The Book Tower is a , 38-story

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

located at 1265 Washington Boulevard in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, Michigan, within the

Washington Boulevard Historic District Washington Boulevard Historic District is a multi-block area of downtown Detroit, Michigan. It consists of structures facing Washington Boulevard between State and Clifford Streets. In 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Pl ...

. Construction began on the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

-style building in 1916, as an addition to the original Book Building, and finished a decade later. Designed in the

Academic Classicism Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie ...

style, it has 38 rentable floors, two basement levels and two

mechanical floor A mechanical floor, mechanical penthouse, mechanical layer or mechanical level is a story of a high-rise building that is dedicated to mechanical and electronics equipment. "Mechanical" is the most commonly used term, but words such as ''utility ...

s. It has a green

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

roof, a roofing style shared by the nearby

Westin Book Cadillac Hotel The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a historic skyscraper hotel in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Washington Boulevard Historic District. Designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, and opened as the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924, the , 31- ...

. Retail and gallery floors used to reside on the first and second floors, with businesses previously occupying the rest. The building is currently unoccupied but is under renovation by Bedrock Real Estate Services and is planned to open again.

History

Named after the famous Book Brothers of Detroit, it was briefly the tallest building in the city from 1926 until the completion of the

Penobscot Building The Greater Penobscot Building, commonly known as the Penobscot Building, is a class-A office tower in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. Constructed in 1928, the Art Deco building is located in the heart of the Detroit Financial District. The Penobsc ...

in 1928. A taller Book Tower of 81 stories was to be built at the opposite end of the Book Building, but the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

cancelled those plans. The building contains a

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fea ...

by the Detroit architectural sculptor

Corrado Parducci Corrado Giuseppe Parducci (March 10, 1900 – November 22, 1981) was an Italian-American architectural sculptor who was a celebrated artist for his numerous early-20th century works. Early life and education Parducci was born in Buti, Italy, a ...

. From its opening through the mid-1970s, the Book Tower remained a prestigious address on Washington Boulevard. Like many structures in the city, its fortunes declined until 1988 when the owners defaulted on the mortgage. In 1989,

Travelers Insurance The Travelers Companies, Inc., commonly known as Travelers, is an American insurance company. It is the second-largest writer of U.S. commercial property casualty insurance, and the sixth-largest writer of U.S. personal insurance through indepen ...

, the principal mortgage-holder, took possession and sold the building to developer John Lambrecht, who had previously purchased and renovated the

Cadillac Tower The Cadillac Tower is a 40-story, Neo-Gothic skyscraper designed by the architectural firm of Bonnah & Chaffee at 65 Cadillac Square in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, not far from the Renaissance Center. The building's materials include terra cot ...

a few blocks east. Lambrecht had similar plans for the Book Building and Tower. His untimely death later that year brought things to a halt. Lambrecht's widow attempted to manage the property and made some improvements, but she was unable to maintain momentum. In July 2006, she sold the Book Tower to the Pagan Organization, a New York-based investment group. Pagan's plans were for a renovation and conversion of both the Book Tower and Book building into a mix of retail, residential, and office units. The Pagan Organization created the Northeast Commercial Services Corp. to manage the building. Northeast Commercial Services Corp. filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

protection in May 2007, after defaulting on its mortgage loan. The last tenant, Bookie's Tavern, closed in January 2009, and moved to a new location downtown, leaving the entire building vacant. In November 2009, Key Investment Group of

Clinton Township, Michigan Clinton is the name of some places in the U.S. state of Michigan: * Clinton County, Michigan * Clinton Township, Macomb County, Michigan * Clinton, Lenawee County, Michigan, village * Clinton Township, Lenawee County, Michigan * Clinton Township, O ...

announced intentions to buy and renovate the building as a

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

with high rise residential units, office space, and retail. Weeks earlier, the investors revealed that they were looking to purchase the building from AKNO Enterprises of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

for a green renovation. In January 2010, Rosemarie Dobek, CFO of Key Investment Group, reported that the group was pursuing plans for a US$320 million green renovation to include the Book Tower and four other Detroit buildings. In August 2013, Book Tower owner ANKO Enterprises of Vancouver, British Columbia, filed a tax abatement for a future renovation of the building. Specific plans were not disclosed. In August 2015, Bedrock Real Estate, owned by

Dan Gilbert Daniel Gilbert (born January 17, 1962) is an American billionaire businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and majority owner of Rocket Mortgage, founder of Rock Ventures, and owner of the National Basketball Association ...

, announced it would purchase the Book complex, including the Book Tower. The purchase price was reported to be about $30 million. Since that time, work has been on-going to renovate and restore the building into mixed-use retail, commercial and residential. Public tours were given in 2019 showing the progress of the project. The renovation project is expected to be complete sometime in 2022.

Gallery

File:Downtown, Detroit, MI, USA - panoramio (6).jpg, File:BookTowerCaryatids.jpg,

Caryatid A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "ma ...

s by an unknown sculptor File:Booktowerdetroit.JPG, The tower from

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

File:DPM Times Square.jpg, The

Detroit People Mover The Detroit People Mover (DPM) is a elevated automated people mover system in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The system operates in a one-way loop on a single track encircling downtown Detroit, using Intermediate Capacity Transit System lin ...

approaching Book Tower

References

External links

Historic Detroit — Book TowerGreen Renovation Article
{{Architecture of metropolitan Detroit Skyscraper office buildings in Detroit Unused buildings in Detroit Historic district contributing properties in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Buildings with sculpture by Corrado Parducci Office buildings completed in 1926 1926 establishments in Michigan Neoclassical architecture in Michigan Renaissance Revival architecture in Michigan Rock Ventures Louis Kamper buildings

History

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links