Penobscot Building
Encyclopedia
The Greater Penobscot Building, commonly known as the Penobscot Building, is a skyscraper and class-A office building in downtown Detroit, Michigan
. Rising 566 feet (172.3 m), the 47-story Penobscot was the tallest building in Michigan from its completion in 1928 until the construction of the Renaissance Center
's central tower in 1977. The tower has 2 basement floors, and 45 above-ground floors, for a total of 47. The building is located in the heart of the Detroit Financial District
. The Penobscot is a hub for the city's wireless
Internet
zone and fiber-optic
network.
and Chicago
. Like many of the city's other Roaring Twenties
buildings, it displays Art Deco
influences, including its "H" shape (designed to allow maximum sunlight into the building) and the sculptural setbacks that cause the upper floors to progressively "erode". The building's architect, Wirt C. Rowland
, also designed such Detroit skyscrapers as the Guardian Building
and the Buhl Building
in the same decade. At night, the building's upper floors are lit in floodlight fashion, topped with a red sphere. It was also home to an 80's influential DJ, The Electrofying Mojo, who made nightly visits over Detroit from his 'Mothership'.
tribe
from Maine
. Native American styled art deco ornamentation is used on the exterior and interior. The following version of the choice of the name of the building is found in an undated publication believed to have been published concurrent with the buildings dedication in 1928 contains the following:
, of the leading firm Smith Hinchman & Grylls which is also based in Detroit, designed the Penobscot in an ornate Art Deco
style. Clad in Indiana Limestone
with a granite
base, it rises like a sheer cliff for thirty stories, then has a series of setbacks culminating in a red neon
beacon
tower. The ornamentation follows American Indian
motifs, particularly in the entrance archway and in metalwork found in the lobby. The Penobscot Building was Detroit's tallest building for nearly a half-century, until the Renaissance Center
overtook it in 1977. Upon completion, it was the tallest building outside New York
and Chicago
. When it was completed, it was the eighth tallest building in the world. The old framing elevation drawing of this building list is as being 562'-2" to the highest roof, approximately 565'-8" to the parapet wall around the roof, and 654'-2" to the top of the warning beacon atop the antenna. The Smart Detroit Conference Center occupies space on the 13th floor, and includes Class A conference, meeting, or convention space. Once had at its apex "CNB" signs for a local bank that was once headquartered in the Penobscot Building.
Although the Penobscot Building has more floors than One Detroit Center (45 above-ground floors compared to One Detroit's 43), One Detroit's floors and spire
s are taller, with its roof sitting roughly 60 feet taller than Penobscot's. The opulent Penobscot is one of many buildings in Detroit that features architectural sculpture by Corrado Parducci
.
The tower is also connected to an older and shorter building, the Penobscot Building Annex
, which is similarly shaped. The two buildings are a part of the Penobscot Block
, located at Griswold Street and West Fort Street. This is the last portion of the Penobscot complex developed. There is a Class A conference center located on the 13th floor of this building
On holidays, both the Penobscot Building and the nearby One Woodward Avenue
light up for the night, with red, white and blue for Independence Day
and Canada Day
; and red, white and green for the Christmas
season. In addition, during the Christmas season, the Penobscot Building's radio broadcast tower is illuminated bright gold, to resemble a giant glowing Christmas tree
topped with a flashing red beacon
. The Penobscot Building has become a souvenir item along with other Detroit skyscrapers.
The first televisions in Michigan were sold in the retail space on the Griswold level of this building.
For a period of time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was renamed the City National Bank Building, after its major tenant. When City National was acquired by another bank and renamed, the historic Penobscot name was revived.
The Wayne County
Friend of the Court occupies floors between the sub-basement and eighth floor, making it the current largest tenant of the building.
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. Rising 566 feet (172.3 m), the 47-story Penobscot was the tallest building in Michigan from its completion in 1928 until the construction of the Renaissance Center
Renaissance Center
Renaissance Center is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. Located on the International Riverfront, the Renaissance Center complex is owned by General Motors as its world headquarters...
