Fisher Building

The Fisher/New Center Buildings are architecturally significant as a superbly designed complex exemplifying some of the finest craftsmanship and artistry displayed by any Art Deco style building constructed in the United States in the 1920s. The Fisher Building is perhaps the most significant structure of its kind ever designed by master architect Albert Kahn and lavishly exhibits the work of several noted artists including Geza Maroti, colleague of Eliel Saarinen and an important figure in the development of the European arts and crafts movement of the teens and twenties, and the firms of Ricci and Zari and Anthony Dilorenzo of New York, who designed and executed much of the plasterwork, stone carving and ornamental bronze work for the Fisher Building as well as other important structures around the nation in the 1920s. It is historically significant as a local landmark and for its long association with the Fisher family and the development of the American automobile industry. The Fisher and New Center buildings were constructed as only the first components of a planned major real estate development. The project was undertaken as an investment and philanthropy by the seven wealthy Fisher brothers, owners of the still extant Fisher Body Company, the leading maker of automobile bodies for the General Motors Corporation.

The Fisher and New Center Buildings are located in what is known as the New Center area, about three miles northwest of the central business district of Detroit. The Fisher Building, erected in 1928 at the northwest corner of West Grand Boulevard and Second Avenue, is the more important of the two structures and was intended as the focal point of the complex. It consists of a twenty-eight-story office tower with two, flat-roofed, eleven-story wings extending to the north and west making the building L-shaped. The basic, vertical emphasis of the Art Deco design, which is sometimes characterized as the American Vertical style is created by the projecting piers between the strip windows and the stepped-back massing of the tower.

The tall green tile, gilt crested chateauesque roof of the tower is a landmark that can be seen from many places in Detroit. The Fisher Building has fully architecturally articulated elevations on three sides. The west elevation, although partially detailed, was not as elaborately finished because a major addition was originally planned to be adjoined to this side of the building. The first three stories of the building are girded in polished, dark gray, Minnesota granite while the upper stories are grayish Maryland marble.

All of the visible metalwork on the exterior, including the elaborate arcaded shop windows and the ornate doors are solid bronze. The focal point of the exterior is the West Grand Boulevard entrance. Above the bronze and plate glass doors are intricate cast bronze panels with medallions of allegorical figures by noted Hungarian artist Geza Maroti, who also designed the lavish interior decorations. The gray granite surround is ornamented with carved decorative blocks.

The interior of the building is bisected by a thirty-foot wide, forty-four foot high barrel-vaulted arcade that extends from the West Grand Boulevard entrance to the Lothrop Avenue entrance. A similar arcade extends through the west wing parallel to West Grand Boulevard to the west parking lot entrance. The arcade and entrance vestibules are among the most elaborately decorated spaces of their kind in the nation. The walls and columns are sheathed in large panels of forty different types of marble.

The floors are laid in patterned marble. The vaulted ceilings are covered with murals and stenciling which are heavily gold leafed. At the crossing of the two arcades is a shallow dome painted with nudes surrounding a patterned central medallion. The other murals consist mostly of colored and gold leaf geometric stenciling with the representational forms limited primarily to nudes, eagles, fruits and flowers and lunette panels depicting old adages, and symbols alluding to economic concepts.

Superb bronze grills, bas-relief wall medallions, and light fixtures further enrich the space which is lit by numerous eight-foot-tall, frosted glass Art Deco lantern-style chandeliers.