Renaissance Center and People Mover, Detroit, MI - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

According to its own website, the GM Renaissance Center is “Michigan’s premier address.” I suppose that qualifies it for inclusion on a postage stamp offering “Greetings from Michigan.” The complete stamp issue featured fifty different designs with post card like images from each of the fifty states.

A large complex of business and commercial space with a hotel and restaurants was conceived by Henry Ford II in the early 1970s as a way to revitalize downtown Detroit. A contest was held to give a name to the new development and out of 141,537 entries, “Renaissance Center” was chosen. The complex officially opened in 1977 with a central hotel (the tallest hotel in the world at that time) surrounded by four similarly designed but shorter office buildings. Two additional towers were completed as a second phase in 1981.

Different types of urban mass transit systems for Detroit had been talked about for years. What was finally built in the 1980s was named the Detroit People Mover. It opened in 1987, ten years after the Renaissance Center, and included the Renaissance Center as one of its stops. The completely automated People Mover runs in a circle around downtown Detroit. Initially, the cars ran in a counterclockwise direction, meaning that the People Mover is exiting the Millender Center station on the stamp. In 2008, that direction was reversed so that today, that same car would be entering the station.

The Renaissance Center was originally financed primarily by the Ford Motor Company. But, in an ironic twist, was purchased by the General Motors Company in 1996 for use as its global headquarters. The entire complex had been recently rebranded as GMRENCEN.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 4-Apr-2002 Denomination: 34c Color: multicolored Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/18/2022 bobfrapples8 visited it