Detroit architecture has had a rebirth. Over the last decade, many of the city’s most iconic historic buildings have been restored, repurposed, and re-celebrated—turning downtown Detroit into one of the Midwest’s most compelling open-air architecture museums.
While other cities demolished and rebuilt, Detroit boarded up buildings and they sat empty and abandoned, preserving a lot of great architecture. Forget what you’ve heard about Detroit; downtown has been entirely revitalized.
If you’re exploring Detroit, these are the architectural landmarks you should not miss.
David Whitney (downtown)
Style: Neo-Renaissance
Architect: Daniel H. Burnham & Co.
Location: Park Ave & Woodward Ave
This white, triangular landmark was commissioned by a wealthy lumber baron and designed by one of America’s most influential architecture firms. Restored in 2014, the David Whitney Building is now part hotel, part residential—and entirely gorgeous.
Step inside the four-story lobby to admire the golden atrium, soaring ceilings, and glazed terra cotta details. Even if you’re not staying here, you can grab a drink at the hotel bar and soak in the ambiance.
Good to know: It sits directly across from Grand Circus Park and the People Mover’s Grand Circus stop at Park and Woodward.
Guardian Building (downtown)
Style: Art Deco
Completed: 1929
Location: 500 Griswold Street
A National Historic Landmark and one of the finest Art Deco buildings in the United States, the Guardian Building is a must-see. Often called the “Cathedral of Finance,” it features colorful Pewabic tile, Aztec and Native American motifs, a mural of Michigan, and sculptures by Corrado Parducci, who created many of the statues you’ll see in and around Detroit.
The lobby is open to the public and showcases a massive glass mosaic, a mural of Michigan, and jaw-dropping craftsmanship. Shops and a café line the promenade, making it easy to linger.
The promenade features a variety of shops and a cafe, so take a break and revel in the splendor of some fine Detroit architectural design.
Grand Trunk Pub (downtown)
Style: Beaux-Arts influence
Completed: late 1800s
Location: 612 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48226
This former Grand Trunk Railroad ticket station is now a pub with decent food and a great selection of craft brews. Go inside because the interior of this building is where the glory lies.
Take in the long bar that was once the ticket counter for the old Grand Trunk Railroad. Breathe in the old wood and stretch your neck to take in the vaulted ceiling, decorative plaster and brass chandeliers of days gone by. You can practically hear the old registers ringing with ticket sales.
Bonus: Go upstairs to the Whisky Parlor to enjoy a shot of seemingly hundreds of different types of whiskey just like a solid old railroad ticket man might have. Now, ladies are allowed too.
GM Ren Cen (riverfront)
Style: Modern / Late Modernism
Completed: 1977
Location: Detroit Riverfront
Once, the tallest building in Detroit (before the Hudson), the RenCen dominates the skyline with its blue-glass cylindrical towers. Designed by John Portman, it functions as a “city within a city,” housing offices, a hotel, shops, and restaurants. Although much of the interior is now empty, the building’s future remains uncertain.
There’s a restaurant (Highlands Detroit) at the top of the building. The glass exterior of the elevator to the top offers excellent views of the river. If you fear heights, you should still enter the building from the riverfront and enjoy the view across the river toward Canada from the all-glass atrium on the ground level.
Bonus: Union boss Jimmy Hoffa mysteriously disappeared when the foundation for this building was poured. Rumors suggest his body may be buried here. Is it true? You tell me.
Ally Center (Comerica Tower) (downtown)
Style: Neo-Gothic
Completed: 1993
Location: 500 Woodward Ave
Detroit’s second-tallest skyscraper is instantly recognizable thanks to its pointed neo-gothic spires. Designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, the Ally Center stands out among modern downtown towers for leaning into historic forms rather than sleek minimalism.
A second tower was once planned—but budgets had other ideas.
Book Tower (downtown)
Style: Italian Renaissance Revival
Completed: 1926
Location: 1265 Washington Blvd
Once the tallest building in Detroit, Book Tower was designed by Louis Kamper and famously mocked as “the cake.” Decorative Corinthian columns, twelve nude caryatids, scrollwork, and a green bronze cap make it unmistakable.
After decades of abandonment, Book Tower has been painstakingly restored and reborn—one of the most dramatic examples of Detroit’s architectural comeback. When it opened in 1926, it was the tallest and most decorative building in the city.
Kamper put decorative Corinthian columns, twelve caryatids (nude women), scrolls and other unique design elements all over. Speaking of unique, what makes this tall drink of cold water so recognizable is the green bronze cap and exterior fire escape.
Visit the rooftop lounge, Kampers on the 14th floor.
Metropolitan Building (downtown)
Style: Neo-Gothic
Completed: 1925
Location: 33 John R Street
Formerly the city’s “Jeweler’s Building,” this structure once sat abandoned and graffiti-covered. Today, it’s the Element Detroit at the Metropolitan, a boutique hotel that proves adaptive reuse can be spectacular.
Don’t miss the Monarch Club rooftop bar—formerly a penthouse apartment—for panoramic views of downtown. Check out their website for stunning before and after photos)
It’s a spectacular example of renovated Detroit Architecture.
Wayne County Building (downtown)
Style: Beaux-Arts Classicism
Materials: Pink granite, marble, Tiffany glass
Location: Downtown Detroit
This former courthouse is pure late-19th-century grandeur. Built with no expense spared, the Wayne County Building showcases lavish materials and old-world craftsmanship rarely seen today.
