The last pedestrian barrier around the Renaissance Center has fallen now that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has opened its new pedestrian friendly entrance at its Ren Cen offices.
The Ren Cen has traditionally been an island of office space in downtown squeezed between Jefferson Avenue and the Detroit River with a couple of large concrete berms and parking lots thrown in for good measure. That began to change when General Motors took over the iconic office complex for its headquarters a decade ago, rehabbing the Ren Cen's People Mover stop, opening up its Jefferson front to pedestrians and kicking off the riverfront rebirth by rehabbing its section of Detroit River river walk.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has followed in those footsteps by recreating the Jefferson frontage of Towers 500 and 600 into a pedestrian friendly entrance similar to the Ren Cen's main front door. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is concentrating its employees base in downtown, moving thousands of employees into short towers of the Ren Cen.
"We'll have well over 6,000 people going into that campus on a daily basis," says Tricia Keith, a vice president with
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. "We wanted to create that campus feel."
Blue Cross Blue Shield is creating an urban campus between its headquarters building a few blocks north of the Ren Cen and its new offices there. The health insurance non-profit recently finished moving workers into Tower 500 and expects to finish work on Tower 600 in January and finish its move shortly after.
Source: Tricia Keith, a vice president with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke
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