Semi-Public Access Only

Only parts of the following building are open to the public usually limited to street level lobbies or atriums.

David Stott Building

Located at the corner of Griswold and State Street, this building incorporates brick, marble (on the first three floors from the street), and limestone as its surface materials. As with many of the other Detroit buildings of the era it contains architectural sculpture by Corrado Parducci. This building shares alot of similarities with Eliel Saarinen’s [...]

Park Avenue House

The Park Avenue House (formerly called the Royal Palms Hotel) is one of three hotels that Louis Kamper designed for what was once the heart of Detroit’s hotel district. Kamper also designed the Eddystone Hotel and the Park Avenue Hotel. The Park Avenue House is 13 stories of masonry with Italian Rennaisance detailing and ornamentation. [...]

One Woodward Avenue

Formerly known as the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company, this modern building draws upon similar work by Mies van der Rohe who also influenced 211 West Fort Street. The lightness of the structure is emphasized by the three-story lobby. One Woodward Detroit is known for it seasonal lighting of it’s crown.

Westin Book Cadillac

At one time, this Louis Kamper masterpiece was the tallest building in Detroit and the tallest hotel in the world. The hotel changed hands many times since the Great Depression and finally ended up closed and abandoned. Local developers stepped up in 2005 to restore this once great Detroit symbol. The completed project will feature [...]

Cranbrook

The Cranbrook Educational Community, a unique 300 acre campus begun in the 1930s, was envisioned as an artistic community that would help students insert the fundamentals of good design back into everyday life. Cranbrook developed out of a collaboration between Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen and Detroit News owners George and Helen Booth. All three disliked [...]

Comerica Tower

Formerly known as the One Detroit Center, the Comerica Tower was the last great skyscraper built in Detroit. While some have branded it postmodern, it is more appropriately identified as historicist with gothic inspired detailing and extensive use of granite. Almost as if creating an entry portal for an enormous modern gothic church, a twin [...]

Cadillac Place

In 1923, it opened as one of the largest office buildings in the world. Originally, it was known as the General Motors Building since it had housed the company’s world headquarters from 1923 until 1996. In 1996, GM moved its world headquarters to the Renaissance Center and sold the magnificent building which is leased by [...]

Buhl Building

The Buhl Building was Detroit’s first skyscraper and was the first of many prominent buildings designed by Wirt Rowland during his tenure at Smith, Hinchman & Grylls. The architectural sculpture on the building was designed by Corrado Parducci.

Chase Tower

Like most bank buildings, the currently named Chase Tower has also been known as the The National Bank of Detroit and Bank One Building. The building occupies to former site of the oddly shaped ten-story Hammond Building, which was the first skyscraper in Detroit to employ a steel structural system.

211 West Fort Street

This Detroit skyscraper is a fairly typical example of the International Style that was made popular at the time by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building in New York City (1958). 211 West Fort Street exhibits the same rigorous rhythm of exterior windows and suggested structural system. The exaggerated height lobby level is set [...]

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Semi-Public Access Only

David Stott Building

Park Avenue House

One Woodward Avenue

Westin Book Cadillac

Cranbrook

Comerica Tower

Cadillac Place

Buhl Building

Chase Tower

211 West Fort Street

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