Whittier Hotel

The Whittier Apartments is significant as the first of several large, luxury apartment hotels designed by Detroit architect Charles N. Agree for Detroit in the 1920s. It is notable in architectural terms for the quality of its exterior and interior finish and in engineering terms for being built on a slab foundation because of the marshy soil along the Detroit River. Charles N. Agree worked in a variety of styles in the 1920s ranging from English Tudor Revival to Moderne.

The Whittier Apartments consist of two separate buildings, the first of which faces northwest toward Burns Drive near the southeast corner of Burns Drive and East Jefferson Avenue. It is eight stories in height and has red brick facades and regular fenestration. The lowest two stories and outer bays are clad in smooth-faced stone. Renaissance ornamental details are found in the rusticated stone and classical arcade of the lowest two stories and in the balustrades and moldings. The building originally contained 184 units when it was completed in 1922. The second of the Whittier Apartments buildings stands to the southeast of the 1922 building. It is thirteen stories in height, has buff brick facades, and is basically Italian Renaissance in style, with much terra cotta trim in the upper floors and an arcaded treatment in the first floor. This structure was built in 1926. A modern, one-story entrance has been added to the Burns Drive facade.