The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a historic
skyscraper hotel in
Downtown Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, within the
Washington Boulevard Historic District
Washington Boulevard Historic District is a multi-block area of downtown Detroit, Michigan. It consists of structures facing Washington Boulevard between State and Clifford Streets. In 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Pla ...
. Designed in the
Neo-Renaissance
Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...
style, and opened as the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924, the , 31-story, 453-room hotel includes 65 exclusive luxury
condominiums and
penthouses
A penthouse is an apartment or unit on the highest floor of an apartment building, condominium, hotel or tower. Penthouses are typically differentiated from other apartments by luxury features. The term 'penthouse' originally referred, and som ...
on the top eight floors. It reopened in October 2008, managed by
Westin Hotels
Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline.
History Wester ...
, after a $200-million restoration.
History
The Book-Cadillac Hotel was developed by the Book Brothers—J. Burgess, Frank, and Herbert. They sought to turn Detroit's Washington Boulevard into the "Fifth Avenue of the West." Part of that vision was the creation of a flagship luxury hotel to compete against the
Hotel Statler, three blocks to the north. On May 1, 1918, the brothers bought the Cadillac Hotel, at the northeast corner of Michigan and Washington Boulevard, which had been built in 1888. They intended to demolish it and replace it with a modern hotel, but World War I material shortages delayed the work. The Cadillac finally closed on June 26, 1923, and was quickly demolished. The Books commissioned architect
Louis Kamper
Louis Kamper (March 11, 1861 – February 24, 1953)Louis Kampeat Find-A-Grave Retrieved on July 8, 2009 was an American architect, active in and around Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, in the United States.
Project range
In the early 20th ...
, who had designed the
Book Building
Book building is a systematic process of generating, capturing, and recording investor demand for shares. Usually, the issuer appoints a major investment bank to act as a major securities underwriter or bookrunner.
Book building is an alternativ ...
for them in 1917, to design their hotel. The Book-Cadillac Hotel was the tallest building in the city and the tallest hotel in the world when it opened on December 8, 1924.
The hotel cost $14 million to build and contained 1,136 guest rooms. Public spaces on the first five floors included three dining rooms, three ballrooms, a spacious lobby, and a ground floor retail arcade. On the hotel's top floor was radio station WCX, the predecessor to
WJR. The hotel operated successfully until the
Great Depression, when banks foreclosed and the Book brothers lost control in 1931. For much of the period after the Books lost ownership, the hotel was run by hotel industry pioneer
Ralph Hitz's National Hotel Management Company.
On May 2, 1939, a meeting took place in the hotel lobby between
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...
first baseman
A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned f ...
and team manager
Joe McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most vis ...
in which Gehrig told McCarthy to leave him out of the starting line-up from that day's game against the
Detroit Tigers, ending his 2,130 consecutive games streak.
In 1951,
Sheraton bought the hotel, renamed it the Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel, and undertook massive renovations. All public spaces except the ballrooms and Italian Garden were redone and escalators replaced the grand staircase. In 1975, with business declining and the hotel in need of another renovation, Sheraton sold the building to Herbert R. Weissberg and it became the Detroit-Cadillac Hotel. Soon after, Weissberg defaulted on a loan, and the Bank of the Commonwealth acquired the hotel's mortgage. They partnered with Minneapolis-based
Radisson Hotels
Radisson Hotels is an international hotel chain headquartered in the United States. A division of the Radisson Hotel Group, it operates the brands Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson Collection, Country Inn & Suites, and Park Inn by Rad ...
to manage the hotel and oversee renovations, as Radisson had just successfully done at Kansas City's
Muehlebach Hotel
The Hotel Muehlebach () is a historic hotel building in Downtown Kansas City that was visited by every President from Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. It is currently operated as one of three wings of the Kansas City Marriott Downtown hotel ...
. The remodeling work cost $6 million, and the hotel reopened in June 1978 as the Radisson Cadillac Hotel. Though it had been considered the city's top hotel for many years, in late 1979, the owners announced that the hotel would close due to declining occupancy. The City of Detroit, scheduled to host the
1980 Republican National Convention, did not want to face the prospect of losing more downtown hotel space, so the city entered into a partnership through the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation with the owners to keep the hotel open. The hotel ceased to be managed by Radisson in 1980 and became the Book Cadillac Hotel once again. By that point, multiple guestroom floors of the aging hotel had been entirely closed off and mothballed, and only 768 of its 947 rooms were considered "saleable."
In 1983, it was decided that the only way to bring the financially ailing hotel back to profitability was to convert it into a mixed-use property. The hotel's nearly 1000 rooms were deemed too numerous to fill and were far too small by modern standards. The plan would turn the building into the Book-Cadillac Plaza, containing a smaller 550-room hotel on 12 floors, and 11 floors of redeveloped office space. The hotel closed its doors in October 1984 for the renovation. However, those plans were quickly dashed, as proposed construction costs soared, and Detroit's economic situation continued to deteriorate. For the next two years, developers came and went, but with no one able to take on the increasingly complex renovation, the building's contents were finally liquidated in 1986. After the sale, the hotel's retail tenants, who had planned to stay through the renovation, moved out and the building was shuttered. It would remain in that state for the next 20 years. Time passed and the unmaintained property decayed, a it fell victim to the elements, vandalism, and urban scavengers.
