Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Building, Corporate headquarters in Downtown Detroit, United States.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Building is a 22-story office tower in downtown Detroit, Michigan, located at 600 East Lafayette Boulevard. The tower has a sunken plaza at street level that serves as the main entrance, sitting close to the Renaissance Center along the riverfront area.
The building opened in 1971 as the headquarters of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, one of the state's major health insurers. It was built during a period when Detroit was trying to hold on to corporate investment in its downtown core.
The building connects directly to the Detroit People Mover elevated rail system through an enclosed walkway, which makes it part of the network of covered paths that link downtown buildings. This kind of indoor connection is a practical response to Detroit's cold winters and is something locals use every day.
The tower is directly accessible from the Detroit People Mover station next to it, making it easy to reach without walking far outdoors. East Lafayette Boulevard is straightforward to find on foot if you are already moving around downtown Detroit.
The sunken plaza sits a few steps below the surrounding sidewalk, which was a fashionable design idea in American architecture during the early 1970s. Many cities later moved away from this approach because sunken plazas often feel cut off from street life, making the Detroit example a kind of time capsule of that era.
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