The Qube in the Detroit Financial District now stands on the Hammond Building site. The 10-story Hammond Building (1889), now demolished, is considered the city’s first historic skyscraper. The commercial building at 1244 Randoph Street dates from the 1840s, a rare survivor from the Antebellum period.Īt 12 stories, the steel-framed United Way Community Services Building (1895), at 1212 Griswold, originally known as the Chamber of Commerce Building, qualifies as Detroit’s oldest existing historic skyscraper. Detroit’s Victorian styled Randolph Street Historic District contains some of the city’s oldest surviving commercial buildings. Fort built by Alexander Chapoton is another of the city’s early surviving commercial buildings. The six-story Romanesque Globe Tobacco Building (1888) at 407 E. Rill designed the ornate Beaux-Arts facade of Detroit Cornice and Slate (1897) at 733 Antoine. The Wright-Kay or Schwankovsky was among the first with an electric elevator. Traver Building (1889) at 1211 Woodward are prime examples. Lloyd’s Romanesque six-story iron-framed Wright-Kay (1891) at 1500 Woodward Ave and his R. They designed some of Detroit’s ornately stone-carved nineteenth-century tall buildings, many of which are still standing. Rill, and others, who had designed churches and homes, turned their attention to office and commercial buildings. In the 1880s, Gilded Age architects such as Gordon Lloyd, Harry J. Meanwhile, the suburbs contain some significant contemporary architecture and several historic estates. Detroit has one of the largest surviving collections of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century buildings in the U.S. with the National Trust for Historic Preservation listing many of Detroit’s skyscrapers and buildings as some of America’s most endangered landmarks. Together with the Renaissance Center, they form the city’s distinctive skyline.ĭetroit’s architecture is recognized as being among the finest in the U.S. The city’s historic Art Deco skyscrapers blend with the post-modern neogothic spires of One Detroit Center. With one of the world’s recognizable skylines, Detroit’s waterfront panorama shows a variety of architectural styles. The architecture of metropolitan Detroit continues to attract the attention of architects and preservationists alike.

The qube detroit