• and the √Rec Gem and Century Theatres -- side-by-side theatres. (Refer to Page 3, Theatres for detailed information.)  
  

• the √Rec Music Hall of Performing Arts/Jazz Cafe (arch. William Kapp & Smith, Hinchman and Grylls, 1928, Art Deco), the majestic skyscrapers like
  

• the David Whitney Building and others. But their interiors have sumptuous decor and extravagant style befitting the tastes of their wealthy patrons.  This legacy leaves Detroit with a tradition and abundance of live theatre venues rivaling New York.  In fact, many venues were built near Detroit's own Broadway and Park Avenue, part of the second largest combined live theatre district in the nation. 

At the center of the Harmonie Park-Paradise Park on E. Grand River is an engraved tribute to Paradise Valley and a commemorative of the old German and later African American neighborhoods on the east side of Downtown.  

A number of outdoor concerts have been held at this location.

​​Towering above are the graceful skyscrapers of the 1920s, the stepped Penobscot (arch.Wirt Rowland and Smith Hinchman and Grylls, 1928), which inspired the Empire State Building with its “H” frame and set-back architecture plan.  Around the corner is the startling beauty of the Guardian Building.

​√Rec Merchants Row

Don’t miss the Romanesque √Rec Wayne County Building in the east with its bold, equine, Victory and Progress copper sculptures.  Awash in subtle flood lighting, they are particularly striking at night.  These figures have been compared to the Brandenburg Gate equine statuary in Berlin and are Roman and Greek symbols of victory and triumph inspired by Apollo's chariot borne across the heavens.  Though known as quadriga, there are just three horses in this unusual pair of arrangements by J. Massey Rhind, 1900.  Look carefully, and you will see numerous other sculptures atop the building designed by John and Arthur Scott and built between 1897 and 1902.   Designed in a masterful style it combines Beaux-arts, Roman-revival, Baroque and Neo-classical, and is abundant in copper, granite and sandstone. This structure includes a pediment of Anthony Wayne by Edward Wagner.  Other works depict Law, Agriculture, Commerce and Mechanics the sine qua non of a dynamic Detroit.

Cadillac Square merges almost seamlessly from a block southeast, into a larger park surrounded by architecture of several periods.  Framing this eclectic mix is the glass Ernst and Young Building (above) in the west, the Galaxe Building in the northwest and the contemporary Compuware Building in the north.  These contrast sharply with the Romanesque Wayne County Building in the southeast.

Foran's GrandTrunk Diner on 612 Woodward. Pizza and sub shops are found in the same location.  Note some of the fine architecture in the area.

Architectural Notes:
In the Campus Martius Park area, several buildings predominate. 

A number of these buildings were recently purchased by Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans.  He has vowed an aggressive plan of renovation and redevelopment that has already shown results. Other nearby buildings are in renovation and some stand derelict.

• Penobscot (Art Deco, 47 stories’ H-plan, stepped ascent; Wirt Rowland, 1928 – partially restored, and the last of three by the same name);

• the Cadillac Tower (terra cotta/brick, Beaux Arts, Bonnah and Chaffee, 40 stories, 1927 -- occupied),
  
• the Guardian (brick with Pewabic tile accents -- refer to the Museum Page; Art Deco, 40 stories, Wirt Rowland, 1929 -- in restoration); Tours are available of the interior;
  
• the Book Tower (Italian Renaissance, 47 stories, Louis Kamper, 1917 – will be restored; just purchased);  
  
• the Book Cadillac (Neo Renaissance, 33 stories, Louis Kamper, 1924 -- restored),
  
• the Ford (terra cotta, Chicago Style, Daniel Burnham, 1909, 19 stories -- continuously occupied and maintained  -- top floor interior is preserved in original 1910 decor),
  
• the First National Building (limestone, Neo Classical, 25 stories, Albert Kahn, 1930 -- being restored),
  
• the David Stott (brick, Art Deco, 37 stories, Donaldson,1929 – portions being restored),
  
• The Dime (glazed terra cotta,  Neo-Classical, 23 stories, Daniel Burnham, 1912 – restored in 2002; undergoing further renovation),
  
• the Buhl (Romanesque, Neo Gothic, 29 stories, Wirt Rowland, 1925 -- continuously occupied and partially restored),
  
• the Vinton (Neo Classical, 12 stories, Albert Kahn, 1916 -- restored into a loft building in 2006),
  
• The Detroit Life (Neo Classical, 10 Stories, Arnold and Shreve, 1923, -- restoration status unknown),
  
• Grinnel (terra cotta, Chicago School, 6 stories, Albert Kahn, 1908 -- [of musical instrument fame] -- restoration status unknown).  (Buildings of Detroit.com., 1-12-2011.) 

