On more than one occasion, I’ve happened upon a building I find interesting while wandering around somewhere only to later find out that it is famous, or designed by a famous architect, or in some way previously known but not to me. The photo above shows a good example: 1230 Griswold Avenue in Detroit, AKA the Griswold Building, AKA the Albert. I came across it because I was looking for the Detroit Savings Bank next door, and I really liked it. That may literally be my favorite parapet ever.
It turns out, there was a reason: this was building was designed and built in 1929 to a design by Albert Kahn, which is why in its latest incarnation as an apartment house it’s “The Albert.” It was generic office space, but Kahn was too good a designer to give it a generic facade. It was converted to senior housing and then to market-rate apartments, showing, once again, the flexibility of steel-frame buildings with light courts.
It’s described, probably inevitably for a building constructed at that time, as “Art Deco.” It certainly isn’t the Art Deco of France, and it isn’t really the US Corporate Deco (like the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center) either. The best name for a Deco offshoot that comes close is “streamlined” but that’s still not quite right. It’s “modern” in the sense that’s it’s deliberately playing with past indicators of style, but of course Rococo was modern in that same sense. I think of buildings like this, mostly from 1920 to 1940, as “the future!” complete with an exclamation point.
I’m glad it found re-use.
