We really enjoyed an architectural tour of Detroit. Visited a few buildings starting with Michigan Central Depo and finishing with the Guardian Building.
The Guardian Building, per our tour guide, is essentially Detroit showing off: Art Deco in the roaring twenties was civic confidence, banking as cathedral, and color was a technology for awe.
Patrick Collison noticed the same in the lobby: “financial service” vs the modern “financial services” - makes the institution feel like a calling.
Links:
- Atlas Obscura: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/guardian-building-art-deco-lobby
- Guardian Building history: History — The Guardian Building
- Detroit Historical Society: Guardian Building | Detroit Historical Society
- Historic Detroit photo gallery: Guardian Building - Photos (interior detail) gallery — Historic Detroit
A few details that make the building feel especially alive:
- It was promoted as “The Cathedral of Finance.”
- Wirt C. Rowland wrote: “We no longer live in a leisurely age…the impression must be immediate, strong and complete. Color has this vital power.”
- The orange-tan exterior brick became known as “Guardian Brick.”
- The building had a three-level basement with a gun range for security guards, and a theater on the 32nd floor.
- Ezra Winter’s Michigan Mural turns the state into a symbolic map of Finance, Fishing, Commerce, Manufacture, Agriculture, Lumbering, and Mining.
Here are three especially colorful Historic Detroit photos, all by Helmut Ziewers / HistoricDetroit.org:
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1929 | Completed as the Union Trust Building |
| 1933 | Renamed Union Guardian Building |
| 1982 | Purchased by Michigan Consolidated Gas |
| 2002 | Purchased and restored by The Sterling Group |
| 2007 | Purchased by Wayne County |
| Present | Wayne County headquarters |