Old Office tower built to house the building trades

Tweet

The Architects Building was erected in 1924 and is significant for its original purpose of bringing architectural professionals and trades under one roof, for the several significant architects who originally occupied it, most notably Richard H. Marr and Marcus R. Burrowes, and for the architectural character of both the exterior and interior of the building. Its associations with the building arts ended sometime after 1940, the last year it could be documented that Marr and Burrowes kept offices in the building.

Detroit's phenomenally rapid growth in the second decade of the twentieth century was due to industrial expansion most marked by the automobile industry. The population of Detroit rose 113 percent from 1910 through 1920, according to the United States Census figures, rising from 465,766 to 993,739, and sixty-three percent from 1920 to 1930, rising to 1,568,662 in 1930. The area of the city had a corresponding expansion; it contained a total area of 39.93 square miles in 1907 and grew to 75.62 square miles in 1920. No major American city grew more rapidly in this period. This tremendous expansion in size and population resulted in a building boom. The vast amount of building brought a corresponding increase in the number of architectural, engineering, and contracting firms and other building-related professions and trades. The enormous growth in the number of these firms made a building such as the Architects Building, designed to house them, feasible for the first time.

Richard H. Marr is listed on building permit #36669, issued on May 7^th, 1924, as architect of the building at 415 Brainard. Its estimated cost of construction was $135,000. Marr was known in the Detroit area for high-class residential design. He was a Detroit native of Scottish descent, born in 1886. Marr worked for George D. Mason, the Detroit architect, as a young man. He then attended Harvard, graduating with the class of 1911, the same year he started his own practice in Detroit. Marr married the granddaughter of Herman Kiefer, a prominent doctor and civic leader, and it may well be that this family connection provided him entree into the circles for whom he designed large and elegant houses, such as the impressive Tudor mansions of William A. Fisher and Alfred Fisher in Palmer Woods. He later practiced with his son Carl as Marr and Marr, before his death in 1946 at age 60.

The original owner and sole proprietor of the Architects Building was Thomas J. Thompson (1879-1926), a man identified with the wholesale and retail meats, hotel and restaurant trade. His family was associated with the Thompson Farm, a French ribbon farm around 12^th Street (now Rosa Parks Blvd.), and his brother and business partner, William B. Thompson, was a former mayor of Detroit. Engaged in the purchase of real estate, Thompson centered most of his activities around West Grand Boulevard and Third. Thompson died prematurely at the age of 47 in 1926, and the Architects Building remained in his estate until 1936, when it was lost to foreclosure.

Marr was the architect of Thompson's personal residence at 1666 West Boston Boulevard in the Boston Edison District, constructed in 1917. Marr was also a resident of Boston-Edison. Given their prior relationship, Marr may have come to Thompson with the need for a one-stop-shop for architectural services and Thompson, who purchased the property on Brainard in 1922, was able to accommodate him with the erection of the Architects Building.

The listing from the 1925/26 Detroit City Directory appears as follows:

Among the better-known architects in the building, in addition to Marr, were Lancelot Sukert, Roland C. Gies, Marcus R. Burrowes, and the partnership of Burrowes & Eurich.

Lancelot Sukert, a Detroit architect, was a native of Detroit born in 1888. He studied architecture at the University of California, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania. During World War I, he was a first lieutenant in the aviation section of the Signal Corps and erected aerodromes at the front. He worked for two years in the office of Albert Kahn before starting his own practice. Among his works are the Scarab Club, St. Columba Church, Boulevard Congregational Church, St. Cyprian Church and St. Paul's Memorial Church, all in Detroit. He also did store fronts and interior work for commercial firms such as Tuttle and Clark and Sax-Kay.

Marcus Burrowes, a New York state native, attended the Art Academy in Denver, Colorado, where he took up architecture. Accompanying his parents to Sarnia, Ontario, Burrowes practiced architecture there for five years before moving to Detroit in 1907. Upon arrival, he joined the firm of Stratton and Baldwin and remained with them for two years. It is likely that Burrowes was influenced by that firm's affection for the English Domestic Revival just coming into vogue in this country. Burrowes was a member of the Arts and Crafts Society in Detroit, a group founded to further the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement by, among others, Albert Kahn, William B. Stratton and Frank C. Baldwin. Subsequently, Burrowes formed the firm of Burrowes and Wells with Dalton R. Wells; by 1914 he was in practice under his own name. Burrowes' office was then located in the Trussed Concrete Building at 58 West Lafayette. Albert Kahn was located in the same building, which must have led to friendly interaction since they both worked at Cranbrook in the second decade of the twentieth century. Burrowes teamed up with Frank Eurich around 1920. Burrowes and Eurich designed many fine residences in the Grosse Pointes, Bloomfield Hills, Farmington, and Detroit. Assuming that the prominent status of their clients reflected their own prominence as architects, Burrowes and Eurich had achieved a substantial level of success in the Detroit area. The firm designed other kinds of buildings as well, including the municipal building in Grosse Pointe and libraries in Detroit and Birmingham, Michigan.