In July 2003, after years of legal battles to fully acquire the building and find a developer, the city of Detroit announced a $150 million renovation deal with Historic Hospitality Investments, a subsidiary of
Kimberly-Clark, to turn the building into a
Renaissance Hotel. Work started shortly after the announcement, but came to a halt in November, when construction crews discovered more damage than anticipated. The associated cost overrun caused Kimberly-Clark to back out of the deal. A new renovation plan, through the
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
-based Ferchill Group, was announced in June 2006, with the Book-Cadillac to become a
Westin Hotel
Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline.
History Wester ...
and Residences. Kaczmar Architects Inc. of Cleveland and interior design firm ForrestPerkins of Dallas oversaw the design work, and renovations took place from August 2006 to fall 2008. The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit celebrated its grand opening on October 25, 2008.
The hotel was acquired by Oxford Capital Group in December 2021 for an undisclosed sum, after The Ferchill Group faced foreclosure due to the negative economic impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
on the hotel. The new owners announced a $20 million renovation of the entire property in November 2022, which will be completed in 2023.
Architecture
Architect
Louis Kamper
Louis Kamper (March 11, 1861 – February 24, 1953)Louis Kampeat Find-A-Grave Retrieved on July 8, 2009 was an American architect, active in and around Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, in the United States.
Project range
In the early 20th ...
designed the hotel in the
Renaissance Revival
Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...
style at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Michigan Avenue. Abutting the hotel on the north was the headquarters of the
Detroit Edison Company
DTE Electric Company (formerly The Detroit Edison Company) was founded in 1886.
DTE Electric's power generation portfolio includes renewable energy, but is primarily generated by fossil fuels. In 2021, 67.32% of electricity generated by DTE came ...
. The structure is a steel skeleton faced with beige brick and limestone accents. It has
Neo-Classical elements and building sculpture. Among its notable features are the sculptures of notable figures from Detroit's history—
General Anthony Wayne
Anthony Wayne (January 1, 1745 – December 15, 1796) was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his mil ...
,
Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac,
Chief Pontiac
Pontiac or Obwaandi'eyaag (c. 1714/20 – April 20, 1769) was an Odawa war chief known for his role in the war named for him, from 1763 to 1766 leading Native Americans in an armed struggle against the British in the Great Lakes region due ...
, and Robert Navarre along the ornate Michigan Avenue façade and copper-covered roof elements.
The lower six floors are clad in limestone. On the ground floor it is carved into wide horizontal bands while floors two through five are smooth.
Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to:
*Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible:
**First Epistle to the Corinthians
**Second Epistle to the Corinthians
**Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox)
*A demonym relating to ...
pilasters and columns separate the windows of the public rooms from the second to fifth floors with windows for the second and third floors contained in large arches. Windows on the fourth floor are framed by small balconies. Above the sixth floor, the exterior is beige brick with cornices at floors 7, 16 and 21.
Ionic columns frame windows on floors 23 through 25. A large cornice encircled the 27th floor and was removed during an earlier renovation.
Limestone
quoins
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
accent three corners of the building which are capped with copper-clad
ziggurat
A ziggurat (; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ', D-stem of ' 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew ''zaqar'' (זָקַר) 'protrude') is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has ...
s. The north and south sides have penthouse towers that extend to the 31st floor. When the north penthouse was reconstructed, it was built shorter to make the ziggurats the highest points of the building.
The building sits atop three basements, which contain some inoperable mechanical equipment too large to remove during renovation.
On June 27, 2006, the Ferchill Group agreed to renovate the structure into a
mixed-use
Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to som ...
hotel and
condominium building including a 453-room
Westin Hotel
Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline.
History Wester ...
, and 65 condominium units priced above $280,000. ForrestPerkins completed interior designs for the project which cost $176 million and was completed in fall 2008. As part of the renovation some of the original decor of the Grand Ballroom (renamed the Venetian Ballroom) and Italian Garden was recreated. A three-story addition containing a new ballroom, pool, hot-tub, fitness center, spa, and additional conference space was built north of the hotel on the site previously occupied by the
Detroit Edison
DTE Electric Company (formerly The Detroit Edison Company) was founded in 1886.
DTE Electric's power generation portfolio includes renewable energy, but is primarily generated by fossil fuels. In 2021, 67.32% of electricity generated by DTE came ...
Headquarters.
Across Shelby Street from the hotel, the Peoples' Outfitting building, also known as the
Detroit Commerce Building, was demolished and replaced with a 10-story parking garage for hotel guests and residents. In 2017, apartments were built above the parking garage.
In popular culture
* The bar and coffee shop played court to Detroit's notorious
Purple Gang, whose leader Abe Bernstein maintained a residence on the top floor until his death in 1968.
