Lee Plaza Building vs Guardian Building

Comparing the Lee Plaza Building and the Guardian Building is interesting because they both stand in Detroit, MI, and were completed in the same year, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The Guardian Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 495ft (151m) with 36 floors above ground, while the Lee Plaza Building reaches 180ft (55m) with 15 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the Lee Plaza Building and the Guardian Building were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Charles Noble and Smith, Hinchman & Grylls followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Lee Plaza Building is primarily residential, while the Guardian Building is primarily commercial.

Originally, the Lee Plaza Building was designed for hotel, but over time it was converted to residential. The Guardian Building by contrast has maintained its original role.

The Lee Plaza Building offers 117 residential units.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.