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The passage of 40 years adds an if only perspective to this video promoting the construction of Renaissance Center as "something unique in the history of cities," as a narrator says.
The first tower of the John Portman-designed project, financed mainly by the Ford Motor Co., opened in 1976 and was the world's largest private development at the time -- a venture aimed at revitalizing Detroit's economy.
That sense of optimism is reinforced with triumphal music on the soundtrack (think "Chariots of Fire" meets "Ben-Hur") and in remarks by Henry Ford II, who says: "We're going to make this city a viable, going, great city that it has been and I'm sue it will be in the future."
There also are dramatic vistas from the high steel and cool shots of two ironworkers riding a crane cable shortcut back to street level.
Scenes of the ambitious venture that redrew Detroit's skyline and now is GM's global base fill this eight-minute video from a time in Detroit history when the word renaissance sounded promising.
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