Talk:Penobscot Building

Building Name

To anyone who knows: this article could use an explanation of how the building got its name. -- MiguelMunoz 11:39, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

I know probably enough to add something. Sometime. Carptrash 16:11, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

I just moved this Fact here

• The building bears a resemblance to the Empire State Building in New York City. This is not a coincidence, as many of the same people worked on both towers.

Who are these people who worked on the building, and it really does not look that much like the Empire State Building, and because the Penobscot was built first, if anyhting, the Empire State Building looks like it. But let's talk about it. Carptrash 13:37, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

This does nopt need to be in every article

It has its own article

==Architect==

Wirt C. Rowland, architect of the Penobscot Building, Guardian Building, and the Buhl Building was born and raised in Clinton, Michigan. In 1901, he landed a job as an office boy for the Detroit firm of Rogers & MacFarlane, quickly moving on to the prestigious George D. Mason firm. In 1909, he joined the office of Albert Kahn, who had also apprenticed under Mason. In 1910, with the encouragement of both Mason and Kahn, Rowland attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, MA for a year.

The combination of Rowland's natural design talent, Harvard education, and Detroit's healthy economy positioned him to make major contributions to the city's architecture. Rowland is a case study in design attribution. In 1911, in the office of Kahn, he and Ernest Wilby are said have been primarily responsible for the Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan. Through 1915 Rowland worked for the local firm of Malcomson & Higginbotham. He then returned to Kahn's office, contributing to the firm's classic projects, namely the Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan, the Detroit News Building, the First National Bank Building(1922), and the General Motors Building (1922) renamed Cadillac Place.

Rowland's career peaked as Head Designer (1922-1930) of Smith Hinchman & Grylls (SmithGroup). There, he designed a dozen major structures in downtown Detroit; among these, are a number of the city's most accomplished and evocative buildings. To a large extent, Rowland helped define Detroit's architectural genre. For the Guardian Building, he had assembled a multitude of artisans, mosaicists, sculptors, painters, and tile manufacturers including Corrado Parducci, muralist Ezra Winter, and tile from the Rookwood and Pewabic pottery companies. He thus recreated the architectural sythesis of a medieval cathedral. Hence, Rowland had reached a climax, when his Union Trust/Guardian Building became known as "the Cathedral of Finance."

The Guardian Building opened in 1930. With the onset of the Great Depression, Rowland was laid off from Smith Hinchman & Grylls so formed his own office where his work decreased to a small number of churches, schools, and construction projects. Late in life, he returned to a purer, Gothic idiom for his last few projects, notably the Kirk in the Hills church which was finished after he died in 1946. During World War II, the Guardian Building would serve as heaquarters for war time production when Detroit was called, the "Arsenal of Democracy."

Carptrash 22:50, 17 July 2007 (UTC)