Question about Cadillac Tower's windows

[Newdetroit]

Hi all,

I noticed that on one side of the Cadillac tower, there are no windows except for the top five floors and then just a few others. It just looks odd especially this one window 13 floors down in the middle. Did the building used to have all windows on the side but was later covered by brick? I would venture to say no, but just wanted to make sure...thanks

[Jason]

That's where the elevators and other windowless things are.

They're put along the edge of the building like that because normally there would be another tall building right up against that wall that would block out the windows anyways.

And if you look closely, the window on the top 5 floors are also missing, except they're filled in with black terra cotta instead of green, and that way they look like windows from far away. You can see it better here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanneorla/3981420472/

And if you look even more closely, some of the white terra cotta at the top is actually gold, and it's supposed to catch the sun and make the top of the building glitter. But I've never noticed the effect.

[EastsideAl]

If you look closely at many older buidings, you'll see that they have this "blank wall" configuration for the elevator shafts, etc.

It looks pretty strange now though to have the Cadillac Tower's blank wall on that particular side. But you have to remember that when the building was built, the view from that side of the building was effectively blocked anyway by the Real Estate Exchange Bldg. [[later known as the Cadillac Square Bldg.).



I'm sure it was also assumed when the building was built in 1927, with the city and country booming, that there would soon be a solid wall of buildings fronting on Cadillac Square. Of course, events in 1929 - when the picture above was taken - changed that assumption.

[Newdetroit]

Thanks for the info!