David Stott Building

The David Stott Building is a class-A office building located at 1150 Griswold Street in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Capitol Park Historic District. It was designed in the Art Deco style by the architectural firm of Donaldson and Meier and completed in 1929.HistoryThe skyscraper is named after David E. Stott (1853–1916), an English-born businessman who owned a mill company, the David Stott Flour Mills, and was on the boards of multiple other companies, including the Stott Realty Company. First conceived in 1921, the tower was built by the Stott Realty Company in honor of its founder twelve years after his death. Construction began on June 1, 1928, and the tower opened on June 17, 1929; it cost $3.5 million to build. The advent of the Great Depression brought an halt to all major construction in Detroit: as a result, the David Stott Building was the last skyscraper built in the city until the mid-1950s.ArchitectureThe tower stands 38 stories tall, with three additional floors below street level; when it opened, it was the fourth tallest building in downtown Detroit. It was designed by architect John M. Donaldson of Donaldson and Meier in the Art Deco style. The building's design, characterized by a strong sense of verticality, was profoundly influenced by Eliel Saarinen's 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower design. Verticality is emphasized by the near absence of ornamentation, and by a relatively small footprint which yields a slender profile.