3D print the Renaissance Center

A free, printable model of the Renaissance Center, a cylindrical tower and four shorter towers on a podium, with the water and downtown streets around it, generated from real map data in your browser.

Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.

A white 3D print of the Renaissance Center, a tall cylindrical tower surrounded by four shorter towers on a wide podium beside the water, with downtown buildings around it.
Studio render of an exported 3MF: Renaissance Center on a 600 m square of Detroit.

About the Renaissance Center

The Renaissance Center, commonly called the RenCen, is a mixed-use complex of buildings in downtown Detroit, Michigan, on the Detroit International Riverfront. It has seven connected towers. The tallest building in Michigan is the hotel tower at the center, four shorter office skyscrapers stand around it, and two shorter auxiliary office towers lie to the east. A large square podium joins the towers and holds a conference center, retail stores and sizable public spaces. Its floor space totals 515,800 m2 (5,552,000 square feet), which makes it one of the world's largest commercial complexes.

It began in the 1970s as an urban renewal project, conceived as a "city-within-a-city" intended to anchor wider redevelopment of Detroit, which was declining at the time. Ford Motor Company led the consortium that developed and funded it, and John Portman was the principal architect. The five tallest towers, in the Modern style, were finished in stages between 1976 and 1977, and the two shorter towers followed in 1981. When it was completed, it was the largest private development in United States history, and its central tower was the tallest hotel in the world.

The cylindrical central tower began as the flagship of Westin Hotels, and a rotating restaurant, The Summit, occupied the hotel's top three floors and gave a 360 degree view. General Motors bought the complex in 1996 to serve as its global headquarters and renovated it extensively in the early 2000s, updating the Brutalist interior. The additions included a retail atrium made of glass and a plaza open to the public along the river. The Wintergarden atrium, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, reaches 31 m (103 ft) at its highest point.

How it prints

Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.

Landmark height and scale at three print sizes
Print size Landmark height Scale
160 mm default 61 mm 1:3,750
200 mm 76 mm 1:3,000
256 mm 97 mm 1:2,344
  • Renaissance Center model, North view North
  • Renaissance Center model, East view East
  • Renaissance Center model, South view South
  • Renaissance Center model, West view West
Slim columns beside the towers
Thin round columns stand beside the shorter towers, and the central tower is tall and narrow. Print friendly adapts thin parts to your print scale; slow printing and good cooling help the tall central tower.
Five towers on one podium
The five tall towers rise from a wide podium beside the water. Layers of 0.12 to 0.16 mm keep the vertical window lines crisp, and a larger print holds them better.
Pick the detail for your nozzle
In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
Colors
Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. The Renaissance Center takes the building color.
File format
You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.

About this model

The Renaissance Center is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.

Common questions

Is there a Renaissance Center STL I can download?

Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.

How big can I print it?

Any print size from 40 mm across. The Renaissance Center grows with the print: about 61 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.

Is it free?

Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.