Note:  the "quadriga" described on the Wayne County Building are actually composed of three (not four) horses each.  Are they really "Tririga"?  Perhaps you know.

The northeast side of Downtown is slightly ahead of its northwest side counterpart.  The Harmonie Pointe pocket park on the corner of Gratiot is a good example of a spruced up neighborhood where there are a lot of small successful businesses and new lofts.  It’s only a half mile from thriving Eastern Market.

From Campus Martius south on Woodward there are several bars and restaurants that offer outdoor seating during the warmer months with tasty fare, good brews and wines.

• Check out Pulse Lounge on 156 Monroe, two blocks west of Greektown and a block east of the Compuware Headquarters, the Hard Rock Cafe on 45 Monroe (inside the Compuware Headquarters building) or… ​
  

√Rec Cadillac Square

SNAPSHOT  This area harmoniously blends from the area near Grand Circus Park at the "Necklace" to areas to the south and east of Woodward along Broadway, John R., Madison and Adams.  As much a historical area as a park, it's home to significant architecture of different periods as well as a music recording studio by the same name that has recorded Aretha Franklin, Eminem, D12, Will,I.AM, P Diddy, The Black Crowes, Tori Amos, The Four Tops, Grand Funk Railroad, Motley Crue, Ben Folds Five, Missy Elliott, Dave Mason, Everclear, George Clinton, Elliott Smith, Karen Clark and Kierra "KiKi" Sheard. 

Primary access to the area is by People Mover Station 12, Broadway.

ATTRACTIONS    A Portion of the general area was once known as Black Bottom, and at its center was Paradise Valley further north and east.  Huge numbers of African Americans came from the South to this location, seeking jobs in the new auto industry of the 1920s where they crowded into tenement houses.  However, Black Bottom and Paradise Valley got their names from the former Savoyard River marsh nearby that ran through the bottom lands, leaving rich, black soil -- good for farming. 

The many job seekers became the source of Jazz and Blues clubs.  This brought great performers like Duke Ellington, Pearl Baily, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, John Lee Hooker and Count Basie.  (Wikiefieldtrip.org.) In spite of the wealth of creativity the word "Paradise" was a stroke of sarcasm when compared to the truth.  Entertainment continued to grow, however, into Gospel, R&B, and later Soul, Funk, Techno and other great forms of musical expression that put Detroit at the top of the charts. On the fringes of this community were built the new movie palaces by patrons who got rich from the auto industry, and whose theatres survive to this day.

​Politics and Culture

This small triangular park is the focus of cross-cultural heritage.  Because it was known as Germantown, it has an ethnic connection to the original German residents.  Because of its association to Paradise Valley and Black Bottom the name of the park is significant to African Americans.  Continuing efforts are aimed at re-naming it Africantown in honor of prominent African Americans and to promote local black business interests.   Recently, a large project was announced for the general area promoting entertainment, the arts and retail interests with an African American theme.  

​​The Ezra Winter Mural conveys a lofty sense of Michigan pride, work and bounty.

​​The Guardian is not just a building.  It’s a stirring New World anthem of American majesty held in great reverence.   Materials and design elements elevate the structure to international eminence.

It contains rare pink granite, buff Mankato stone, Rookwood and Pewabic tile, a stepped-arched nave, barrel-vaulted ceiling and the best examples of workmanship throughout the building.  A monel metal screen frames the empire of industry from the end of the corridor.

• ​​√Rec Texas de Brazil Restaurant (Compuware Building),
  
• Calexico replaces Olga’s Kitchen (Compuware Building),
  

​​Visit the Row’s newest nearby residents, 

• The 34-story Broderick Tower has completed renovation into apartments and condos (arch. Louis Kamper, 1928, Beaux-Arts, Chicago School, Neo-Classical).   It opens the way from north downtown at the edge of Grand Circus Park west of Harmonie Park.  

