Ally Detroit Center, formerly One Detroit Center, is a skyscraper and class-A

office building An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

located in Downtown Detroit, overlooking the

Detroit Financial District The Detroit Financial District is a United States historic district in downtown Detroit, Michigan. The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 2009, and was announced as the featured listing in the ...

. Rising , the 43-story tower is the tallest office building in

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

and the second tallest building overall in the state behind the central hotel tower of the

Renaissance Center The Renaissance Center (also known as the GM Renaissance Center and nicknamed the RenCen) is a group of seven connected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. The Renaissance Center complex is on the Detroit International Riv ...

, located a few blocks away. Although the Penobscot Building has more floors above ground (45), those of Ally Detroit Center are taller, with its roof sitting roughly taller than that of the Penobscot. It has a floor area of .

Architecture

The building was designed by noted architects John Burgee &

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...

, partners influential in postmodern architecture. Ally Detroit Center was constructed from 1991 to 1993. It houses numerous tenants, including many prominent Detroit law firms and

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounti ...

. In addition to

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

, the building also contains a restaurant and a

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational i ...

. The building is famous for its postmodern architectural design topped with

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

-inspired

neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

s which blend architecturally with the city's historic skyline. It is constructed mainly of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

. Sometimes called a "twin gothic structure", for its pairs of spires, it is oriented North-South and East-West (as named on a plaque along the

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

waterfront park). Ally Detroit Center won an Award of Excellence for its design in 1996. Ally Detroit Center replicas have become a souvenir item along with those of other Detroit skyscrapers.InFocusTech skyscrapers
Retrieved on July 16, 2009. Project plans for a twin tower directly to the east, Two Detroit Center, were placed indefinitely on hold. Two Detroit Center parking garage was constructed on the site in 2002.

Tenants

The law firm

Dickinson Wright Dickinson Wright PLLC is a law firm based in Detroit, Michigan. With over 475 lawyers across more than 40 practices and industries, Dickinson Wright serves clients from nineteen offices, six of which are in Michigan. According to the National Law ...

(formerly Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen & Freeman) has its headquarters in Ally Detroit Center.Dickinson Wright renews Ally Detroit Center lease
" ''Crain's Detroit Business''. December 3, 2007. Retrieved on November 23, 2013. The company moved into the building when it opened in 1992. In 2007, when it renewed its lease, the company occupied almost of space in the building. Additionally, the international law firm of Clark Hill, PLC operates its headquarters on three floors of the building. The building was previously occupied by

Comerica Bank Comerica Incorporated is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and strategically aligned by three business segments: The Commercial Bank, The Retail Bank and Wealth Management. Comerica focuses on relationships, and helpin ...

. The bank's lease on then Comerica Tower at Detroit Center ran through 2012, and in December 2009, Comerica announced it would vacate One Detroit Center at the end of the lease, consolidating its Michigan operations at 411 West Lafayette Boulevard. In March 2015, following the purchase of the building by

Dan Gilbert Daniel Gilbert (born January 17, 1962) is an American billionaire businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and majority owner of Rocket Mortgage, founder of Rock Ventures, and owner of the National Basketball Association' ...

through his Bedrock Real Estate Services, Bedrock and

Ally Financial Ally Financial is a bank holding company organized in Delaware and headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. The company provides financial services including car finance, online banking via a direct bank, corporate lending, vehicle insurance, mor ...

announced a 12-year lease under which it would move its main office into the building from the nearby

as well consolidate all employees in suburban Detroit to the building, occupying 20 floors or approximately . The tower was renamed Ally Detroit Center.

Gallery

File:ComericaTowerand1stnationaldetroit.jpg, View from Cadillac Square File:Courtyard by Marriott - Downtown Detroit.jpg, View from the Courtyard Marriott File:DowntownDetroit.jpg, One Detroit Center in the city skyline

References

External links

One Detroit Center website
{{Architecture of metropolitan Detroit, state=collapsed Bank buildings in Michigan Downtown Detroit Woodward Avenue Skyscraper office buildings in Detroit Office buildings completed in 1993 1993 establishments in Michigan Rock Ventures John Burgee buildings Philip Johnson buildings Postmodern architecture in the United States Gothic Revival skyscrapers

Architecture

Tenants

Gallery

References

Further reading

External links