No one ever accused the brilliant and eccentric auto man, William “Billy” Durant of thinking small. Through his Durant-Dort company, he helped make Flint the carriage capital of the nation, he founded one of the largest corporations in the world in General Motors in 1908 and, after being booted out of control of GM for a second time, he founded his own car company, appropriately named Durant Motors in the 1920s.
So it was no surprise that in 1919, while still making the major decisions at GM, that Durant commissioned renowned architect, Albert Kahn, to “build the largest office building in the world.” He had to settle for second largest, but the GM Building is a tribute not only to the man who did things large, but the promise that the automobile business held for the future of Detroit – the Motor City.
Even though Durant grew up and made his first fortune in Flint - initially in the carriage industry then the nascent auto business - he had no desire to erect his new headquarters in his hometown. According to Wayne State University History Professor Charles Hyde: “Durant viewed Flint as a backwater city with little in the way of cultural attractions and believed GM needed a world-class office building.” “He fought the board of directors to have it in Detroit because he felt it was the place to be.”
With the burgeoning car manufacturing business entrenched in Detroit and downtown space for new building at a premium, Durant selected the New Center area of the city as his choice for his mammoth edifice. He deliberately selected land which was then the outskirts of the city – New Center was about three miles from the downtown core - to avoid the congestion of downtown carriages, trolleys, cars and trucks, said Hyde.
The venerable Alfred Sloan, the man who followed the enigmatic Durant as GM’s CEO and later its chairman, recalled being struck with apprehension at the shear scale of the proposed Durant Building. “I was aghast at Durant’s casual attitude about the location and price of the new building,” he said. “It was a twenty-million-dollar project that I opposed as too costly. But as we walked the site on West Grand Boulevard, he stopped and said, ‘Alfred, will you go and buy these properties for us and pay whatever you need to pay for them.’”
The building was indeed built on West Grand, one block west of Woodward. Unlike the heart of downtown Detroit in which open land was sparse, the New Center area allowed architect Kahn - who called the commission “a rare privilege” - to design a structure that could be spread out horizontally instead of a narrow high rise. While many office buildings of the time were designed as a central court or an “E” design, Kahn’s distinctive design, dominated by four 12-story wings connected together by a central backbone, was intended to allow ample sunlight and fresh air to the employees in each office.
The GM Building
The limestone-faced, steel-frame structure vividly exemplifies the tripartite concept of the tall building - an open, arcaded basement element carries unbroken vertical piers through ten stories to a colonnaded crown. Like many of the most important buildings of the day, Kahn's vision for the GM Building is classical in design from the open-ended gallery on West Grand to the classical figures flanking the clock above the street’s entrance on the north façade.
“You’d be hard pressed to find another business or commercial building that has such an attractive and classical entrance as the General Motors Building in Detroit,” Said Reynolds Farley of the University of Michigan. “The arches at the ground level and the pillars toward the roof line suggest that Kahn carefully planned his use of windows and fully understood their ascetic effects. Like most of Kahn-designed buildings, the General Motors Building maximizes the flow of light from outside to inside.”
The GM Building was originally called the Durant Building before the gadfly fell out of graces with GM’s board of directors. When it was completed in 1923, there were over 1.2 million square feet; 1,800 offices; four miles of corridors; and 30 elevators. Created to house a wide scope of activities under one roof, the building contains an auditorium and exposition halls, as well as auto display rooms, a ballroom, gymnasium, two indoor swimming pools, a day hospital, a cafeteria and lounges, a billiards room, hotel suites for visiting GM executives, barber shops, and clothiers.
In late 1996, in a move to consolidate operations, GM announced it would purchase the Renaissance Center on the shores of the Detroit River and move its corporate offices to downtown Detroit ending a stay of 73 years in the GM Building.
Soon after GM’s move downtown, the company sold the historic building on West Grand, now with a five story annex in the rear of the building, and in 2002 it underwent an extensive restoration. Now called Cadillac Place to honor Detroit’s founder, the building has an updated infrastructure with a new fire protection system, central air conditioning, technological and building controls systems. Fiber optics and high-speed wiring were also installed and smart chips allow employees to change work locations with ease.
Today, Cadillac Place has as its primary tenants the State of Michigan who merged its various Detroit offices into the newly-renovated building. More than 2,300 state workers, including the Detroit office of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, are housed in the extraordinary structure.
Considered by many to be among Detroit's greatest architectural jewels, the building was designated a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1978.
Billy Durant could not be accused of suffering from excessive modesty. The GM Building was built to be the largest office building in the world - in fact, it was to be called the Durant Building and it has the initial "D" at its corners near the top in the manner of Napoleon, who decreed the letter "N" be put on buildings erected in Paris during his reign. Standing across West Grand Boulevard from this building, one is struck simultaneously by its size and the message that Durant wanted to convey - GM dominates the vehicle business. And although GM no longer inhabits the building, its prominence in the automotive industry remains. On September 16, 2008, GM will celebrate the beginning of its second century, focusing on the future of transportation. For more information, go to www.gmnext.com.
For more information about other architectural icons of the automotive industry, go to www.motorcities.org.
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