For years the four-story building sat as an empty footstool to Detroit’s historic Guardian Building, an art deco masterpiece in the heart of Detroit’s Financial District.
The physical oxymoron the two buildings represented did not go unnoticed.
Then, along with the rest of the city’s downtown, the time came for its renaissance. Developer Elia Group selected architect Yamasaki Inc. to design a $10 million redevelopment of the property, which would include new beautiful glass facades and a dramatic stainless-steel sunshade formed like sails of a clipper ship.
The renovation serves as a visual statement that ties the city’s lower Woodward corridor to its central Campus Martius and the Detroit riverfront. All while taking its rightful place alongside the amazing Guardian edifice.
Glazier Modern Mirror and Glass joined the development team, who in turn chose Glass + Metal Craft to fabricate the glass. While facing – along with the rest of the world – the challenging manufacturing constraints imposed by COVID-19, we just completed the delivery of the beautifully flat exterior façade using Guardian’s SN54 on Crystal Gray and Neutral 78/65 glass.
It would always feel good to be involved in such a project, but honestly it feels great in our current climate. Helping to bring stunning new life to an overly apparent empty building, adding more energy to a city in transition during an awful pandemic … it makes us collectively smile here at G+MC.
This project may not include all of the bells and whistles of our other architectural systems – the elaborate entrances, the colorful cascading canopies, the clean crisp windscreens, and more. But it has a whole lot of heart.
It’s a story we wanted to share with you, to remind you that a better future is coming. And hopefully make you smile as well.
