Detroit is badly battered these days, but the city still holds its own as a treasury of architecture. Much of that excellence glows from within, in spaces brilliantly conceived and proudly tended.
Here are five of my favorite interiors:
Guardian Building (1929): Arts and Crafts meets Art Deco in this tower, built for a bank. Inside, Pewabic tile (from the famous hometown studio), marble, metal, wood, and glass express the buoyant spirit of the times in aggressively contrasting colors and shapes. Entered through a Monel metal screen, the long vaulted hall is cathedral-like in plan and form, complete with nave and side aisles. At the “altar” end, a mural map celebrates Michigan’s industries, a homey touch that mediates between the high-style, worldly surroundings and the individual.
Detroit Institute of Arts (1927): Ranked among the nation’s top art museums, the DIA stands as a splendid landmark of the noblesse oblige era of the early-20th century. Patrons usually chose prominent architects, in this case French-born designer Paul Cret. If you have but a short time to visit, head straight to the sky-lit Rivera Court, whose walls parade a colossal mural cycle called Detroit Industry, by Mexican artist Diego Rivera. The 1933 opus — an intriguing encounter between raw capitalism and socialist fervor — spreads 27 variously sized and themed panels over all four sides of the court.
Detroit Public Library (1921): With City Beautiful balance, the library faces the DIA across Woodward Avenue. The Italian Renaissance structure by Cass Gilbert set a new standard for civic art, with murals, mosaics, paintings, ironwork, and sculpture — the works of Edwin Blashfield, Pewabic Pottery, Gari Melchers, Samuel Yellin, and others — embellishing the airy spaces. A large part of the pleasure of experiencing a noble interior like this comes from moving through a planned progression of spaces — in this case, from modest entry rooms, up the grand staircase, and into the lofty halls of the second floor.
Fisher Building (1929): As a boy in Ohio, I would listen to the radio series Adventures in Good Music, hosted by the mellifluous musicologist Karl Haas. As the announcer proclaimed, “from the Fisher Building,” I’d wonder about this mysterious place. At last I’ve seen the reality, a romantic skyscraper designed by Albert Kahn, Detroit’s most famous architect. A mix of Romanesque, chateauesque, and Art Deco on the outside, inside its arcade soars with a 44-foot-high, 600-foot-long barrel vault rendered in high-luxe marble, mosaic, gold leaf, and paintings. Tons of bronze were also used, most skillfully in the etched elevator doors. Massive cylindrical chandeliers march down the corridor from the entry dome, lending a glow to the entire proceedings. The Fisher was planned as the first of three towers, a multi-use city-within-the-city, but the Depression spoiled that dream.
Fox Theater (1928): Those fond of the “what style is it” game will have a ball at this movie palazzo, Detroit’s most lavish interior. Its infestation of exotica has led some wags to label the place Cambodian Gothic — not totally off the mark, for architect C. Howard Crane mixed southern Asian motifs with Byzantine and Islamic imagery to glorious effect. Visitors to the soaring lobby fixate on oversized red Corinthian columns and a grand staircase guarded by lions. (Weren’t those the symbol of Fox’s arch-rival, MGM?) The auditorium piles on more: Gilded animals, birds, and deities. Columns, arches, and oriels. Most of the hall seems dipped in burnt cinnamon. Up top, a fabric-sheathed dome encircles a glass-mosaic chandelier, the whole saucer ready to launch the audience up into an alternative universe.
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