Book Tower
Book Tower is a 38-story Italian Renaissance-style building designed by architect Louis Kamper for offices and retail use. The building was an anchor of Washington Boulevard when the Boulevard was considered Detroit’s most exclusive commercial real estate corridor. The original 13-story Book Building was constructed in 1917 with the 38 story Tower addition constructed in 1926, resulting in nearly 500,00 SF of commercial retail space. Today its former office floors are being adapted into apartments and hotel rooms, with a mix of retail, restaurant and office on the first three floors. The historic three-story atrium at the ground floor, infilled in the years prior to the building’s vacancy, will be reopened to showcase the fully restored stained-glass skylight, and when completed, will be a new must-see destination in downtown Detroit.
KDG has worked with numerous developers over the course of 20 years as Master Planner, Designer, Historic Architect, and Code Consultant leading up to the current redevelopment of the Book Tower. Over that time, we have evaluated the building for multiple different uses, providing historic consulting and code consulting services along the way on one of Detroit’s most marked adaptive re-use projects.
For the current development, KDG provided Bedrock Detroit with our Master Planning study, previously developed in coordination with JC Beal, that looked at the building as a primarily residential building with the restored three-story atrium redeveloped into commercial tenant space. This study was used during the early stages of development in preparation for the project now under construction. When completed, the project will comprise a mix of residential, hotel, and commercial uses. KDG is now serving as Historic Architect for Bedrock Detroit, ushering the project through all historic regulatory processes as well as providing historic design guidance to the project team. KDG is also serving as the code and accessibility consultant for the Architect of Record on the project, ODA Architecture, helping to achieve all necessary permitting and city approvals. We are proud to play an integral role on this large project team working to transform this celebrated monument of downtown Detroit.