's central tower in 1977. The tower has 2 basement floors, and 45 above-ground floors, for a total of 47. The building is located in the heart of the Detroit Financial District
Detroit Financial District
The Detroit Financial District is a historic district in downtown Detroit, Michigan. The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 2009, and was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of December 24, 2009.It includes...
. The Penobscot is a hub for the city's wireless
Wireless LAN
A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...
Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
zone and fiber-optic
Fiber-optic communication
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information...
network.
History
Upon its completion in 1928, the Penobscot became the eighth-tallest building in the world and the tallest outside New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Like many of the city's other Roaring Twenties
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism...
buildings, it displays Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
influences, including its "H" shape (designed to allow maximum sunlight into the building) and the sculptural setbacks that cause the upper floors to progressively "erode". The building's architect, Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt C. Rowland
Wirt Clinton Rowland was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
, also designed such Detroit skyscrapers as the Guardian Building
Guardian Building
The Guardian Building is a skyscraper at 500 Griswold Street in the downtown of the city of Detroit, in the state of Michigan, in the United States of America. The Guardian is a class-A office building owned by Wayne County, Michigan and serves as its headquarters...
and the Buhl Building
Buhl Building
The Buhl Building is a skyscraper and class-A office center in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Architect Wirt C. Rowland designed the Buhl in a Neo-Gothic style with Romanesque accents...
in the same decade. At night, the building's upper floors are lit in floodlight fashion, topped with a red sphere. It was also home to an 80's influential DJ, The Electrofying Mojo, who made nightly visits over Detroit from his 'Mothership'.
Origin of the name
The building is named for the Penobscot, a Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
from Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. Native American styled art deco ornamentation is used on the exterior and interior. The following version of the choice of the name of the building is found in an undated publication believed to have been published concurrent with the buildings dedication in 1928 contains the following:
- An intimation of the Murphy family's early history, together with the expression of genuine sentiment regarding the beginnings of the Murphy fortune, is contained in the name of the Greater Penobscot Building...... Long before the Civil War days, Simon J. Murphy and his partner, then two lads who had grown up in the Maine woods obtained their first employment in one of the logging camps along the Penobscot River - a stream named for the powerful tribe of Penobscot Indians.
Architecture
Architect Wirt C. RowlandWirt C. Rowland
Wirt Clinton Rowland was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
, of the leading firm Smith Hinchman & Grylls which is also based in Detroit, designed the Penobscot in an ornate Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style. Clad in Indiana Limestone
Indiana Limestone
Indiana Limestone, also known as Bedford Limestone is a common regional term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana between Bloomington and Bedford....
with a granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
base, it rises like a sheer cliff for thirty stories, then has a series of setbacks culminating in a red neon
Neon
Neon is the chemical element that has the symbol Ne and an atomic number of 10. Although a very common element in the universe, it is rare on Earth. A colorless, inert noble gas under standard conditions, neon gives a distinct reddish-orange glow when used in either low-voltage neon glow lamps or...
beacon
Beacon
A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location.Beacons can also be combined with semaphoric or other indicators to provide important information, such as the status of an airport, by the colour and rotational pattern of its airport beacon, or of...
tower. The ornamentation follows American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
motifs, particularly in the entrance archway and in metalwork found in the lobby. The Penobscot Building was Detroit's tallest building for nearly a half-century, until the Renaissance Center
Renaissance Center
Renaissance Center is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. Located on the International Riverfront, the Renaissance Center complex is owned by General Motors as its world headquarters...
overtook it in 1977. Upon completion, it was the tallest building outside New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. When it was completed, it was the eighth tallest building in the world. The old framing elevation drawing of this building list is as being 562'-2" to the highest roof, approximately 565'-8" to the parapet wall around the roof, and 654'-2" to the top of the warning beacon atop the antenna. The Smart Detroit Conference Center occupies space on the 13th floor, and includes Class A conference, meeting, or convention space. Once had at its apex "CNB" signs for a local bank that was once headquartered in the Penobscot Building.
Although the Penobscot Building has more floors than One Detroit Center (45 above-ground floors compared to One Detroit's 43), One Detroit's floors and spire
Spire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....
s are taller, with its roof sitting roughly 60 feet taller than Penobscot's. The opulent Penobscot is one of many buildings in Detroit that features architectural sculpture by Corrado Parducci
Corrado Parducci
Corrado Giuseppe Parducci was an Italian-American architectural sculptor who was a celebrated artist for his numerous early 20th Century works.-Early life and education:...
