The Ford Building is a high-rise

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

located at 615

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

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English 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 List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. 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 headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

. 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 Peno ...

abuts the building to the north, and the

Guardian Building Guardian Building is a landmark 43-story office skyscraper in the Financial District of downtown Detroit, Michigan. Built from 1928 to 1929, the building was originally called the Union Trust Building P. 94. and is a bold example of Art Deco a ...

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 architecture, Beaux-Arts'' movement, he may have been "the most successful power broker the American archi ...

, 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 the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

. Burnham styled it with Neo-Classical and

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

elements. It is constructed with a steel skeleton faced with

terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...

tile and accented with white Italian marble. Burnham's other remaining skyscraper designs in Detroit include the David Whitney Building (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