Guardian Building

The Guardian Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Smith, Hinchman & Grylls and built between 1927 and 1929 in Detroit, MI.

Guardian Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The Guardian Building is also known, or has been known as, Union Trust Building, or Cathedral of Finance.

Its precise street address is 500 Griswold Street, Detroit, MI. You can also find it on the map here.

The Guardian Building is a structure of significant importance both for the city of Detroit and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Art Deco style. Because of that, the Guardian Building was officially declared as a national landmark on June 29^th 1989, and was included in the National Register of Historic Places on June 29^th 1989.

At the time of its completion in 1929 the Guardian Building incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included the first elevator system that automatically opened the cabin doors upon reaching the designated level.

The building has been restored 2 times over the years to ensure its conservation and adaptation to the pass of time. The main restoration works happened in 1986 and 2003.

Smith, Hinchman & Grylls was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

Smith, Hinchman & Grylls was in charge of the architectural design, however, architecture is a complex discipline, which usually involves many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the Guardian Building a reality:

• Union Trust Company as the Main Developer
• William Edward Kapp in charge of Interior Design
• Anthony Eugenio, Corrado Parducci, Mary Chase Perry Stratton, and Ezra Winter as the collaborating Artist

The Guardian Building can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Guardian Building was completed in 1929, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

The Guardian Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade is non-load bearing either, as it is common in frame structure type buildings.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features granite and stone on the first six stories, which then continue with orange bricks, limestone and terracotta. Elegant polychromed terracotta details are seen throughout all the facade and in the tower crown.

Other materials found at the Guardian Building include, Pewabic and Rookwood tiles, used to decorate the three story vaulted lobby, Monel metal, seen in the screem than divides the lobby with a center clock designed by Tiffany. This type of metal is also found in the columns, with a base of black marble from Belgium, marble from different origins, used in diferents cololors throughout the building, and gold leaf, decorating the ceiling arches.