The seventh floor tip houses mechanical equipment and was not accessible. Visitors - who were rarely allowed beyond the main floor- can look up to the sixth floor, where ever-narrowing balconies reach to the top. The 71-foot pendulum, designed to swing towards the rising and setting sun, extends through the center of the building. Let's start with the main entrance, where the only spherical compound pendulum in the world sways silently over a reflecting pool that's been drained of its water. And it's going to take a unique company to take over a building designed to promote collaboration on an extremely large scale. "It's an iconic building, it's so unique to look at," says DeBoer. "I'm walking an average of seven or eight miles a day and I still haven't been in all of the rooms yet."įinding the next tenant for the 27-year-old structure is a king-sized task that's been assigned to Tom DeBoer, a commercial real estate broker with Colliers International.
"I've fallen in love with it, I'm addicted to it," says Faunce, who has spent nights inside the sixth-floor penthouse with his Doberman, Rayna. It costs an estimated $1.5 million a year to keep the heat and air conditioning on, the lights working and the water flowing. However, a company spokeswoman would not verify the price, citing a confidentiality agreement with Norman Properties.įaunce is there to keep the building's systems running and in good shape until the next tenant comes along. Steelcase reported a $2.8 million gain related to the sale of the building in its latest earnings report. It sold the property in May after a plan to convert it into a charter school fell through. Instead of employing hundreds of engineers and designers, it's now the sole domain of Jim Faunce, who moved to West Michigan from Denver last month to watch over the 7-story structure for its new owners, California-based Norman Properties LLC.īuilt for $111 million as the "Corporate Development Center," Steelcase moved out in 2010 as sales and profits fell during The Great Recession. GAINES TOWNSHIP, MI - The Steelcase pyramid, once the shining star in the world's largest office maker's firmament, has become a lonely place standing in the middle of a field of native prairie grasses and flowers.
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