New York firm SHoP Architects' regeneration plans for a former department store in Downtown Detroit, which include building the city and state's tallest tower, have undergone dramatic revisions.
The studio has refreshed the design of the mixed-use development on the J L Hudson's Department Store site, to include an updated programme and a markedly different look.
As the centrepiece of the project, a stepped skyscraper with terraces up two sides replaces a previous iteration that would have risen like a giant chimney stack.

The tower's projected height has also been increased from 734 to 921 feet (224 to 278 metres), extending its lead over the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center ? the city's current tallest building. It will also claim the title of tallest in Michigan. Instead of a pattern of brick courses across the glass facades, vertical fins will emphasise the tower's even greater height. The building will now accommodate exhibition areas across its lower floors, then hotels below and above a central section housing 250 apartments.

"Stepping allows for terraces for amenities and possible hospitality spaces," said SHoP principal William Sharples in a statement.
"The addition of new programming in the latest iteration of the design allowed us as architects and designers to break down the scale of the tower even further, and to approach it even more holistically, something we have been conscious of since the beginning of the project."

SHoP is ...