What Southfield businesses use aerials for
Southfield is an office town, and much of the aerial work here follows the buildings. Southfield Town Center, a complex of five connected towers with the Westin Southfield Detroit and a conference center, sits off the Lodge Freeway across from Lawrence Technological University. The American Center tower stands nearby where I-696 meets the Lodge. Landlords, brokers and tenants use aerials to show a building’s access to that freeway interchange, its parking and its neighbors.
The biggest change on the ground is at the old Northland Center. According to The Detroit News, the more than 100-acre site along Greenfield Road is being rebuilt as Northland City Center by Contour Companies, with mixed-use buildings ready for tenants in May 2026, a boutique hotel called the Victor underway and a sports dome recently approved. Key parts are expected around 2030 or 2031. Multi-year projects like this are made for repeatable construction flights.
Open airspace, with towers and a nearby airport
The FAA’s facility map has no LAANC grids in Southfield, and its Class Airspace data shows uncontrolled Class G up to 700 feet everywhere in the city. Detroit Metro’s Class B floor is 3,500 feet above sea level over Town Center and Northland, and 3,000 feet along Eight Mile on the southwest side. No authorization request stands between a client and a shoot date.
What we plan around instead is height and traffic. Part 107 caps flights at 400 feet above the ground, with one exception that matters here: a drone may go higher if it stays within 400 feet of a structure and no more than 400 feet above its top. Oakland/Troy Airport sits about 2 nautical miles northeast of the city line, and hospital helicopters are part of any urban shoot, so a visual observer joins tower and northeast-side flights. We still check B4UFLY or a LAANC app on the morning of every shoot.
Permission comes from the owner
Most of Southfield’s best subjects are private: office complexes, a university campus and an active construction site. Michigan’s PA 436 of 2016 keeps the city from writing its own flight rules, but it does not give a pilot the right to launch from someone else’s lot. We get written permission, send a certificate of insurance and brief building security or the site superintendent before we fly.
Light and seasons
Glass towers change with the sun. Early morning and late afternoon light, with the sun behind the camera, keeps facades from blowing out and brings out the color of the glass. Twilight, when office windows and the Westin light up, is the strongest look for the Town Center, and Part 107 allows it with anti-collision lighting. Winter’s bare trees help construction and site shots at Northland, while fall color along the city’s residential streets suits listings.
Book a Southfield shoot
Send the address, the date window and what the footage is for. We will confirm the airspace, the owner and any site rules, then send a fixed quote. Start with our Detroit drone photography overview, see construction progress aerials for development work, or contact us.