Detroit Deco Architecture Photos

[jackie5275]

This is from the Detroit News. Enjoy you architecture fans.


http://multimedia.detnews.com/pix/photogalleries/historygallery/downtowndetroit11132011/index.html

[Arabian Antonio]

Thanks for this link, Jackie! As a lover of Art Deco architecture, it was a real joy to go through all of these pictures. I'm glad that these buildings are still in existence today. In New York City, I've always admired the Chrysler Building, but I had no idea that Detroit had such wonderful skycrapers of its own!

[Gistok]

Um.... I cannot believe that the Detroit News made this big of a blunder....

Art Deco is NOT anything built between 1900-1930s.... it is buildings in either a Moderne, Zigzag or Streamlined style... from ideas at a 1925 Paris Architectural Exposition. Most of the images in this article are NOT Art Deco. It would be easier to say which ones were.... Guardian, Penobscot, David Stott, Fisher [[even then arguably so), the old NBC HQ, and some not pictured... the Grayhound Station on Woodward, the Elwood Bar, the former Kresge HQ on Cass Park, the Engineering Society of Detroit [[across from the DIA), and many of the apartment buildings in the Palmer Park area.

Daniel Burnham and Louis Kamper Buildings are NOT Art Deco, and neither is the Buhl Building [[it's more Romanesque Revival). But there's not a single one on GCP that is Art Deco, and Woodward has a few that have been remodeled in a Streamlined style, but just because buildings were built between 1900-1930 does NOT make them Art Deco.

Sounds like the Detroit News needs some new architectural folks.... Rebecca Binno Savage, former president of DAADS [[Detroit Area Art Deco Society) and author of the Arcadia Book on Art Deco comes to mind.

Other Art Deco buildings in Detroit are the Broadhead Armory, and when they widened Woodward in the 1930s, they added new facades to buildings that had their fronts removed... such as the Crystal Loft Apartments, and the facade of the Bonstelle Theatre.

The Vanity Ballroom, and many of the since destroyed city theatres such as the Esquire, Mercury, Harper [[now Harpos), Vogue and many others are various flavors of Art Deco. The Vanity Ballroom is in the Zigzag style, and others from the mid 1930s were more in the moderne and streamlined style.

Of the downtown theatres, the only one that comes to mind as Art Deco would be the Tele-News [[Bleu).

Some suburban Art Deco examples are the Shrine of the Little Flower Church in Royal Oak, Fraser State Bank [[Utica/14 Mile), as well as many suburban older theatres. Also, many of the old telephone exchange buildings [[such as the Tuxedo Exchange at Mack & Cadieux) is Art Deco. I would also add the Livingston Lighthouse at the east end of Belle Isle to the mix.

There are also some buildings that are a mixture of Art Deco and older styles... such as some funerary monuments with deco and Egyptian mixes. And also White Chapel Mausoleum in Troy may be Art Deco.

[Jason]

Yeah, I'm as shocked as you are.

And I think it's especially bad since there's so little understanding of what the different kinds of buildings meant to people at the time. The Guardian Building and Book Tower are polar opposites. One is modern and futuristic, with abstract geometric building form taking the place of almost all ornament [[with the ornament remaining celebrating human progress in some way), while the other is, well, the opposite, lol.

Today it would be like confusing some hyper modern crystaline building with a faux historic rowhouse.

[Kathleen]

Maybe that Art Deco headline was intended for the first photo in the batch [[featuring Penobscot and Guardian buildings) to sit on top of the capture, and it just got carried through to each of the other photos in the gallery. Just a thought....

[szla]

It's not Deco but I am very concerned about it. The old Wayne County building sits vacant. I cant imagine any use for it other than government offices. It pained when the county moved into the Guardian as I felt that building could take care of itself. What is the status, and what could it be used for. I was a small child when the old City Hall was torn down and I thought that was a gem.

[Jason]

Yeah I didn't like the move the the Guardian Building either.

[jackie5275]

It's not Deco but I am very concerned about it. The old Wayne County building sits vacant. I cant imagine any use for it other than government offices. It pained when the county moved into the Guardian as I felt that building could take care of itself. What is the status, and what could it be used for.

It's last tenant, Kidspace Montessori, moved out last year. My kid went there last summer after the County folks had left. It was used alot last year for movie shoots, but not much after that. It'll probably end up sitting, rotting like so many other buildings.

[Ravine]

Okay OKAY never mind the art-decostinctions for a minute while I interrupt long enough to thank Jackie5275 for providing that link.
I don't buy the 14-page papers, anymore, so I would not have seen that impressive set of photos.

[Gistok]

A correction.... I mentioned the Bonstelle as Art Deco.... wrong... the former Albert Kahn designed Temple Beth-El Synagogue, later converted to a playhouse by C. Howard Crane, is in something of an Italian Renaissance style. I was thinking of the Majestic Theatre just up the road, which had it's Venetian Gothic facade [[and lobby) removed when Woodward was widened in the 1930s. It was replaced with a Zigzag pseudo-Aztec metal design.

In fact one could probably come up with several other Woodward facades [[besides also Crystal Lofts) that had an earlier facade removed for Woodward's widening, and replaced with some flavor of 1930s Art Deco veneer.

Sadly most of the Art Deco buildings in Detroit were mainly theatres, gas stations, and even restaurants [[using the Vitrolux and Vitrolite glass materials for facades and interiors)... and most of those are either gone or very much altered. As I mentioned in the earlier post, one of the largest number of Art Deco survivors in Detroit are Telephone Exchange buildings.

Also, Sears was one retailer that used a lot of Art Deco in their store designs. Two of the greatest in that style are now lost to us.... the Gratiot/Van Dyck Sears, and the Highland Park Sears.

[Gistok]

It's not Deco but I am very concerned about it. The old Wayne County building sits vacant. I cant imagine any use for it other than government offices. It pained when the county moved into the Guardian as I felt that building could take care of itself. What is the status, and what could it be used for. I was a small child when the old City Hall was torn down and I thought that was a gem.

Szla.... I have to agree with you... it is worrisome... there's just not a lot of market for "palatial" office or rental space.

A few years ago I was looking at an old Sanford Map of downtown that showed the footprint of both Old City Hall and the Old County Building. Surprisingly the footprint of the 1902 Old County Building was about 3 times the size of the 1872 Old City Hall [[in one's mind you generally equate them as equals).

And when you factor in the fact that the Old County Building had 2 extra floors, the total floor space of that building must have been about 6 times that of the earlier Old City Hall. As well as that, the architectural fixtures and details of the Old County Building [[Beaux Arts) was much more lavish and opulent than Old City Hall [[Victorian)

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the Old County Building is a far greater architectural treasure for Detroit... and some adaptive reuse really must be found for it.... so it doesn't end up like its' older brethren....

[p69rrh51]

When Kamper did do Deco he did it with as well as anyone. One of the best examples in the Detroit area of Deco the Schaefer Building 13530 Michigan Avenue Dearborn.