Book Tower
| Book Tower | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Type | Commercial offices |
| Location | 1265 Washington Boulevard Detroit, Michigan |
| Coordinates | 42°20′00″N 83°03′06″W / 42.3334°N 83.0517°WCoordinates: 42°20′00″N 83°03′06″W / 42.3334°N 83.0517°W |
| Construction started | 1916 |
| Completed | 1926 |
| Height | |
| Roof | 144.78 m (475.0 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 38 2 below ground |
| Floor area | 118,571 m2 (1,276,290 sq ft) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Louis Kamper |
| Main contractor | Starrett-Dilks Company |
| Renovating team | |
| Renovating firm | Key Investments Group |
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Book Tower
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| Architectural style |
Neo-Classical and Neo-Renaissance |
| Part of | Washington Boulevard Historic District (#82002914) |
| Designated CP | July 15, 1982 |
| References | |
The Book Tower is a 145 m (476 ft), 38-story skyscraper located at 1265 Washington Boulevard in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Washington Boulevard Historic District. Construction began on the Italian Renaissance-style building in 1916 as an addition to the original Book Building, and finished a decade later. Designed in the Academic Classicism style, in addition to the 38 rentable floors, it has two basement levels and two mechanical floors beneath the green copper roof, a roofing style shared by the nearby Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. Retail and gallery floors used to reside on the first and second floors, with businesses previously occupying the rest. The building is currently unoccupied.
Named after the famous Book Brothers of Detroit, it was briefly the tallest building in the city until the completion of the Penobscot Building in 1928. A taller Book Tower of 81 stories was to be built at the opposite end of the Book Building, but the Great Depression cancelled those plans. The building contains a cartouche by the Detroit architectural sculptor Corrado Parducci.
From its opening through the mid-1970s the Book Tower remained a prestigious address on Washington Boulevard. Like many structures in the city, its fortunes declined until 1988 when the owners defaulted on the mortgage. In 1989, Travelers Insurance, the principal mortgage-holder, took possession and sold the building to developer John Lambrecht who previously purchased and renovated the Cadillac Tower a few blocks east. Lambrecht had similar plans for the Book Building and Tower; however, his untimely death later that year brought things to a halt.
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