.
The tower is also connected to an older and shorter building, the Penobscot Building Annex
Penobscot Building Annex
The Penobscot Building Annex is a high-rise office tower in Detroit, Michigan, located on 144 West Congress Street which is physically connected to the Penobscot Building. It was built in 1913 and stands at 26 storeys tall, with three basement floors, and 23 above-ground floors. It is primarily...
, which is similarly shaped. The two buildings are a part of the Penobscot Block
Penobscot Block
The Penobscot Block is a complex of office towers centered around the 45-story Penobscot Building at the corner of Griswold Street and West Fort Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan....
, located at Griswold Street and West Fort Street. This is the last portion of the Penobscot complex developed. There is a Class A conference center located on the 13th floor of this building
On holidays, both the Penobscot Building and the nearby One Woodward Avenue
One Woodward Avenue
The building now known as One Woodward Avenue is a skyscraper and class-A office center in Detroit, Michigan. Located next to the city's Civic Center and Financial District, it overlooks the International Riverfront and was designed to blend with the City-County Building across Woodward Avenue and...
light up for the night, with red, white and blue for Independence Day
Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
and Canada Day
Canada Day
Canada Day , formerly Dominion Day , is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act , which united three British colonies into a single country, called Canada, within the British Empire...
; and red, white and green for the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
season. In addition, during the Christmas season, the Penobscot Building's radio broadcast tower is illuminated bright gold, to resemble a giant glowing Christmas tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
topped with a flashing red beacon
Beacon
A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location.Beacons can also be combined with semaphoric or other indicators to provide important information, such as the status of an airport, by the colour and rotational pattern of its airport beacon, or of...
. The Penobscot Building has become a souvenir item along with other Detroit skyscrapers.
The first televisions in Michigan were sold in the retail space on the Griswold level of this building.
For a period of time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was renamed the City National Bank Building, after its major tenant. When City National was acquired by another bank and renamed, the historic Penobscot name was revived.
Tenants
The Consulate of Mexico in Detroit is located in Suite 830.The Wayne County
Wayne County, Michigan
-History:Wayne County was one of the first counties formed when the Northwest Territory was organized. It was named for the American general "Mad Anthony" Wayne. It originally encompassed the entire area of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, as well as small sections that are now part of northern...
Friend of the Court occupies floors between the sub-basement and eighth floor, making it the current largest tenant of the building.
See also
- Buhl BuildingBuhl BuildingThe Buhl Building is a skyscraper and class-A office center in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Architect Wirt C. Rowland designed the Buhl in a Neo-Gothic style with Romanesque accents...
- Detroit Financial DistrictDetroit Financial DistrictThe Detroit Financial District is a historic district in downtown Detroit, Michigan. The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 2009, and was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of December 24, 2009.It includes...
- Guardian BuildingGuardian BuildingThe Guardian Building is a skyscraper at 500 Griswold Street in the downtown of the city of Detroit, in the state of Michigan, in the United States of America. The Guardian is a class-A office building owned by Wayne County, Michigan and serves as its headquarters...
- Penobscot Building AnnexPenobscot Building AnnexThe Penobscot Building Annex is a high-rise office tower in Detroit, Michigan, located on 144 West Congress Street which is physically connected to the Penobscot Building. It was built in 1913 and stands at 26 storeys tall, with three basement floors, and 23 above-ground floors. It is primarily...
- The Penobscot BuildingThe Penobscot BuildingThe original building of the complex was built in 1904 and finished in 1905. It stands to this day at 13 stories, at 131 West Fort street. The office building is used mainly for retail. It was constructed in the Beaux Arts architectural design, and incorporates brick and stone into its materials...
- Penobscot BlockPenobscot BlockThe Penobscot Block is a complex of office towers centered around the 45-story Penobscot Building at the corner of Griswold Street and West Fort Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan....
Further reading
- Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Shadowing Parducci, unpublished manuscript, Detroit.