The Ford Building is a high-rise

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 dut ...

located at 615

Griswold Street Griswold Street is a major north-south street in downtown Detroit, which passes through the city's Financial District lined with many of its most familiar and recognizable structures, such as the Guardian Building and One Woodward Avenue. Griswo ...

in Downtown

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 U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. It stands at the northwest corner of Congress and Griswold Streets, in the heart of Detroit's

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

. The Penobscot Building abuts the building to the north, and the

Guardian Building The Guardian Building is a landmark skyscraper in the United States, located at 500 Griswold Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Financial District. The Guardian is a class-A office building owned by Wayne County, Michigan and ser ...

is southeast across Griswold Street. Toledo, Ohio, glass manufacturer Edward Ford and his son, John B. Ford, general manager of the Fords' Wyandotte, Michigan, alkali plant, had this building—then Detroit's tallest—constructed as an investment property.

Architecture

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 building began construction in 1907 and was completed in 1908. It celebrated its 100th year in 2009, and was one of the first to use a steel structural support system. It stands at 23 stories in total height, with two basement floors, 19 above-ground floors, and two penthouses. It held the title as tallest building in Detroit from 1908 until 1913. The Ford Building's primary uses are for offices and

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

. Burnham styled it with Neo-Classical and

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

elements. It is constructed with a steel skeleton faced with

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

tile and accented with white Italian marble. Burham's other remaining skyscraper designs in Detroit include the

David Whitney Building The David Whitney Building is a historic class-A skyscraper located at 1 Park Avenue (1550 Woodward Avenue from 1921 to 2014), on the northern edge of Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Grand Circus Park Historic District. The building stand ...

(1915) and the Dime Building (1912).

References

External links

Ford Building Website
{{Buildings in Michigan timeline Skyscraper office buildings in Detroit Downtown Detroit Ford Motor Company facilities Historic district contributing properties in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit 1900s architecture in the United States Burnham and Root buildings Chicago school architecture in Michigan Neoclassical architecture in Michigan Motor vehicle buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Office buildings completed in 1908

Architecture

See also

References

Further reading

External links