the National Football League's headquarters hotel for Super Bowl XL on Feb. 5. It will house NFL staff and operations, as well as some of the 3,000 print, broadcast and Internet journalists who'll cover the game.

Read the entire article here

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Window Falls From Renaissance Center In Wild Winds

From WDIV - Sept 29, 2005

Wild winds that swept through metro Detroit early Thursday morning are believed to have broken a pane of glass that fell from the Renaissance Center in Detroit.

"There is one pane of glass at the 73rd level that came out of its frame. As it came down, it damaged some other glass on one of the adjoining towers," said Renaissance Center representative John M. McDonald.

Police were forced to close the street in front of the Winter Garden at the Renaissance Center while the broken glass was removed.

Read the rest here

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It's not like they don't clean it, but they really should just replace all of the glass. I mean, what's the use of implementing of such a huge renovation project if you are going to change out everything BUT the exterior glass walls. It would most definitely be expensive, I'm sure, but it's already a huge project.

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