Cadillac Centre was a proposed contemporary complex to be constructed in

downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, downtown tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Lodge Freeway) to the west, Interstate 75 ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

on the Monroe block of

Campus Martius The Campus Martius (Latin for the "Field of Mars", Italian ''Campo Marzio'') was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome. The IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which cove ...

.Kavanaugh, Kelli B. (January 8, 2008
Development News:Architecturally daring Cadillac Centre announced, will break ground in 2009
.''Model D Media''. Retrieved on January 20, 2008.Kavanaugh, Kelli B. (January 15, 2008
A New Design for Detroit
''Model D Media''. Retrieved on April 12, 2008. In January 2008, the city announced that the complex was approved for construction with groundbreaking planned for September 2009, but the project was placed on hold indefinitely due to an economic recession. Expected to cost $150-million, the

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to ...

called for two 24-story towers to rise from a 12-story base which would connect to the 40-story

Cadillac Tower The Cadillac Tower is a 40-story, Neo-Gothic skyscraper designed by the architectural firm of Bonnah & Chaffee at 65 Cadillac Square in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, not far from the Renaissance Center. The building's materials include ter ...

. The upscale residential high-rise was slated to include a retail and entertainment complex. The architect was Anthony Caradonna, an associate professor with

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was founded in 1887 ...

School of Architecture in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and a principal with the AC/2 Studio firm, whose recent projects have included the Hotel Duomo in Molfetta, Italy and the Bar Solex in

. The ''Detroit Free Press'' reported in early October 2008 that the New York-based developers were having trouble meeting their deadline, and the Detroit Economic Growth Corp rejected a revised $40 million proposal described as a "dressed-up parking garage" by DEGC President George W. Jackson. Failing to meet the standards of the DEGC, the project was put on hold indefinitely.

Impact

Styled in the postmodern architectural genre known as

deconstructivism Deconstructivism is a movement of postmodern architecture which appeared in the 1980s. It gives the impression of the fragmentation of the constructed building, commonly characterised by an absence of obvious harmony, continuity, or symmetry. ...

, the $150-million Cadillac Center was expected to have a profound impact on development in downtown Detroit as a mixed-use residential and commercial complex. Anthony Caradonna's steel-glass design for Cadillac Centre, reminiscent of the

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Sp ...

, was slated to face

Campus Martius Park Campus Martius Park ( ') is a re-established park in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. After the fire of 1805, Campus Martius (from the Latin for ''Field of Mars'', where Roman heroes walked) was the focal point of Judge Augustus Woodward's plans to ...

, a central gathering place in downtown Detroit. Developer Northern Group was the then owner of Detroit's

Penobscot Building The Greater Penobscot Building, commonly known as the Penobscot Building, is a class-A office tower in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. Constructed in 1928, the Art Deco building is located in the heart of the Detroit Financial District. The Penobs ...

First National Building The First National Building is a skyscraper and class-A office center in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Detroit Financial District. The building is located across the streets from Cadillac Tower and One Detroit Center, and stands next to ...

, and

. The existing

Gothic-Revival 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 ...

would have connected with and incorporated the new Cadillac Centre. The futuristic Cadillac Centre would have been constructed on Detroit's historic Monroe block, once a collection of eight

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ...

commercial buildings demolished in 1989.Hyde, Charles (May–June 1991
Demolition by Neglect: The Failure to Save the Monroe Block
.''Michigan History Magazine''.Retrieved on January 20, 2008.

Architect

The architect of record is Anthony Caradonna, a faculty member at the

School of Architecture and a principal with the firm of OPUS Architecture and Design Studios based in

and Rome, Italy. He is a graduate of the Pratt Institute and the

Harvard University Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...

.Pratt Institute Faculty
. Retrieved on January 20, 2008. His recent projects include the Hotel Duomo in Molfetta, Italy and the Bar Solex in

He earned a medal of merit from the American Institute of Architects in 1986.

References

External links

Northern Group Inc., corporate websiteNorthern Group Inc., Downtown Collection
{{Detroit Skyscrapers in Detroit

Impact

Architect

See also

References

Further reading

External links