The Element Detroit at the Metropolitan is a high-rise

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

, formerly the Metropolitan Building, a historic

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 d ...

located on a

triangular A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non-collinear, ...

lot at 33 John R Street 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 ...

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 ...

, near

Grand Circus Park The Grand Circus Park Historic District contains the Grand Circus Park in Downtown Detroit, Michigan that connects the theatre district with its financial district. It is bisected by Woodward Avenue, four blocks north of Campus Martius Park ...

. The building was built in 1924 and finished in 1925. It stands at 15 stories and was once occupied by shops, offices, and the facilities of jewelry manufacturers and wholesalers leading it to also be known as the "Jeweler's Building". The manufacture of luminous watch dials in the building left behind several toxic substances that have thwarted redevelopment plans. Architects

Weston and Ellington Weston and Ellington were a prolific Detroit based architectural firm operating in the 1910s and 1920s. They designed numerous apartment buildings, offices, auto sales buildings and other commercial structures, mostly in and around the city of Detro ...

designed it in a

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. The exterior of the building is faced with brick,

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

, and

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, terracot ...

. The building closed in 1977. In March 2010, the Downtown Development Authority voted to install safety scaffolding and netting on the building to prevent parts of the facade from falling. In September 2013, the city requested bids for removal of asbestos and other hazardous materials from the building to determine if it should be demolished or restored. The property was offered to

Rock Ventures Rock Ventures LLC is the holding company for businessman Dan Gilbert's portfolio of companies, investments, and real estate. It is based in Detroit, Michigan and is also engaged in community development in both Detroit and Cleveland, Ohio. Its ov ...

, owned by developer

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 ...

, however the company declined to take ownership of the structure. Earlier, Bruce Schwartz of Bedrock Real Estate Services, one of Rock Ventures subsidiaries, said that part of the building could be demolished to construct a public space, lofts and offices. However, he later said the company would be open to restoring the structure. In March 2015, the Downtown Development Authority approved a $23.2 million renovation plan to create 71 apartments along with commercial and retail space on the bottom two floors. In May 2016, it was announced that the building would be converted to a hotel, Element Detroit at the Metropolitan. The 100,000 square-foot building opened in December 2018 as a 110-room extended-stay hotel, with 2,000 square feet of meeting space on the second-floor, 7,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and lower level, and a roof patio on the 11th floor.

Notes

References

* *

External links

Element Detroit at the Metropolitan official website

at Detroiturbex.com. * * Skyscraper office buildings in Detroit Buildings and structures completed in 1925 1925 establishments in Michigan Hotels in Detroit {{Detroit-struct-stub