Made of pink granite, marble, Tiffany glass, sandstone, and mahogany. This former government building was constructed of the most expensive materials found on Earth and has since been restored as offices.
The copper sculptures designed by J. Massey Rhind are of Roman chariots pulled by four horses. What’s unique about them? It’s a woman in the driver’s seat, as she should be.
Fox Theatre (downtown)
Style: Art Deco
Opened: 1928
Location: Woodward Avenue
The Fox Theatre is pure theatrical excess. Architect Howard Crane blended Chinese, Indian, and Persian influences into a lavish interior filled with red columns, molded animals, and ornate ceilings.
Buy a ticket to any show to see the legendary lobby and grand staircase guarded by colossal plaster lions. Note the molded plants, animals, and faces are staring down at you from the ceiling.
Opened in 1928 for the Fox Theatre chain, the Fox was restored to glory in 1988.
Inside the theatre, the ceiling is a jaw-dropping starburst design of a blue circle mosaic with a 1,200-piece glass chandelier. Upon seeing it, my Mom said, “Be grateful you don’t have to clean that.”
If you don’t have a ticket to get inside, you can still enjoy the huge neon 1950s-style marquee facing Woodward. The original It’s renovated Detroit Architecture.
Penobscot Building
Style: Art Deco
Completed: 1928
Location: 600 Randolph Street
Named after the Penobscot Nation, this limestone and granite tower incorporates Native American design elements throughout. Designed by Wirt Rowland, it’s subtle at first glance—but deeply detailed once you look closer.
The 30-story-tall red neon beacon at the top once served as an aviation warning light and remains one of Detroit’s most recognizable skyline features.
The building, on the National Register of Historic Places, is made of basic limestone with a granite base, at first, it doesn’t seem so flashy but look again.
Visit shops along the main floor and enjoy a drink, or power lunch, in the historic, and restored Caucus Club at Congress and Griswold.
David Stott (downtown)
Style: Art Deco
Completed: 1929
Location: 1150 Griswold Street
The final skyscraper built before the Great Depression, the David Stott Building is tall, slender, and elegant. Recently reopened as residential, it offers tours—and the top-floor gym boasts 360-degree views of the city.
Located in the revitalized Capital Park, it’s a lively neighborhood with lots of shops.
Detroit Masonic Temple (Midtown)
Style: Neo-Gothic
Status: World’s largest Masonic temple
Location: 500 Temple Street
With 1,037 rooms, multiple theaters, ballrooms, bowling lanes, and even a swimming pool, this building is staggering in scale. Corrado Parducci contributed much of the ornamentation here, just as he did across Detroit.
Tours: Available the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month.
It holds court in the former Cass Corridor, a neighborhood now called “Midtown.”
It has three theaters, a shrine, a chapel, multiple lodge rooms, a 17,500 square-foot drill hall, two ballrooms, a cafeteria, a barbershop, and a swimming pool, 16 bowling lanes, and a powerhouse.
Parducci also did the ornamentation on the Penobscot, Stott, Fisher, Guardian, and other Detroit area sculptures.
Detroit Institute of Arts (Midtown)
Style: Beaux-Arts / Italian Renaissance
Completed: 1927
Location: 5200 Woodward Ave
The exterior is elegant—but the interior is transcendent. (Diego) Rivera Court alone justifies the visit. Wayne County residents receive free admission, making this one of Detroit’s best cultural values.
The front features two inset fountains and an expanse of white marble steps alongside an Auguste Rodine sculpture of The Thinker (one of about a dozen).
Michigan Central Station Train Depot (Corktown)
Style: Beaux-Arts
Completed: 1914
Location: 3011 West Grand Blvd
Once abandoned and infamous, Michigan Central Station has been resurrected through major investment from Ford Motor Company. The monumental barrel-vaulted arcade features over 40 types of marble and feels almost ecclesiastical in scale.
This is one of the most significant architectural restorations in the United States.
This Corktown icon was built for the Michigan Central Railroad in 1914. It was once abandoned, flooded, and in 2009, it entombed a dead body in the elevator shaft.
Find it at 2001 15th St, Detroit, MI 48216.
Fisher Building (New Center)
Style: Art Deco
Completed: 1928
Location: 3011 W. Grand Blvd.
Often called “Detroit’s largest art object,” the Fisher Building is lavish even by Detroit standards. Gold leaf ceilings, marble walls, and an opulent theater make this one of the city’s crown jewels.
You’ll find this Art Deco building outside downtown proper, in New Center. Albert Kahn built this flashy peacock in 1928. It houses the Fisher Theatre, where groups perform most of Detroit’s musicals.
Stroll among the shops in the opulent, golden, barrel-vaulted two-hall arcade. The building boasts over 40 different types of marble, just like St. Peter’s steps, so you’ll feel like you’re in architectural heaven.
Pure Detroit offers tours, and they’ll take you all the way to the top to the Fisher brothers’ offices.
BONUS: Broderick Tower (The Whale Building)
Style: Neoclassical / Chicago School
Nickname: “The Whale Building”
Location:
“The Whale building” known for the massive “Whaling Wall” mural on the northwest wall facing Comerica Park. Broderick Tower combines Beaux-Arts elegance with Chicago-style massing.
Designed by architects Louis and Paul Kamper in a Neo-classical style, with Chicago School and Beaux-Arts influences, the Broderick is distinctive.
Planning Your Architecture Walk
You can walk to most of these buildings in a few hours. You’ll need a ride to the Train Station and Fisher Building.
What is your favorite Detroit architecture?
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