The Architect's Newspaper

SHoP Architects Reintroduces Density, Commerce and Public Life

The building’s facade combines glass and terra-cotta, echoing the craftsmanship of early 20th-century department stores while asserting a distinctly contemporary presence on Woodward Avenue. Inside, SHoP carved out a 7-story atrium topped by a skylight inspired by the headlight cover of a 1954 Corvette, a nod to the city’s automotive heritage.

Wallpaper

Detroit is Booming–Again

Downtown, Detroit’s evolution is obvious. General Motors’ new Downtown HQ is a clear indication of this evolution. Designed by SHoP Architects, the sleek tower, on the site of the former JL Hudson’s department store, rises high over the skyline, and at night, lights up like a beacon visible from all corners of the city.

ArchDaily

SHoP Completes First Stage of Hudson’s Detroit Mixed-Use Development

At its heart, a seven-story atrium filled with natural light connects the building’s levels, capped by a skylight inspired by the headlight cover of a 1954 Corvette, evoking Detroit’s architectural and automotive legacies. The completed 12-story building at 1240 Woodward Avenue provides over 400,000 square feet of office space, retail, and event venues.

Associated Press

From Rubble to Revival, Detroiters Hope for New Hudson’s Development

Standing on the Woodward Avenue site are a gleaming 45-story tower and a 12-story office building. The new 1.5 million-square-foot Hudson’s Detroit development also contains retail space and will feature high-end condos. General Motors Corp. is relocating its headquarters there and a five-star hotel is slated to open in 2027.

Dezeen

SHoP Architects Draws on “DNA of the City” for Hudson’s Detroit

SHoP Architect’s intervention on the site includes the block-spanning 12-storey office building with a sculptural skylight in its core, flanked by the stepped skyscraper. The studio looked to the classic architecture in the area for the formal language of the office building, such as the nearby Guardian building, while letting the program dictate its shape.

Fast Company

Detroit’s New Skyscraper Signals the City’s Back, Baby

The project’s 49-story hotel and condo tower, now the second tallest building in the city, features a stepped form and bright lighting along its five glassy rectangular sections. At its base is a pedestrianized mid-block alley that Bedrock is turning into a public civic space. And next door is a stout 12-story mixed use building with ground floor retail, an events and exhibitions center, a top floor restaurant, and seven floors of office space. As a sign of the project’s early success and impact downtown, local auto giant General Motors signed on to turn four of the office floors into its new global headquarters.

Bloomberg

The Long Comeback of the Erie Canal

The bridge allows for close encounters with the canal’s historic infrastructure while creating a space for lingering and watching kayakers or Brockport’s new community rowing clubs. “We were thinking about this as an opportunity to not just connect people, but to create a place where people will want to hang out, that becomes a catalyst to re-engage with the canal,” said Bill Sharples.

7 News Australia

Inside Look at the New High-Tech Atlassian Central

It’s a high-rise office with no car park, little heating, and some of the building is made of wood. We’ve been given an inside look at the new high-tech Atlassian Central that puts a premium on energy efficiency.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Atlassian’s Revolutionary ‘Habitat’ Tower

Behind scaffolding and cranes, the new $1.45 billion futuristic headquarters of homegrown tech giant Atlassian is fast rising high above Central Station. Built of green concrete, timber and structural steel to cement its world leading climate-friendly credentials, Atlassian Central is also revolutionary for its vision of what high-rise office work might look like in the future. “We’re not just putting up another office tower,” Atlassian’s chief executive and co-founder Mike Cannon Brookes said. “We’re rethinking what a workplace can be.”

Archisearch

Chris Sharples Speaks at ESO 2025

After a brief introduction of SHoP Architects’ history over 30 years of work, Chris Sharples began by highlighting where process needs to go in terms of the practice of architecture. He also emphasized the importance of connecting the academy and the profession as a practice and how that can inspire and lead to innovation in terms of materials and technologies.