Building Detroit's skyline (2024)

Skyscrapers rise from the fog in this undated photo of downtown Detroit. The skyline of the city we know today was largely built in the first half of the 20th century, and includes some of the finest Art Deco style skyscrapers in the country.

Before the turn of the 20th century, the Detroit Opera House dominated the north side of Campus Martius. It burned to the ground in 1897, but was rebuilt.

The new Detroit Opera House ushered in the new century, but it soon would be dwarfed by skyscrapers as Detroit's new automobile industry drove a population surge.

A worker rides a girder on the Ford Building, a 19-story office tower at 615 Griswold at Congress that would open in 1908. The Ford Building, incidentally, was not connected with the automobile company; it was the headquarters for the Edward Ford Plate Glass Co.

In 1920, when the General Motors building opened in Detroit's New Center area, it had two swimming pools, 19 bowling alleys and 20 billiard tables. The building is 15 stories high, with 20 million cubic feet of office space and a wide variety of shops and services. THE DETROIT NEWS ARCHIVES

In 1918 the Gothic revival, Louis Kamper-designed Real Estate Exchange Building, left, opened. It was later renamed the Cadillac Square Building, seen here in 1949. Behind it is the 1927, 40-story Barlum Tower, now called the Cadillac Tower. When the Cadillac Square Building was demolished in 1976, it revealed that the Cadillac Tower's first 35 stories on that side were windowless, and became used for advertising. THE DETROIT NEWS ARCHIVES

Celebrated architect Albert Kahn designed the 26-story First National Building at 660 Woodward in 1922. Construction took eight years before it opened in 1930. THE DETROIT NEWS ARCHIVES

The Detroit Police Headquarters at 1300 Beaubien, another Albert Kahn building, opened in 1922. The building still exists, although the police moved to Third Avenue and Howard in 2013.

When the 33-story Book-Cadillac Hotel, center, opened in 1924, it was both the tallest building in Detroit and the tallest hotel in the world. Seen here in 1935, it's now the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. THE DETROIT NEWS ARCHIVES

Renowned designer C. Howard Crane built the jaw-dropping Fox Theatre, full of over-the-top flourishes, in 1928. A new marquee is seen here in 1990, after the theater was restored.

No expense was spared on the Fox Theatre's interior. A handful of different design styles were mixed together for exotic effect. The Fox's oversized lobby was six stories high.

The Fox Theatre is seen in 1985, when it had been turned into a movie theater. It would undergo an extensive restoration beginning in 1987.

In 1989, the Fox Theatre was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Construction on the Ambassador Bridge over the Detroit River began in 1927 and was completed in 1929. Above, suspender cables that would hold the road deck hang from the suspension cables.

An aerial view of the new Ambassador Bridge shows a Detroit skyline as a large freighter heads under the bridge. Undated.

Architect Albert Kahn designed his most-lauded work, the Fisher Building, as three skyscrapers. After the stock market collapse, plans were scaled down to just one tower on West Grand Boulevard in Midtown, 28 stories high. It remains one of the most recognizable buildings in Detroit's skyline.

The Fisher Building, completed in 1928, is the largest marble-clad commercial building in the world. A dark gray-green granite is used from the ground floor to the third floor. The rest is covered with more than 325,000 square feet of marble — white Maryland Marvilla marble and a gray Carthage marble from Missouri.

Inside, more than 56 varieties of marble from all over the world were used for the floors and walls.

Colorful frescoes arch over the ceiling of the three-story arcade.

The Guardian Building, at 500 Griswold, is perhaps Detroit's most spectacular Art Deco skyscraper. Seen in September 1934, it opened in 1929.

Wayne County Commissioner Glenn Anderson is asking for an audit of a three-year project to overhaul the county's technology system, saying millions have alreadybeen spent to date and the cost of the desired system, once pegged at about $31 million, had nearly doubled.

Bank of America customers wait in line in a 150-foot-long main lobby, with a three-story vaulted ceiling above them, in 2009. The Guardian Building's interior has multicolor Aztec designs, Rookwood pottery, Pewabic tile and giant columns of imported Travertine marble.

Customers wait in line at Bank of America in front of a mural of Michigan in the Guardian Building in 2009.

