Coleman A. Young Municipal Center vs Professional Plaza Tower

Comparing the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center and the Professional Plaza Tower is interesting because they both rise in Detroit, MI, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Harley, Ellington and Day and Crane & Gorwic, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than a decade apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of Detroit across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The Coleman A. Young Municipal Center is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 318ft (97m) with 19 floors above ground, while the Professional Plaza Tower reaches 154ft (47m) with 12 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 Coleman A. Young Municipal Center and the Professional Plaza Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the International Style style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Harley, Ellington and Day and Crane & Gorwic followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Coleman A. Young Municipal Center is primarily governmental, while the Professional Plaza Tower is primarily residential.

Originally, the Professional Plaza Tower was designed for medical, but over time it was converted to residential. The Coleman A. Young Municipal Center by contrast has maintained its original role.

The Professional Plaza Tower offers 72 residential units.

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