The UAW-Ford National Programs Center is a tall building in

Hart Plaza Philip A. Hart Plaza, in downtown Detroit, is a city plaza along the Detroit River. It is located more or less on the site at which Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac landed in 1701 when he founded ''Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit'' ...

Downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, downtown tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Lodge Freeway) to the west, Interstate 75 ( ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The high-rise building was constructed in 1948–1950 as the Veterans Memorial Building. It stands at in height, with 10 above-ground floors.

Architecture

The Veterans Memorial Building was designed in the International style by the firm of Harley, Ellington and Day, which also designed the nearby 211 West Fort Street Building and the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. The building exterior is faced with marble to conform with the master plan of the Civic Center. Windows on the east and west walls are square with a single marble frame extending the length of each floor. The narrow north wall has a high ''Victory Eagle'' by sculptor

Marshall Fredericks Marshall Maynard Fredericks (January 31, 1908 – April 4, 1998) was an American sculptor known for such works as ''Fountain of Eternal Life'', ''The Spirit of Detroit'', ''Man and the Expanding Universe Fountain'', and many others. Early life a ...

carved in

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

over the inscription ''In honored memory of those who gave their lives for their country''. Above the eagle at the roof line are 13 stars. The building was dedicated on June 11, 1950, as the Veterans Memorial Building; it housed offices for city agencies and veterans groups. The main building area contains a 450-seat theater-style conference and a 200-seat lecture hall, both on the ground level. The rear entrance (on the Atwater Street level) also contains a lobby, and another on the second level at the Jefferson Avenue entrance. The Jefferson lobby is above the Atwater lobby. In September 1995, the

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico ...

and the City of Detroit reached a long-term agreement to lease the structure, after which it was remodeled to house UAW offices. The remodel included adding a large window above the eagle on the North wall. The remodel was completed on 1 October 1997. In 2008, the structure received the Twenty-five Year Award from the Michigan Chapter of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

. This building is located between

Cobo Hall Huntington Place (formerly known as Cobo Hall, Cobo Center, and briefly as TCF Center) is a convention center in Downtown Detroit, owned by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) and operated by ASM Global. Located at 1 Washi ...

and

. Although its address is on Jefferson Avenue, it is located several feet south of Jefferson on Civic Center Drive. To the west are seven pylons which were also carved by Marshall Fredericks, which depict the founding of Detroit and the ends of several conflicts in which the US played a part.

References

External links

Google Maps' location of the UAW-Ford National Programs Center
{{Detroit Skyscraper office buildings in Detroit Office buildings in Detroit United Auto Workers International style architecture in Michigan Modernist architecture in Michigan Ford Motor Company Trade union buildings in the United States