Quote Originally Posted by Dbest View Post
I looked up the info, you are right. He was the "designer" for the Guardian. Thanks for clarifying that. Although there may be varying accounts of how active he was in the process, I found this tidbit that leads me to believe he was heavily involved;

"And that’s not the only rare marble in the lobby. Numidian marble was chosen for its unusual blood-red color. No mines in the world quarried it at the time, so Rowland went to Africa, where a mine that had been closed for 30 years was reopened just long enough for Rowland to pick out the marble he needed for the lobby."

http://www.historicdetroit.org/building/guardian-building/
Sounds like he was a good decorator. My research points to Rowland's involvement is not at the level that is generally believed today. When I started to find the information I was not even looking into the Guardian. I pretty much stumbled across the info. researching other projects around town. Up to that point my view of the building was it was well researched and I did not have to spend my time looking into the background of the building. What I have found is we [[including me) know very little about the background of the Guardian.