Penobscot Building


The Greater Penobscot Building, commonly known as the Penobscot Building, is a class-A office tower in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. The 1928 Art Deco 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.

Height

Upon completion, the Penobscot Building was the eighth-tallest building in the world, the fourth-tallest in America and the tallest outside of New York and Chicago. Rising, the 47-story Penobscot was the tallest building in Michigan from its completion in 1928 until construction of the Renaissance Center hotel tower in 1977. One Detroit Center surpassed the Penobscot as the tallest office building in Detroit upon its completion in 1993. The framing elevation drawing of this building shows a height of to the highest roof, approximately to the parapet wall around the roof, and to the top of the warning beacon atop the antenna.
The Penobscot has 45 above-ground floors and two basement levels, for a total floor count of 47. Although the Penobscot Building has more floors than One Detroit Center, the floors and spires of One Detroit are taller, with its roof sitting roughly higher than that of the Penobscot.

Name origin

The building is named for the Penobscot, a Native American tribe from Maine. Native American motifs in art deco style ornamentation is used on the exterior and the interiors. 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:

Architecture

The architect Wirt C. Rowland, of the prominent Smith Hinchman & Grylls firm based in Detroit, designed the Penobscot in an elaborate Art Deco style in 1928. 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. Like many of the city's other Roaring Twenties buildings, it displays Art Deco influences, including its "H" shape and the sculptural setbacks that cause the upper floors to progressively "erode".
The opulent Penobscot is one of many buildings in Detroit that features architectural sculpture by Corrado Parducci. The ornamentation includes American Indian motifs, particularly in the entrance archway and in metalwork found in the lobby. At night, the building's upper floors are lit in floodlight fashion, topped with a red sphere.
The building's architect, Wirt C. Rowland, also designed other Detroit skyscrapers, such as the Guardian Building and the Buhl Building, in the same decade.

Penobscot Block

The tower is also connected to two older and smaller buildings, the 1905 Penobscot Building and the Penobscot Building Annex. Together, the buildings comprise the Penobscot Block, located at Griswold Street and West Fort Street. The Greater Penobscot was the last portion of the complex to be developed.

Events

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.

Landmark

The Penobscot Building is a contributing property in the Detroit Financial Historic District, and on the National Register of Historic Places.

Tenants

Architectural details by Corrado Parducci