Cadillac Place
Cadillac Place, Detroit
General Motors founder William Durant bought a bunch of land 3 miles outside downtown and told Albert Kahn to design him a home worthy of his car company.
This 15-story office complex across from the Fisher Building was the world’s second largest office building at the time. Ground was broken June 2, 1919, and it took four years to complete.
Durant had planned to name the 1.3-million-square-foot behemoth after himself, but when he lost control of the automaker in 1921 over his spendthrift ways, he lost the naming rights, too. The building was named after the company instead.
The scale of the building, even today, is impressive: 15,000 tons of steel, 4 miles of corridors, 3,500 offices, 5,148 windows containing more than 7 acres of glass and 30 acres of floor space. If you laid its 8.8 million bricks end to end, they would stretch for 1,110 miles. It had two swimming pools, tennis and handball courts, 19 bowling alleys, nine auto showrooms and a four-story laboratory. As the tallest show in the neighborhood, it was said that on a clear day the 220-foot building could be seen from 20 miles away.
In addition to being GM's world headquarters, it hosted conventions in a 41,000-square foot expo hall.
GM moved out in 2000, after taking over the Renaissance Center downtown. Two years later, the building was renamed Cadillac Place after the city’s founder, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. It now houses the State of Michigan’s Detroit offices.
Read MoreGeneral Motors founder William Durant bought a bunch of land 3 miles outside downtown and told Albert Kahn to design him a home worthy of his car company.
This 15-story office complex across from the Fisher Building was the world’s second largest office building at the time. Ground was broken June 2, 1919, and it took four years to complete.
Durant had planned to name the 1.3-million-square-foot behemoth after himself, but when he lost control of the automaker in 1921 over his spendthrift ways, he lost the naming rights, too. The building was named after the company instead.
The scale of the building, even today, is impressive: 15,000 tons of steel, 4 miles of corridors, 3,500 offices, 5,148 windows containing more than 7 acres of glass and 30 acres of floor space. If you laid its 8.8 million bricks end to end, they would stretch for 1,110 miles. It had two swimming pools, tennis and handball courts, 19 bowling alleys, nine auto showrooms and a four-story laboratory. As the tallest show in the neighborhood, it was said that on a clear day the 220-foot building could be seen from 20 miles away.
In addition to being GM's world headquarters, it hosted conventions in a 41,000-square foot expo hall.
GM moved out in 2000, after taking over the Renaissance Center downtown. Two years later, the building was renamed Cadillac Place after the city’s founder, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. It now houses the State of Michigan’s Detroit offices.
