Architecture · One day

Look up! A day with Detroit's most jaw-dropping buildings

A sailors' church, Yamasaki's first skyscraper, Art Deco lobbies and Albert Kahn's New Center: a whole day spent looking up.

stops: 10
length: One day
areas: 5

In downtown Detroit you'll be craning your neck at every other corner. This day starts at a riverside sailors' church, walks you through the Financial District's Art Deco showpieces, then rides the QLINE up to New Center and two Albert Kahn giants. The best stuff is often in the lobbies, so walk in wherever you're allowed.

A weekday

09:30
Mariners' Church of Detroit
Detroit – Downtown
Detroit's 1849 sailors' church, moved whole in 1955 to save it from demolition. Its bell rang 29 times for the Edmund Fitzgerald crew in 1975, and Patti Smith got married here in 1980.

A few minutes' walk west on Jefferson Avenue to the foot of Woodward.
10:00
One Woodward Avenue
Detroit – Downtown
Minoru Yamasaki's first skyscraper, finished in 1962 for Michigan Consolidated Gas. Take a good look at the slender white ribs: he reused elements of this facade a few years later on the original World Trade Center towers.

About a 5-minute walk to Griswold Street.
10:30
Guardian Building
Downtown
Wirt C. Rowland's 1929 Art Deco tower is brick outside, marble, ceramics and bold color inside. People call it a cathedral of finance, and one step into the lobby tells you why.

A minute or two up Griswold Street.
11:15
Penobscot Building
Detroit – Downtown
Opened in 1928 with 47 stories and a red beacon on top, it was once Michigan's tallest building. Corrado Parducci carved its Native American-themed ornament; the lobby is open during business hours.

A 5-7 minute walk to Cadillac Square.
12:00
Cadillac Tower
Detroit – Downtown
It opened in 1927 as the Barlum Tower, the first 40-story building outside New York and Chicago. Check out the blank west wall: it once stood shoulder to shoulder with a long-gone neighbor. The lobby isn't an attraction, but the Neo-Gothic terra-cotta facade wows from the sidewalk.

About a 10-minute walk past Campus Martius to Washington Boulevard.
12:45
Book-Cadillac Hotel
Detroit – Downtown
It opened in 1924 as the tallest hotel in the world, closed in 1984 and sat decaying for more than two decades before reopening as a Westin in 2008. It's a working hotel, so walk into the restored lobby or grab a drink at the bar.

About an 8-minute walk up Washington Boulevard to Grand Circus Park.
13:30
David Whitney Building
Detroit – Downtown
This 19-story Neo-Renaissance tower from 1915 is one of only three Detroit buildings by Chicago's Graham, Burnham & Co. It sat empty for years and is now a hotel with apartments above; you can walk into the lobby.

From the Grand Circus QLINE stop, ride north to Ferry Street.
14:30
Detroit Public Library — Main Library
Midtown
Designed by Cass Gilbert and opened in 1921: marble stairs, reading rooms and murals right on Woodward Avenue. It's a working library, so keep it quiet.

QLINE from Ferry Street to the Grand Boulevard terminus, about 4 minutes.
15:30
Fisher Building
New Center
Albert Kahn designed it for the Fisher family, and it was finished in 1928. The ceilings, stonework and gilded details of the ground-floor arcades can outshine the tower itself, so don't just rush through the lobby.

Just cross West Grand Boulevard.
16:30
Cadillac Place
Detroit – New Center
Another Albert Kahn building: this 15-story limestone-and-granite headquarters went up for General Motors between 1919 and 1923 and served as GM's world HQ until 2001. Today it houses state offices, and the marble-and-bronze lobbies are open during weekday office hours.

Good to know

Go on a weekday: the Penobscot lobby is open during business hours, and Cadillac Place's marble-and-bronze lobbies during state office hours on weekdays.
Most of these are working office towers or hotels, so stick to public areas, and check each building's site for guided tours.
Downtown is easy on foot; for New Center, take the QLINE up Woodward Avenue to the Grand Boulevard terminus.