Guardian (Union Trust) Building - Detroit, MI - Art Deco - Art Nouveau on Waymarking.com

Narrative Description:

Completed in 1929, the Guardian Building, then known as the New Union Trust Building, cost $12 million to build. It rises 40 stories from the street to 485 feet. A distinctive feature of the building is the exterior ornament of tile cladding of triangles running in bands of green and white, orange and white, and black and gold. The first six stories are covered in granite and stone. The main portion of the building is faced with an orange-tan colored brick which architect Wirt Rowland helped formulate. The tile ornamenting the building inside and out was produced by Pewabic Pottery of Detroit under Mary Chase Stratton.

Statement of Significance:
Between the two World Wars, America was engaged in a period of feverish activity, constructing tall buildings particularly in New York, Chicago, and Detroit. The automobile manufacturing city was busy building public and industrial buildings, hotels and movie palaces that were lavish by any national standards. Some of the most startling structures were downtown and a number were the work of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls, an architectural firm that employed a number of talented designers. The Union Trust (now Guardian) Building is one of the most ebullient examples of the use of Arts and Crafts tiles covering a steel skeleton. Only the 1920s-1930s could have produced such a structure -- an amalgam of the past and present taste in building. One of the most unusual architectural features of the Union-Guardian Building was the use of the stepped or notched arch. This was suggested by the natural way of piling brick without adding any curved or molded forms. The Union Trust Company, headed by Frank W. Blair, failed in the stock market crash of 1929 and reorganized as the Union Guardian Trust Company. In 1942, the building was taken over by the United States Army and sold at auction in 1952. In 1975, the Guardian Building was sold to Michigan Consolidated. The building has undergone cleaning and repair work.

Style: Art Deco Structure Type: Commercial/Retail Architect: Wirt C. Rowland Date Built: 1929 Supporting references: Not listed

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