| Hello and welcome to Bloomberg’s weekly design digest. I’m Kriston Capps, staff writer for Bloomberg CityLab and your guide to the world of architecture and the people who build things. This week a report by the Royal Institute of British Architects found that many UK designers aren’t paid a living wage. Sign up to keep up: Subscribe to get the Design Edition newsletter every Sunday.  A plan by developer Bedrock and architecture firm Gensler would demolish two of the Renaissance Center’s four perimeter towers. Photographer: Anthony Lanzilote/Bloomberg When construction is completed later this year, Hudson’s Detroit will mark a turning point in the revival of the city’s downtown. Designed by SHoP Architects, the new mixed-use development features 14-story and 49-story towers. General Motors Co. intends to turn the shorter of the two into its new headquarters. The development raises big questions: What should the city do with the Renaissance Center, GM’s soon-to-be-former headquarters? Built in 1977, this behemoth complex was itself once seen as a marker of the city’s rebirth. Developer Bedrock and global firm Gensler have a plan to save it, but it involves demolishing two of its towers.  A rendering by Gensler shows how the renovation of RenCen would reclaim riverfront property by demolishing two towers. Courtesy of Gensler and Bedrock The proposal to partially demolish one of the city’s most visible symbols doesn’t sit well with all Detroiters. Preservationists and city advocates are arguing that the John Portman-designed building should be landmarked and preserved. But city officials argue that despite its close proximity to downtown, there’s no workable future for the project that involves keeping it intact. RenCen is located only a few blocks from Hudson’s Detroit, with access to the riverfront, raising the tantalizing prospect that downtown’s urban revival could eventually reach its biggest office project. But Portman’s city-within-a-city design for RenCen is closed off to the street-level experience responsible for downtown’s growth. To save RenCen, the city just may need to (partially) destroy it: Mark Byrnes writes about the case for (and against) preserving Detroit’s RenCen. Design stories we’re writing |  Bryan C. Lee Jr., the president of the National Organization of Minority Architects, is standing by his racial justice vision for design. Photographer: Matt Kleinmann The Trump administration’s aggressive attacks against diversity, equity and inclusion have forced many organizations to change their policies and agenda, while persuading others to comply voluntarily. Yet for the National Organization of Minority Architects, these ideals aren’t nice-to-haves: The notion of design justice is embedded in its core philosophy. Brentin Mock talks to Bryan C. Lee Jr., architect and president of NOMA, about how the group’s work is changing in the second Trump era. (Spoiler: It isn’t.) Design stories we’re reading | Thomas Rogers talks to Niklas Bildstein Zaar, also known as Sub, about his design for the Venice Architecture Biennale. (The New York Times) Explore the Silk Road modernism of Tashkent with Oliver Wright. (The Guardian) Winka Dubbledam will serve as the new director and CEO of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, known to all as SCI-Arc. (Architectural Record) Inga Saffron writes about the revival of a Gilded Age landmark, the Bellevue Hotel. (The Philadelphia Inquirer) The Rachowsky House in Dallas by New York Five designer Richard Meier is up for sale. (The Dallas Morning News) | 
