Model D TV: One Kennedy Square

One Kennedy Square is a new 10-story building in the heart of downtown. The top two stories are occupied by accounting firm Ernst & Young; Walbridge Aldinger, a general contracting firm, has leased floors two and three, with move-in planned for June.

Marketing Associates announced last week that it will move its company from West Bloomfield to One Kennedy Square. Read the Model D report on the move here.

The first floor will eventually feature two restaurants accessible from both the street and the building’s lobby. Tysen McCarthy, senior vice-president of the building’s owner, Redico, says the 22-foot-tall first floor is glass-clad because they “didn’t want to hide from being downtown.” The lobby features unusual red marble interior walls that frame the elevator doors.

Ernst & Young moved into the building in January, and its offices are scattered with 40 original works by Detroit artists. The main conference room features an installation by Clinton Snider and Scott Hocking called “Boxes from RELICS Installation.” Yero Bain, the firm’s facilities administrator, describes it as “one of the more daring pieces of art you will find in an accounting firm.” Indeed, the rough-hewn wood boxes that comprise the piece are affixed with artifacts the artists found discarded around the city. The materials include gears, wooden signs, bumper stickers and tools.

Read more on One Kennedy Square in Development News Editor Kelli B. Kavanaugh’s report. Take a tour with videographer Tom Hendrickson in this week’s episode of Model D TV.