March marked the 100th anniversary of a famous building in downtown Detroit that, like numerous others in the city, were lucky to have survived a previous period of emptiness and neglect.
The Book Tower, 1265 Washington Blvd., is an ornate 38-story skyscraper in Italian Renaissance style that opened in March 1926.
Named for the three brothers of the Book family who built it, the tower is said to have briefly held claim to being the tallest building in Detroit, until the opening two years later of the 47-story Penobscot Building. Yet it still remains one of the taller buildings in the world with an exterior fire escape.
The tower is attached to a shorter and slightly older building, the 13-story Book Building, which dates to 1917 and was also built by the Book brothers. Inside, the Book buildings function as a single large structure. They originally contained office space and some retail stores.
But as the decades passed and the city changed, Book Tower struggled. It saw a succession of owners and regular threats of utility shutoffs. Then from 2009 until relatively recently, the building was completely vacant and stood as a crumbling, grime-covered profile on the downtown skyline.
Book Tower finally found its savior in Detroit businessman Dan Gilbert, whose real estate firm, Bedrock, bought the distressed property from a foreign corporation in 2015 and proceeded with an extensive $317 million redevelopment project, including a deep cleaning of the dirtied limestone facade.
The tower had its grand reopening in 2023 as an upscale mixed-use development boasting new destination restaurants and cocktail bars, a 117-room extended stay ROOST Detroit hotel and 229 upscale apartments on its uppermost floors.
“Today’s event is about so much more than a ribbon-cutting,” Gilbert said at the reopening ceremony. “It’s about breathing new life into one of Detroit’s most visible and historic landmarks, one that had been left neglected for far too long.”
Now Book Tower is again one of Detroit’s most notable addresses.
Bedrock’s redevelopment restored the building’s unique exterior detailing, which includes a dozen half-naked female stone figures known as caryatids. The project also replaced all 2,483 windows with historically accurate versions, brought back the decorative interior plasterwork, the marble-lined hallways and a breathtaking glass-enclosed atrium in the ground-floor lobby that spans three stories in height.
Book family marks the birthday
Randy Book, 67, is a grandson of one of the three Book brothers. Earlier in March he helped host a 100th anniversary celebration for Book Tower that drew about 50 Book family members and friends.
The party was held in the building’s new 13th floor event space — The Conservatory — notable for its expansive glass ceiling. The room previously had a concrete slab roof, but once Bedrock’s team found old architectural drawings showing the room with a skylight, they opted to bring the skylight back.
For many of the attendees, the celebration party was their first time in Book Tower since the dramatic rehab. Everyone was astounded by the transformation, he said.
“They were like, ‘How can this be?” Book said. “What Bedrock has been able to create here has just been incredible.”
A Louis Kamper design
The original architect of Book Tower and Book Building was Louis Kamper, who had been trained to adapt the styles of the French and Italian Renaissance into his buildings.
Kamper designed a couple other tall buildings on Washington Boulevard near the tower, specifically the Book-Cadillac Hotel and the 22-story Industrial Stevens Apartments, now known as Kamper Stevens Apartments.
At one time early on, there was a plan to expand the Book buildings complex with a massive 81-story skyscraper. That supertall tower was to be built on what is now a two-story structure at the south end of the property. But the soaring vision ended with the Great Depression, according to Free Press archives.
Randy Book said the Book brothers in fact had plans to construct seven buildings in total in the Washington Boulevard area. Ultimately only four got built. (The Book-Cadillac, Industrial Stevens, Book Building and Book Tower.)
“They had seven. It’s pretty amazing to think about,” he said. “I don’t have the plans — I wish I did. They are probably somewhere, but I don’t know where, unfortunately.”
Kamper’s lounge
On the 14th floor of the original Book Building section is a new cocktail bar — Kamper’s Rooftop Lounge — honoring the building’s namesake architect. The outdoor patio offers panoramic views of downtown, and the lounge has proven especially popular on warm weekends.
James Witherspoon, Bedrock’s senior vice president for architecture and design, said the Kamper’s space was not in the original building and was something they decided to add with the redevelopment when they realized there was space to build something special on the Book Building roof besides more mechanical space.
The reception so far has been very positive, he said.
“Detroit doesn’t have a lot of rooftop bars and rooftop offerings, so it’s been very well received,” Witherspoon said.
A rediscovered atrium
Back on the ground floor, the newly restored atrium continues to astound Book Tower visitors. Witherspoon said the atrium existed during the building’s early years, but at some point — no one is quite sure when — the three floors of open space were filled in to create more office space.
Bedrock’s team could realize from old blueprints that there once had been a soaring atrium. On physical inspection, they found some of the early glass still intact.
To bring back the atrium, they brought in a company from New Jersey that specializes in restoring cathedral glass. The firm was able to restore some pieces of the old glass, which were then used to make molds for creating the sections of replacement glass.
Bedrock undertook a similar effort to restore the old decorative ceiling plaster that was throughout the ground floor.
“All of the ceilings here had holes punched through them,” Witherspoon recalled, “so it was a painstaking process of preserving what was still intact. And for the pieces that had been lost, it was casting molds, recreating plaster, putting it all back together, and then literally hand-painting on scaffolds with paintbrushes to bring it back to its original life.”
The lobby also features the building’s original hanging clock, attended by metal cherub figures, that was restored to working condition. And inlaid into a wall is a large directory of businesses that once kept suites in the building, back when it was still mostly offices and a few storefronts. The list includes the Checker Cab Co., Reliance Court Reporting, Ontario Railroad Co., Red Stars News and Casey’s Coiffures.
There also is a decommissioned elevator bank that operated within Book Building until the Book Tower addition opened.
Witherspoon said they incorporated the flowery designs on the old elevator doors into the rehab project’s designs, including on the doors of newer elevators that remain in operation.
“Because of how beautiful they are — they are such a remarkable piece of craftsmanship — the Book family preserved them as a testament to the history,” Witherspoon said of the original doors.
What’s more, the lobby features its own cafe and bar, Bar Rotunda, as well as an expanded seating area that is open to not only Book Tower’s apartment residents and hotel guests, but anyone wishing to visit and hang out.
“It is open and intended to be kind of a living room space that’s available to the public,” Witherspoon said.
Other Book Tower food and beverage options include a pair of Japanese sake and cocktail bars, a Japanese restaurant and the French restaurant Le Suprême, whose interior was designed to look as a French cafe might have in the 1920s.
Historic exhibit
Much of the history of Book Tower is on permanent display in an exhibition room on the ground floor. The exhibits include original hand-drawn blueprints, old news clippings from during the tower’s construction and an artist’s rendering of the unbuilt 81-story tower.
Randy Book said a lot of the historic memorabilia in the room had been saved and archived by his grandfather’s secretary, and later found in a briefcase.
“It gives me goose bumps every time I’m in here,” he said.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit’s recently rehabbed Book Tower celebrates big milestone
Reporting by JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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