The J.L. Hudson Building on Woodward Avenue in Detroit was completed in 1946 and was both the headquarters and flagship of the Hudson’s chain of department stores. It was once as much a symbol of the city as Higbee’s was to Cleveland, Kaufmann’s to Pittsburgh, Marshall Field’s to Chicago—or any department store to any Midwestern city before free shipping and internet shopping made big, downtown stores a thing of the past.
With 33 levels, 2.2 million sq ft of office and retail space and five basements, the Hudson’s building served several generations of customers and workers before it ended up as property of the city. It was demolished in 1998. General contractor Barton Malow and developer Bedrock are in the beginning stages of constructing a $1-billion, 800-ft-tall, two-building development that will include 425,000 sq ft of residences, 240,000 sq ft of office space, 120,000 sq ft of event space and 100,000 sq ft of modern retail on the 2-acre site.