Book Tower | 3D

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

Book Tower is a 476ft (145m) tall skyscraper in Detroit, Michigan. Designed by Louis Kamper, the building was completed in 1926 as the city's tallest building, a title it held for only 2 short years before the completion of the Greater Penobscot Building. Compared to Detroit's more sleek Art Deco architecture, the Book Tower stands out as a richly ornamented, Renaissance-Revival building.
The more famous tower portion of the building is the 2nd phase of what was meant to be a 3-phase complex. The shorter, bulkier Book Building was built first in 1916. The tower was then adjoined at the Northern end of the building. In a never-built 3rd phase of construction, an 81-story addition, designed again by Louis Kemper, was planned at the Southern end of the Book Building. If the onset of the Great Depression didn't cancel these plans, it could have been the tallest building in the world.
In the years since its construction, the Book Tower has fallen into disrepair and neglect. Before an ongoing renovation project, the building sat abandoned for many years with its ornate stonework collecting grime.