Buhl Building
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| Buhl Building | |
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| Information | |
|---|---|
| Location | 535 Griswold
Detroit, Michigan |
| Status | Complete |
| Constructed | 1925 Neo-Gothic style Romanesque accents |
| Use | Office |
| Roof | 112 m (366 ft) |
| Floor count | 29 |
| Companies | |
| Architect | Wirt C. Rowland |
The Buhl Building is a skyscraper in Detroit, Michigan. Architect Wirt C. Rowland gave the Buhl a Neo-Gothic style with Romanesque accents. Constructed in 1925 is stands at 25-stories. It stands across Congress Street from the Penobscot Building, and across Griswold Street from the Guardian Building, all of which were designed by Wirt C. Rowland. The Buhl Building stands on the corner of Congress St. West, and Griswold St. in Downtown Detroit. The building stands atop what used to be the Savoyard Creek near its confluence with the Detroit River. In 1836, the creek was covered and turned into a sewer. The Savoyard Club occupied the 28th floor of the Buhl Building from 1928 until its membership dwindled and the club closed in 1994.
The architectural sculpture on the building was designed by Corrado Parducci.
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[edit] Architect
Wirt C. Rowland, architect of the Penobscot Building, Guardian Building, and the Buhl Building was born and raised in Clinton, Michigan. In 1901, he landed a job as an office boy for the Detroit firm of Rogers & MacFarlane, quickly moving on to the prestigious George D. Mason firm. In 1909, he joined the office of Albert Kahn, who had also apprenticed under Mason. In 1910, with the encouragement of both Mason and Kahn, Rowland attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, MA for a year.
The combination of Rowland's natural design talent, Harvard education, and Detroit's healthy economy positioned him to make major contributions to the city's architecture. Rowland is a case study in design attribution. In 1911, in the office of Kahn, he and Ernest Wilby are said have been primarily responsible for the Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan. Through 1915 Rowland worked for the local firm of Malcomson & Higginbotham. He then returned to Kahn's office, contributing to the firm's classic projects, namely the Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan, the Detroit News Building, the First National Bank Building(1922), and the General Motors Building (1922) renamed Cadillac Place.
Rowland's career peaked as Head Designer (1922-1930) of Smith Hinchman & Grylls (SmithGroup). There, he designed a dozen major structures in downtown Detroit; among these, are a number of the city's most accomplished and evocative buildings. To a large extent, Rowland helped define Detroit's architectural genre. For the Guardian Building, he had assembled a multitude of artisans, mosaicists, sculptors, painters, and tile manufacturers including Corrado Parducci, muralist Ezra Winter, and tile from the Rookwood and Pewabic pottery companies. He thus recreated the architectural sythesis of a medieval cathedral. Hence, Rowland had reached a climax, when his Union Trust/Guardian Building became known as "the Cathedral of Finance."
The Guardian Building opened in 1930. With the onset of the Great Depression, Rowland was laid off from Smith Hinchman & Grylls so formed his own office where his work decreased to a small number of churches, schools, and construction projects. Late in life, he returned to a purer, Gothic idiom for his last few projects, notably the Kirk in the Hills church which was finished after he died in 1946. During World War II, the Guardian Building would serve as heaquarters for war time production when Detroit was called, the "Arsenal of Democracy."
[edit] See also
[edit] References and further reading
- Hill, Eric J. and John Gallagher (2002). AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3120-3.
- Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Shadowing Parducci, unpublished manuscript, Detroit.
- Meyer, Katherine Mattingly and Martin C.P. McElroy with Introduction by W. Hawkins Ferry, Hon A.I.A. (1980). Detroit Architecture A.I.A. Guide Revised Edition. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-1651-4.
- Sharoff, Robert (2005). American City: Detroit Architecture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3270-6.
- Savage, Rebecca Binno and Greg Kowalski (2004). Art Deco in Detroit (Images of America). Arcadia. ISBN 0-7385-3228-2.
- Sobocinski, Melanie Grunow (2005). Detroit and Rome: building on the past. Regents of the University of Michigan. ISBN 0933691092.
[edit] External links
- Official Website (Caution: Macromedia Flash is required to enter)
- Google Maps location of the Buhl Building
- The Buhl Building at Emporis.com
- SkyscraperPage.com's Profile on the Buhl Building
- Where Detroit's elite met to eat
| Preceded by Dime Building |
Tallest Building in Michigan 1925-1926 |
Succeeded by Book Tower |
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