Architecture & design
John Portman
1924–2017 · architect, developer
Atlanta architect who designed Detroit's Renaissance Center, the riverfront cluster of glass towers that has defined the skyline since 1977.
- Born
Walhalla, South Carolina- Died
Atlanta, Georgia
aged 93- Birth name
- John Calvin Portman Jr.
- Also known as
- John C. Portman Jr.
- Detroit years
- 1971–1981
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Portman made his name in Atlanta with soaring atrium hotels, and in the early 1970s Henry Ford II and a group of Detroit business leaders hired him to design a project meant to pull investment back downtown after the 1967 uprising. The Renaissance Center rose on the Detroit River between 1973 and 1977: a 73-story cylindrical hotel tower ringed by four 39-story office towers, all in dark mirrored glass, joined by a podium of atriums, walkways and shops. Two more towers followed in 1979–1981. The central tower was for decades the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere. Critics faulted the fortress-like podium and its separation from the street, and the complex struggled until General Motors bought it in 1996 and made it the company's world headquarters, adding a glass Wintergarden facing the river. In 2024 GM announced it would move its headquarters out, opening a new debate about the towers' future.
Highlights
- Designed the Renaissance Center (first phase 1973–1977)
- Central 73-story tower long the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere
- Complex became General Motors' world headquarters in 1996
- Famous for atrium hotels such as the Hyatt Regency Atlanta
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1973–1981
Renaissance Center
His riverfront complex of seven towers, home to a Marriott hotel and GM's headquarters since 1996.