 These parks have sprung up to evoke the same dynamic features in other parts of town that combine history, nature or industrial kitsch.  This one, at Lafayette, is an herb, vegetable, fruit and flower garden.  The kiwi arbor, made of rusty I-beams, lends a touch of an urban charm.   Part of the Children’s garden is shown above, right.

Architects tested their skill with detail wrought in new forms of curtain-wall. The elevator and newer materials like steel gave them the guts to explore new heights with natural lighting schemes.   A number of restored buildings are subtle blends of old and new.  Some have dance clubs, bars or restaurants as tenants.  "The Lofts of Merchants Row" is an inspiring example.  It contains 157 loft units, a large ground floor retail space and automated parking deck.  Added to the new restaurants, retail outlets and tenants in nearby WEB-ward office building projects, this area now appears poised to reprise its early grandeur.   One of the latest signs of revival for this area is a contemporary glass residential-office planned for the vacant Hudson site by Dan Gilbert.

• The Stott building (arch. Donaldson and Meier, Art Deco, 1929)  opened the new Sky Bar in the main floor and basement. 

​​The Merchants Row buildings are cleverly ornamented with fine lintels, arches and friezes, built with brick, tile, granite, marble, limestone and sandstone.  

The limestone chosen for this tower sucked up contaminants like a sponge.  Dark stains give the place the look of a high-rise ancient ruin.  An old zoning provision added stairs that further compounded the bizarre appearance.  From a lost era a relic’s ghostly presence still draws the gaze of city dwellers from all sides to its aging arcades.

​

NEWS FLASH!  Detroit investor, Dan Gilbert has just announced his purchase of this building and promises renovations will be a "game changer" for Downtown.  He plans a major project.  (He now owns about 100 buildings.)

• √Rec The beautifully restored Book Cadillac Hotel is a block south.

Several more interesting buildings are in the east downtown area or northwest of Grand Circus Park in the Foxtown district.  (Architecture:  For further reading, check architectural examples of Downtown:  1400-1456 Woodward, 3-8 stories, Early Commercial, Late Victorian, Albert Kahn in similar web sites, and examples like the Fowler building.  More buildings of the same era and styles survive in Downtown, a half mile east.)

Several nearby pocket parks have been developed in the last couple years.

This urban experience is increasingly cited by planners in other cities for its successful design.  

1926.)

​​Pure Detroit offers quality authentic keepsakes of the Detroit experience.

Note:  Refer also to Museum Page 2 for details on  the Pewabic Pottery Museum whose design studios contibuted much of the material for the Guardian Building tile motifs.

​​Symbolic patterns reveal serpents, jaguars, bears and skulls in the weave of fabrics and tile mosaics, drawn from rich Aztec, Mayan and Woodland Indian imagery.   At a distance, one image is superimposed over another. Extraordinary details are also seen in the beautiful bank vault area in the lower level.  (The Guardian imagery has been adapted for the Wesley Snipes, Bruce Lee Game of Death re-make.)

An extension of suburban Troy's, Somerset Collection upscale stores was open three days each month in the buildings to gage shopper demand.  The positive response may bring a permanent collection to the area.  

• ​​The Detroit Shoppe (now further north on Woodward) is a small souvenir and keepsake shop in Merchants Row that carries original brand Detroit beverages and samples of city memorabilia. The location shares space with the Detroit Art Shoppe. 

• ​​√Rec Hudson Café and 
  
• √Rec Slices (Pizza).
  

​​The √√Rec  magnificent Guardian Building (arch. Wirt Rowland and Smith, Hinchman and Grylls, Art Deco, Mayan Revival, 1928) was originally known as the Union Trust Building and later as the Cathedral of Finance.  When you step into this building, superlatives roll of the tongue -- whatever the name.  Designated the Central Command for Arsenal of Democracy war production in WWII, it boasts a spectacular Rookwood atrium that should be included on any tourist itinerary.   In many ways this is the historical heart and soul of Detroit and a privileged glimpse of the city’s greatness.

​A sophisticated façade lifts the eyes skyward on an architectural stairway that established the pattern for its larger cousins in New York built on its inspiration.  Note the 13 seal reliefs embedded in the arch.

​The Buhl (arch. Wirt Rowland, Smith Hinchman and Grylls,  Romanesque, Neo-Gothic, 1925) can sometimes be lost among its higher brethren who shoulder it out of view.  But its stately design details offer up some interesting visual history and mixed décor.