Roland Gies designed a significant number of houses in Detroit's premier historic districts, and was responsible for ten in Indian Village alone. He was briefly associated with H.J. Maxwell Grylls before Grylls joined the firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls in 1907.

Automobile production had become the leading industry in America in the 1920s; it was responsible for over seventy-five percent of the city's economy. Consequently, the Great Depression took a more severe toll on Detroit than any other major American city as the automobile industry collapsed. Building activity practically ceased and great numbers of building-related firms went out of business. By 1932-33, only Steffens, Burrowes and Marr were left out of the original architects in the Architects Building, and many offices lay empty.

In 1950, the Architects Building was referred to as the Contractor's Storage Building. It was connected by a concrete block addition to the building at 3627 Cass when the latter was constructed in the 1950s. The entire property was sold to the Salvation Army in 1974 and to Cass Corridor Neighborhood Development Corporation in 1985.

Building Description

The Architects Building was built as a seven-story commercial building with its reinforced concrete frame faced with buff brick and trimmed in stone, resulting in a Neo-Classical Revival composition. Located in Detroit's Cass Corridor, an area less than one mile north of the traditional downtown that has experienced tremendous physical change due to the demolition of buildings, the Architects Building is oriented towards Brainard. It abuts the public sidewalk; a row of buildings to its south faces Cass Avenue. It is the tallest building in the immediate vicinity, with four-story apartment buildings and later one and two-story commercial buildings nearby. Its exterior is in good condition, although alterations to the storefronts have occurred. The first-floor lobby, the most significant space in the building, is still intact.

The Architects Building is a seven-story reinforced concrete office building with stores on the first floor. It is faced in stretcher bond buff brick with stone trim, and it measures 46 feet wide by 84.2' long by 84' high. The building is Neo-Classical Revival in style. The front of the ground floor is faced in stone; the main entrance to the building is on the far east side of the front facade. It is composed of a single recessed arched opening Surmounted by quoins that result in a rusticated appearance. A scrolled keystone is the only molded detail around the entrance; indications of bronze letters giving the address of the building, "415 Brainard," and its name, "Architects Building," flank the opening. The two recessed storefronts, transoms and flanking display windows are now boarded. The westernmost bay is bricked in on the bottom and is not recessed, indicating a secondary entrance or window.

A molded belt course divides the second and third stories. Windows are paired above the entrance bay in floors two through seven, but are otherwise evenly spaced. A plain stone frieze divides the sixth and seventh floors. Centered between the fourth and fifth stories of the front facade is a large cartouche bearing a stylized letter "A" flanked by festoons. A molded string course beneath the seventh-story windows serves as that story's window sills. A denticulated cornice crowns the top of the front facade, turning the west corner.

The east side elevation of the Architects Building is mostly unfenestrated, due to a formerly abutting building. The reinforced concrete frame is visible on all elevations except the front. The west and rear elevations are fully fenestrated; a metal fire escape hangs on the west elevation.

The interior of the building is organized from the first-floor lobby inside the main front entrance. This lobby is the most architecturally distinguished space in the building. It contains two elevators that travel the full height of the building, including the basement. A wood and glass wall divides the elevators from the vestibule. The lobby features marble floors and walls and a decorated wood ceiling. Immediately adjacent to the lobby is the stair tower which contains an elegant metal stair. All floors contain small elevator lobbies with differently configured corridors. Some have terrazzo flooring, some with a terrazzo baseboard and others with a wood baseboard. Wide office doors exist throughout, and there is a public restroom on each floor. Beyond the corridors are a variety of office spaces, each configured differently with no consistent layout.

Front facade and east elevation, looking southwest (1995)

Front facade and west elevation, looking southeast (1995)

Rear (south) elevation, looking north (1995)