About Southfield Town Center
WE ARE SOUTHFIELD TOWN CENTER
The Southfield Town Center is a cluster of four golden interconnected skyscrapers forming a contemporary 2,200,000 square foot office complex in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan. It includes the Westin Southfield Detroit Hotel, restaurants, a fitness center, and a major conference center for up to 1,000 attendees. This office-hotel complex is situated along Town Center Drive off the John C. Lodge Freeway, across from Lawrence Technological University in the Metro Detroit, with its tallest buildings named after their addresses along the road. Separately, there is a 33 story luxury residential high-rise at 5000 Town Center.
The Town Center is across from the Civic Center, and is located between West 10 Mile Road and Interstate 696, John C. Lodge Freeway, and Evergreen Road, as well as being close to the Mixing Bowl.
An enclosed two-story garden atrium connects the towers of the Southfield Town Center. The atrium area also contains 94,000 square feet of retail space. The atrium area is available for large conferences and weddings.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Planners adapted the Town Center location to avoid protected wetland areas. The original route for the I-696 freeway placed it along 101⁄2 Mile Road southeast of 11 Mile and Greenfield Roads. Recognizing the value of a large office complex and its tax revenue, city planners built a new city hall complex near 101⁄2 Mile Road on the east side of Evergreen.
Highway planners re-routed the freeway to run along 11 Mile Road. This delayed construction, but freed up the land to build the first phase, then called the Prudential Town Center (Prudential Life Insurance Company played a major role) with the first skyscraper, 3000 Town Center completed in 1975. A six-lane freeway ramp nearby remained half-completed for about 10 years in order to modify the route to accommodate the massive Town Center project. Additional towers were constructed in 1979, 1983, 1986, 1987, and 1989.