• Exciting new clubs have opened on the top floors while other areas of the building are being renovated.  Large neon Martini glasses surround the summit.  They’re easy to spot at night.  (The building was recently purchased by Chinese investors and then subsequently sold again.  But this won't interrupt renovation plans.)
  

• Filmmakers and artists have been attracted to the area.  A couple blocks south, street scenes on Griswold have been used several times by producers attracted to the area for its period architecture and the Michigan Film Credit program (recently ended).  Among the nearby buildings bordering this park are the historic Detroit Savings Building, the Farwell Building (Chicago School style), the David Stott Building (shown at full height and at ground level, above) and the Griswold Building (Albert Kahn), a structure that may soon be renovated.
  
   

​Patrons eagerly sampled the retail areas on the first floors, while managers checked their books above.  The giant,  33 story J.L. Hudson's flagship, one of the nation's most successful department stores, stood on the east side of the street with 2.2 million sq. feet of space.  At 439 feet high, it was second only to New York's Macy's department store building.  But it became the world's largest building implosion in 1998, a scale of demolition never since equaled.  Luckily, many buildings will remain, rescued by investors.  Historic designation helps.  But Detroit already lost a large number of "dinosaurs" of inestimable value to the world of architecture, and a significant part of its own shrinking downtown collection of pre-Depression office towers.  The “unusual,” 14-story Lafayette Building, the “magnificent,” 18-story Detroit Statler Hotel and the Park Avenue are its recent epitaphs.

​SNAPSHOT Merchants Row is a downtown stroll through yester-year's skyscrapers, stacked like ornate gift boxes from the 19th and 20th centuries on both sides of historic Woodward Avenue.  Since 2008, it's been designated part of the Lower Woodward Historic District.  New up-lighting highlights design features of several buildings at night.

Primary access to the two block area is from Woodward and State streets and between Campus Martius Park and Grand Circus Park.

ATTRACTIONS  Stroll a sidewalk little changed in a century and gaze up at the wall-to-wall brownstone, red brick and terra cotta buildings, six to 12 stories high, home to America's first department store chains.  The Woodward and State street intersection was thought to be the busiest pedestrian crossing in America in 1925 (Wikipedia, Merchants Row).  

The mysterious and dark Book Tower (arch. Louis Kamper, Neo-Classical-Renaissance, 1926) with its green, Mansard penthouse and sky-high fire escape looks like a comic hero hideaway.  (Could this be a redoubt for Spiderman or Superman?  Perhaps, but neither would need the stairs.)   

• The “Westin” Book Cadillac (arch. Louis Kamper, Neo-Renaissance, 1924) was recently enhanced with extensive up-lighting, which shows off its beautiful penthouse accents.  Patrons overwhelmingly love this hotel, its restaurants like the acclaimed Roast and the unsurpassed accommodations.

Primary access to the area is by People Mover Station 1, Times Square.  Walk southeast on Grand River for two blocks.

ATTRACTIONS   The Park was once a busy bus station because the layout was ideal for transfers.  With renovation, fresh landscaping and additional amenities the park has been given new life. 

The prominent figure of Stevens T. Mason by Albert Weinert (sculpted by Morris Brose) surveys the site. The statue was made from Fort Michilimackinac's melted bronze cannons in northern Michigan.  Mason was known as Young Hot Spur, Michigan's first and youngest governor.  His office was in the Courthouse built at this location when Detroit held the capitol of the Michigan Territory.  His daily walk to the Courthouse took him through the old French neighborhood and the low lying muddy streets a few blocks south, when the city was still becoming a respectable urban center. 

Mason died very early of pneumonia while visiting New York in 1843.  He was buried there, exhumed, and later re-buried here, near the Courthouse.  His body was disinterred after some confusion about its location, during the park's recent construction.  It was later re-interred with the full honors due a governor.  Capitol Park has borne witness to several distinct eras in the city, and once was an Underground Railroad stop on the way to Canada under the protection of local abolitionists.  The site of Finney's Barn has been honored in commemoration of the Underground Railroad.

Some buildings in this area, such as 1217 Griswold, have been converted to lofts, housing a number of Techno enthusiasts. This has been seen as a boost for plans to make the area a music hub.  Several buildings will soon start renovation.

• A short distance away is found the splendid interior architecture of √√Rec The Opera House (arch. Howard C. Crane, 1922);