Chrysler House is a 23-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-ri ...

located a
719 Griswold Street
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 district ...

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 t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

. The class-A office building is adjacent to 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 Penob ...

in the heart of the U.S. designated

Detroit Financial District The Detroit Financial District is a United States historic district in downtown Detroit, Michigan. The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 2009, and was announced as the featured listing in the ...

. It is used as an

office building An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific ...

, with

retail Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...

space on the street level. It was originally known as the Dime Building but has carried numerous names over the years.

History

The building was constructed between 1910 and 1912"Dime Building"
''Historic Detroit''. Retrieved April 21, 2016. and known for many years as the Dime Building. When completed, the tower was named the Dime Savings Bank Building for its primary tenant. It was later renamed the Commonwealth Building, briefly known as Griswold Place. It became the Dime Building again in 2002, before being renamed in 2012. The original

Lincoln Highway Association The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 191 ...

national headquarters occupied office 2115 on the 21st floor from 1913 to 1928. For several years through 1983, the building housed the headquarters of Bank of the Commonwealth until that bank merged with

Comerica Comerica Incorporated is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and strategically aligned by three business segments: The Commercial Bank, The Retail Bank and Wealth Management. Comerica focuses on relationships, and helpin ...

. In 2002, a $40-million renovation was completed. In August 2011,

Quicken Loans Rocket Mortgage, LLC (formerly known as Quicken Loans LLC) is a mortgage loan provider. It is headquartered in the One Campus Martius building in the financial district of Downtown Detroit, Michigan. In January 2018, the company became the la ...

founder

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' ...

purchased the building along with the nearby

Qube QUBE was an experimental two-way, multi-programmed cable television system that played a significant role in the history of American interactive television. It was launched in Columbus, Ohio, on December 1, 1977. Highly publicized as a revolutio ...

First National Building The First National Building is a skyscraper and class-A office center in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Detroit Financial District. The building is located across the streets from Cadillac Tower and One Detroit Center, and stands next to ...

and Wright-Kay Building. Chrysler House Doors

On April 30, 2012, Gilbert and

Chrysler Group LLC Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

chairman

Sergio Marchionne Sergio Marchionne (; 17 June 1952 – 25 July 2018) was an Italian-Canadian businessman, widely known for his turnarounds of the automakers Fiat and Chrysler, his business acumen and his outspoken and often frank approach, especially when dealing ...

announced that Chrysler will move its Great Lakes Business Center and some executive offices, with approximately 70 employees, into the two top floors of the building. As part of the lease, the building was renamed for the company.

Architecture

The tower was designed in the Neoclassical architectural style by

Daniel Burnham Daniel Hudson Burnham (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the '' Beaux-Arts'' movement, he may have been, "the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ...

. The steel-framed structure is faced with white glazed brick and terra cotta trim. The most distinctive feature is the central light court which begins on the third floor and creates a U-shaped floor plan on the upper office floors. This feature can be seen in an earlier version on Burnham's Miner's National Bank Building, now Citizens Bank financial Center, completed one year earlier in downtown

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the s ...

. Miner's National Bank is a similar, but smaller-scale design with the main banking hall in the space below the light court and featuring a large skylight. A later expansion of the building altered the U-shape of the upper floors. In a subsequent renovation, the lower two floors were refaced with gray granite and a pediment above the central entrance and cornice were removed.

Gallery

File:Dime Building construction.jpg, Construction of the Dime Building. August 31, 1912 File:Dime Building, 1912.jpg, Exterior. December 31, 1912 File:Dime Interior.jpg, Interior, c. 1912 File:Dime Savings Bank Building Detroit MI.jpg File:Penobscot.jpg,

left, with the Chrysler House

History

Architecture

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading