Detroit Has a Skyscraper Locals Call "the Largest Art Object" in the City

Most cities have a famous skyscraper. Detroit has one that locals call, with a straight face, “the largest art object” in the city.

That’s the Fisher Building, the golden-topped Art Deco landmark that has stood in Detroit’s New Center since 1928. It was built by the seven Fisher brothers, the family behind Fisher Body — the company that built car bodies for the auto industry, stamped with the famous “Body by Fisher” emblem. When they sold Fisher Body to General Motors, they came into an enormous fortune, and they decided to give Detroit a gift: the most beautiful building they could imagine.

They hired the great Detroit architect Albert Kahn and, the story goes, gave him a nearly unlimited budget. Kahn’s original plan was staggering — a complex of towers, including a central one of 60 stories. Then the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Depression set in. Only one 30-story tower, rising about 441 feet, was ever built.

Even so, it’s a showpiece. The three-story arcade lobby is lined with around 40 kinds of marble from around the world, beneath a hand-painted, gold-leafed ceiling and glittering mosaics, with detailing in solid bronze. The roof was once covered in gold-leaf tiles — so striking that during World War II they were coated over with asphalt, out of fear they’d help enemy bombers find the city. The Architectural League of New York named it the most beautiful commercial building of its year, and it’s now a National Historic Landmark.

The building still hums with life — offices, shops, and the grand 2,000-plus-seat Fisher Theatre, where Broadway shows come to Detroit. Best of all, you can walk right into that marble arcade for free and look up. It’s not every day you get to stroll through a city’s largest work of art.