Federal Reserve Bank Annex

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch operated on this site from 1927 until 2005. The Federal Reserve Building Annex is significant for being the first important building to rise downtown in the post-World War II era. It was designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki when he was with the firm Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, just prior to establishing his own practice and earning fame in his own right. With its thin curtain wall of alternating bands of glass and marble veneer, thirty foot setback and entrance plaza containing raised landscaped beds, the Federal Reserve Annex was the first example of modern era architecture and planning in downtown Detroit and was right at the leading edge of the Modern Movement in America.

Comprised of two attached and interconnected steel-frame structures: a three-and one-half-story marble-faced Neoclassical bank building standing at the Congress comer and an eight-story International Style Annex. Extending east along Fort (1926- 27; 1949-51, 1951-53). Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, architects for 1926-27 building; Minoru Yamasaki, architect for 1949-51 expansion and 1951-53 renovation of 1926-27 building. National Register of Historic Places. The original building stands on the sidewalk line at the Fort/Congress intersection, and the front of the eight-story Annex is set back from the front of the 1926 building behind a thirty foot deep landscaped plaza. The Annex is an International Style curtain wall structure faced with alternating horizontal bands of tinted green glass and white marble panels supported by a stainless steel grid. The Annex contains the first-floor entrance to the banking area and office lobby. A plaza and raised planting beds in front of the Annex were planned to provide rare green space downtown. The floor plates of the two buildings are aligned, the original building's interior having been gutted and converted to three stories to align with the floor plan of the Annex when the Annex was built. The fourth floor of the original building was completely demolished and a penthouse atop it projecting from the Annex provides space for a cafeteria, meeting rooms and a terrace. Both buildings have flat roofs.