The American Center is a high-rise tower in the

Metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

suburb of

Southfield, Michigan Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city had a population of 76,618. As a northern suburb of Detroit, Southfield shares part of its ...

, built in 1975 as the corporate headquarters for the automaker

American Motors Corporation American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the ...

(AMC), which was subsequently acquired by

Chrysler Corporation Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

in 1987. The building is located adjacent to

Interstate 696 Interstate 696 (I-696) is an east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Metro Detroit region of the US state of Michigan. The state trunkline highway is also known as the Walter P. Reuther Freeway, named for the prominent auto industr ...

M-10 M10, M-10 or M 10 may refer to: Science and technology * Messier 10, a globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus * M10, a Garmin Nüvifone smartphone * Samsung Galaxy M10, a smartphone * M10 (rocket engine), a rocket engine Transportation ...

, and

US 24 U.S. Route 24 (US 24) is one of the original United States highways of 1926. It originally ran from Pontiac, Michigan, in the east to Kansas City, Missouri, in the west. Today, the highway's eastern terminus is in Independence Township, Mic ...

interchange. Upgraded in 2001, the

office tower A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

has 27 floors, including a basement, and has been owned and managed since 2017 by Redico, a Southfield-based real estate developer.

Architecture

The structural system consists of

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

ed steel frame. Designed as a

modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

tower, the curtain wall facade was originally golden

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

. The tower is square in plan, with chamfered corners. The elevator core is unusual in that it is rotated 45 degrees relative to the tower's axis. The building also includes a

parking garage A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

and

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 t ...

spaces. It has a

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...

(LEED) "Certified Silver" designation.

Development

AMC announced in 1973 that it would move to a new building in Southfield, the American Motors Corporation Office Building. In 1975 AMC moved its corporate offices to the glass-and-steel skyscraper in Southfield, joining the exodus of companies from Detroit. The company continued its

automotive design Automotive design is the process of developing the appearance (and to some extent the ergonomics) of motor vehicles - including automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, and vans. The functional design and development of a modern moto ...

and engineering operations at its historic Plymouth Road complex (14250 Plymouth Road) in Detroit, as Chrysler did for a time after acquiring AMC. After the acquisition, Chrysler Financial occupied 10 floors of the 25-story building , and the

Michigan Court of Appeals The Michigan Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court of the state of Michigan. It was created by the Michigan Constitution of 1963, and commenced operations in 1965. Its opinions are reported both in an official publication of ...

occupied approximately . The building was owned by Charter One Bank (which as of 2004 was owned by

Citizens Financial Group Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is an American bank headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, which operates in the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsyl ...

Notes

Sources

* *

External links

Google Maps location of American Center

Google Maps location of the Mixing Bowl
* {{Authority control Skyscrapers in Southfield, Michigan American Motors Modernist architecture in Michigan Skyscraper office buildings in Michigan Office buildings completed in 1975

Architecture

Development

See also

Notes

Sources

External links