Dime Savings Bank Building

719 Griswold – Dime Savings Bank Building – Steel-frame twenty-three-story skyscraper faced in white terra cotta (1913-14) – D. H. Burnham & Co. and Graham, Burnham & Co., architects. Renovated by Barton Malow Design (2001). The Dime Building’s U-shaped footprint, with the light well opening toward the street, allows natural light into the interior offices. The open end of the U-shape plan facing Griswold Street begins above the third story floor plate. The first two stories were faced in brown granite during a renovation of the 1950s that removed the original terra cotta. Classical details are applied to the terra cotta above the second floor. The two-story lobby has been renovated to include large Corinthian columns and new marble floors. Most impressive was the restoration of the skylight to the light court. The upper three floors are distinguished from the building shaft by a separate treatment of the windows at the sixteenth and seventeenth floors. The windows are grouped between vertical spandrels. The roof is flat. A new awning projects from the Griswold entrance. Dime Savings was organized in 1884 with prominent Detroit businessmen such as J. L. Hudson and James E. Scripps among the directors. The bank occupied a temple-front three-story banking room in the center of the Griswold facade between the tower’s two arms.