Wright Kay Building

[detroitbob]

Several slabs of the marble/granite have been removed from the Woodward Ave and the John R sides of the building exposing the huge circular cast iron columns. It appears that there is nothing left of the original facade. The current facade was a major and very expensive redo---around 50 years ago, give or take.

I judged the iron columns to be probably 6 feet in circumference.

[downtownguy]

I stopped by this morning and took a couple of photos with the slabs missing. I have a particular interest in this building as I lived on the second floor 23 years ago.

I want to read into this that maybe the Gilbert folks are considering replicating the old facade. I'm sure this is likely improbable, but I can dream. That marble's got to be worth something, and perhaps it's sale could subsidize restoring the old look. I found a photo from 1919 in the Wayne State Digital Colllection: http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...-75610%5D75610 It looks like the first floor was mostly doors and windows with some ornamentation in between. How hard could that be to reproduce?

My photos of the slabs removed:

[Jimaz]

... I judged the iron columns to be probably 6 feet in circumference.

Wow. It's only six stories too.

Street View

Wiki

...one of the oldest buildings in downtown Detroit.... The building was erected using a cast iron frame and was the first in Detroit with an electrical elevator— a technology that facilitated the skyscraper.

[detroitbob]

Would not be hard to create the visual of the original, there are many examples around the country, alas nothing in Detroit. Some victorian restoration in old downtown Ann Arbor.