Griswold Building

The Griswold Building was constructed in 1929 to the designs of the well-known Detroit architect Albert Kahn as a speculative office building. It is primarily of architectural significance as an interesting example of Albert Kahn's transition to the Art Moderne style after working for several years in a classically influenced Art Deco style. The building is significant in Detroit as one of the earlier Art Moderne office buildings. Unlike other Kahn office buildings of the late 1920s, this building is practically devoid of ornament and depends upon bold simple lines and contrasting color and texture for effect.

Only the carved masks, the stylized pilasters at the arcaded second story, the plaques above the third story windows, and some simple denticulated moldings remain to suggest Kahn's love of the classical. In its massing and its use of brick, the building recalls two of its neighbors—the Guardian Building (1929) by Smith, Hinchman & Grylls and the David Stott Building (1929) by the Detroit architects, Donaldson and Meier. These buildings—the last large buildings erected in the city until the late 1950s—seem to have been pointing forward to a new local commercial style. Influenced by the work of internationally known Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, who was working and living at Cranbrook Academy outside of Detroit at that time, and other contemporary northern European architects, structures such as the Griswold Building represented a new direction for Detroit commercial architecture after decades of relying upon historical motifs and stylistic devices for the architectural treatment of these buildings.

Unfortunately, the onset of the Great Depression cut short the city's boom period and office building construction ceased. The Kahn firm, of necessity, turned increasingly to industrial and government projects after 1930. Today, the nearly vacant structure is being given a chance to become useful and economically viable again as a result of its proposed rehabilitation for subsidized housing. This could ensure that it does not share the fate of so many underused central business district office buildings by being demolished to provide parking for other structures.

As a result of these plans for the building, it was determined to be eligible by the Keeper of the National Register at the request of HUD on December 4, 1979.

The Griswold Building is a brown brick, twelve-story, rectangular office building located in the heart of downtown Detroit. It is sited facing a small park, Capitol Park, in an out-of-the-way enclave of office buildings situated between two major streets, Washington Boulevard and Woodward Avenue. It fills the entire lot and is closely abutted by other buildings so that it only has two significant elevations, the facade facing Griswold Street and the upper part of the north elevation. The structure is composed of two parts: a limestone-faced, nine-bay, three-story base containing shops on the first and second levels; and a U-shaped, brick, nine-story tower with the central five bays set back from the face of the building.

The structure is modernistic in its design relying upon the contrast between clearly articulated horizontal elements (such as the ribbed brick spandrels and the boldly striped limestone and brick coursing at the attic level) and the upward thrusting vertical members such as the pilaster strips separating the bays. Further contrast is provided by the juxtaposition of the smooth masonry flat front of the lower stories and the textured brickwork and surface modulation of the tower. The fenestration consists of unusual, twelve-light steel-framed sash in rectangular openings, with the exception of the second and twelfth story windows, which have arched tops. Other than the decorative brickwork, exterior ornament is limited to the carved stone masks above the second story windows and the stone plaques above the third story windows.

The interior contains no architectural spaces of note. The small lobby was extensively redecorated several times and now has a 1960s modern finish. Small shops fill the eight bays to the left of the lobby entrance which is located in the southernmost bay. The interior of the building is divided into simply-finished, plastered office suites arranged on either side of a central double-loaded corridor.