One Kennedy Square

The design team wanted to create a unique identity, to create a building with a personality representing the 21st century, with an image looking forward rather than back.

Strikingly visible because of its green-glass façade, this new multi-tenant Class A office building in the center of Detroit’s financial district features a boldly sloped roof line accentuated by a specially lighted 250 foot high white spire.

Built on a challenging triangular site above an existing three-level underground parking garage owned by the City of Detroit, our innovative design generated rectangular office spaces with very few free standing columns by cantilevering two sections of the building over the sidewalks. By hanging these portions of the building from above, rather than the more conventional approach of supporting them from below, we were able to create an undulating glass wall along Woodward Avenue that not only provides visual interest, but also provides more efficient floor plates with two more coveted corner offices than a triangular building.

The first floor of the building is sheathed completely in transparent glass to connect the “buzz” of the interiors to the downtown bustle outside. The interior white marble walls and white ceiling have been punctuated by a large glass recess that will make the entire glass area glow, itself an art piece within its white environment.

TOBY Award (The Outstanding Building of the Year), Building Owners and Managers Association of Metro Detroit