* On May 2, 1939,
New York Yankee
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...
first baseman
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned f ...
collapsed on the hotel's grand staircase. Gehrig, who would later be diagnosed with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, decided to sit-out that afternoon's game against the Detroit Tigers, ending his
consecutive games played streak.
* The 1947
Frank Capra movie ''
State of the Union'' featured scenes that were filmed at the hotel.
* Scenes in the 1973 cult movie ''
Detroit 9000
''Detroit 9000'' is a 1973 American action film directed by Arthur Marks from a screenplay by Orville H. Hampton. Originally marketed as a blaxploitation film, it had a resurgence on video 25 years later.
Plot
Street-smart white detective Dan ...
'' were shot at the hotel.
* The
HGTV show
House Hunters
''House Hunters'' is an American unscripted television series that airs on HGTV and is produced by Pie Town Productions. Each episode follows people making a decision about a new home purchase or rental.
Format
''House Hunters'' follows indiv ...
aired an episode entitled "Settling Down in Detroit" in which a couple searches for a historic home in Detroit. They end up choosing one of the newly restored condos in the hotel.
*
Michael Symon
Michael D. Symon (born September 19, 1969) is an American chef, restaurateur, television personality, and author. He is of Greek, Sicilian, and Eastern European descent. He is seen regularly on Food Network on shows such as ''Iron Chef America' ...
, who hosted the shows ''
Food Feuds'' and ''Cook Like an Iron Chef'' and appeared as host and judge on four
Food Network
Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...
/
Cooking Channel
Cooking Channel is an American basic cable channel owned by Food Network, a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media Group (31%). The channel is a spin-off of Food Network, broadcasting ...
shows as a host and a judge, owned and operated Roast restaurant at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel from 2008 until its closure on January 9, 2022.
* The hotel's 28th-floor penthouse suite was mentioned in restaurant critic
Gael Greene
Gael Greene (December 22, 1933 – November 1, 2022) was an American restaurant critic, author, and novelist. She became ''New York'' magazine's restaurant critic in fall 1968, at a time when most New Yorkers were unsophisticated about food and ...
's biography "Insatiable" as the place where she interviewed the then 22-year-old
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
after the second of his two shows at the Olympia Stadium on March 31, 1957.
Gallery
File:BookCadillac1.jpg, The hotel is part of Detroit's Washington Boulevard Historic District
Washington Boulevard Historic District is a multi-block area of downtown Detroit, Michigan. It consists of structures facing Washington Boulevard between State and Clifford Streets. In 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Pla ...
File:BookCadyDetroitWestinentrancealongWashingtonBLvd.jpg, Main entrance on Washington Boulevard
File:BookCadillacfromWashingtonBlvd april2008.jpg, Under reconstruction in April 2008
File:Book Cadillac under restoration.jpg, Construction in April 2008 with the new wing on the left
File:BookCadillacApril2008.jpg, Washington Blvd. façade
File:BookCaddiSculpture2.jpg, Michigan Ave. façade prior to restoration
File:Michavestatues.jpg, Sculptures above the Michigan Ave. entrance after restoration
File:Booknight.jpg, Exterior at night
File:BookCadillacStonesculpture.jpg, Restored Michigan Avenue façade
File:BookCady2009WestinDetroit.jpg, Restored building looking northeast
File:View of the Main Lobby, Book-Cadillac Hotel (NBY 17974).jpg, Main Lobby, circa 1910s (postcard)
File:The Grand Ball Room, Book-Cadillac Hotel (NBY 23617).jpg, Grand Ball Room, circa 1910s (postcard)
File:The Venetian Room, Book-Cadillac Hotel (NBY 21487).jpg, Venetian Room, circa 1910s (postcard)
See also
*
List of tallest buildings in Detroit
This list of tallest buildings in Detroit ranks skyscrapers and high rises in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan by height. The tallest skyscraper in Detroit is the 73-story Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, which rises along Detroi ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
External links
The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit official website
Book Cadillac Residences official website
*
Book-Cadillac Hotelat Buildings of Detroit
{{Buildings in Michigan timeline
Downtown Detroit
Condo hotels in the United States
Skyscraper hotels in Detroit
Book Cadillac
The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a historic skyscraper hotel in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Washington Boulevard Historic District. Designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, and opened as the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924, the , 31-sto ...
Hotel buildings completed in 1924
Book Cadillac
The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a historic skyscraper hotel in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Washington Boulevard Historic District. Designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, and opened as the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924, the , 31-sto ...
Book Cadillac
The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a historic skyscraper hotel in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Washington Boulevard Historic District. Designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, and opened as the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924, the , 31-sto ...
Book Cadillac
The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a historic skyscraper hotel in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Washington Boulevard Historic District. Designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, and opened as the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924, the , 31-sto ...
Culture of Detroit
Hotels established in 1924
1924 establishments in Michigan
Neoclassical architecture in Michigan
Louis Kamper buildings
Sheraton hotels