A view from the 38th floor of the Guardian Building of the gold triangle windows and flagpole. The flag is changed every three months because the wind rips it to shreds. BRANDY BAKER / THE DETROIT NEWS

Seen in 1957, the Guardian Building, right, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. At left is the Penobscot Building.

When the Penobscot Building opened in 1928 at 645 Griswold, it was the fourth tallest in the United States. A marvel of Art Deco design, its upper stories cascade like a waterfall. At 565 feet, it was unsurpassed in Detroit until the 729-foot Renaissance Center debuted in 1977.

A red ball, 12 feet wide, blinks atop the Penobscot Building in this undated photo. It served as an aviation beacon.

An exterior of the Penobscot Building in 1934. Murphy built the original, 13-story Penobscot Building on Fort in 1905, but died shortly before it opened. His sons would build the 23-story Penobscot Building Annex on W. Congress in 1916, and then the towering 1928 building above, formally called the Greater Penobscot Building. THE DETROIT NEWS ARCHIVES

The word Penobscot comes from the Penobscot tribe in Maine, where lumber baron Simon J. Murphy lived before coming to Detroit.

A telescope offered views of downtown Detroit from an upper floor of the Penobscot building.

The original Fort Shelby Hotel opened in 1917, a 10-story building at 525 W. Lafayette.

A decade later, the growing city required more hotel rooms, so a 21-story, 450-room tower was added in 1927. It had only sporadic success over the years and closed in 1974. In 2008, the renovated hotel reopened as the Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby.

Detroit's 36-story Book Tower at 1265 Washington Blvd. is seen in November 1931. It's one of hundreds of buildings designed by Detroit architect Louis Kamper.

The elaborate decorations on the top floors of the Book Tower — where it would be hard to appreciate them from the street — drew criticism for architect Kamper.

The 20-story Water Board Building at 735 Randolph is an example of a more streamlined, Art Deco style for architect Louis Kamper. Completed in 1928, the building is triangular in shape for the triangular plot of land, with no ornamentation.

Clouds race over downtown Detroit skyscrapers in June 1932. The tallest building on the left is the 47-story Penobscot Building.

Detroit's "Bob-lo boat" and "Vernor's Ginger Ale" signs are seen from Windsor. Undated.

The Broderick Tower at 10 Witherell began life as the Eaton Tower in 1927. The Eatons were business owners for three generations when the 34-story tower was built — yet another Louis Kamper project. Renamed the Broderick Tower in 1944, it had been empty since 1988 before undergoing a restoration in 2011-12. It's now a high-end residential building.

The Salvation Army Building in June 1939.

This is a view of Detroit looking toward Belle Isle, with Canada in the background. Undated

At 25 stories, Detroit's flagship Hudson's store, seen in 1940, was once the tallest department store in the world.

The David Stott Building at 1150 Griswold was named for the owner of a mill company. Bearing a similarity to the Guardian Building, the 38-story Art Deco skyscraper opened in 1929. Due to the coming Great Depression, it would be the last skyscraper built in the Detroit until the mid-1950s.

A view of downtown Detroit with Kern's and Hudson's stores on Woodward, undated.

The Penobscot Building is at center, with the Guardian Building at left and the Dime Building at right on Jan. 2, 1932. In front is Old City Hall, built in 1871 and demolished in 1961.

This photo of Grand Circus Park in Detroit was taken from the David Whitney Building in 1931. Park Avenue curves around on the left side of the image to intersect with Adams Street.

The tower of the old Wayne County Building in Detroit features copper-plated statues of heroic figures. Wayne County employees moved out of the building and into the equally historical Guardian Building, also in downtown Detroit.

This is an aerial image of Grand Circus Park in Detroit by photographer William A. Kuenzel from The Detroit News' airplane on Oct. 2, 1933.

The light on top of the Penobscot Building was refurbished and lit on Oct. 27, 2011. The angular architectural details remain as they were nearly a century earlier.

The Guardian Building, a landmark in downtown Detroit at 500 Griswold St., is shown in 2007. Built in 1928 and finished in 1929, the building was originally called the Union Trust Building and is considered one of the boldest examples of art deco architecture.

A ring of glittering Christmas trees on the Old City Hall site forms the centerpiece of this spectacular view of downtown Detroit as the lights are turned on for the holiday season. The view is from Cadillac Square, hemmed in by skyscrapers whose lights were ablaze for the ceremony, circa 1964.