You could feel the energy at the Conference- not the one the NAACP was having down the massive halls of the Cobo Regional Convention Center, but the Defense Information Technology convocation.

The Director made an appearance by the miracle of video-teleconference. As you might imagine, the take-down of Osama bin Laden and the posturing of the various agencies for who should get the most credit is taking a lot of time, and he needed to stay in Washington rather than join us in Detroit.

You could feel the energy about it, though, though no one precisely knows what it all means. An enhanced warning message circulated, indicating the someone thinks international travel may be more dangerous through late summer, though why the month of August should have special significance was not referenced.

Would this development enable us to declare victory against the Taliban and leave Afghanistan? Will Ayman al-Zawahri just move up and continue the jihad against the West? The renegade Egyptian physician has to deal with the Arab Spring, and the great transformation of his homeland could have the most extraordinary impact on Dr. al-Zwahri. Maybe he will run for President on the Muslim Brotherhood ticket.

Or maybe we can hunt him down now, too, and double-tap him. He must have those spiders crawling up the back of this neck; they nailed Osama by identifying his most loyal courier, and there can be no question that he knows something about where the doctor is hanging out. The trove of information grabbed from the bin-Laden compound in Abbottabad is likely to flush some major pigeons.

Funny, really. The town where he was hiding is a nice one, named after Major James Abbott, who founded it in January 1853 after the annexation of the British annexation of the Punjab. I was thinking about that, as I wandered down Larned Street toward Griswald.

It had been threatening rain since we arrived, but the skies cleared up and the pavement dried. I wanted to see the Guardian Building, said to be the most outstanding example of the Art Deco Skyscraper in the world. I was hoping to nail the Guardian and maybe the Buhl Building and the mighty Penobscot tower that anchors the Motor City’s Financial District.

Detroit is funny. There are some things that are here, yet not here; ride the People Mover and you can see through the windows of handsome structures that there is nothing within, or that the ground floors are boarded up and the structures are crumbling. Others are being resurrected as new luxury lofts or offices, but on the streets are the bums and the lost, and even the new and glittering buildings are largely empty. There is a big sign in front of the white marble tower at #1 Woodward, offering really great River views, but there are signs everywhere.

Many of the proud towers had the owners just walk away. Not true with the Buhl, Penobscot and Guardian buildings. I walked past structures designed by McKim, Meade and White, the firm that invented the New York of the century before last, and through the lobby of the Buhl to emerge on Griswald. There was a check-point in the lobby, and I realized that all these buildings are under siege, and there are people who want to sneak upstairs and start stealing anything and everything, from what is on your desk to the copper pipes in the wall.

When I popped out on Griswald I blinked and looked up in amazement, not prepared for what I was looking at. The building’s taller north tower and smaller octagonal south tower are connected with a nave-like block similar to the plan of a cathedral. Colorful tile girds the building. It is unreal. The tangerine-colored bricks rest on a base of granite. Poly-chromed terra cotta on the upper stories was purposefully over-scaled to be seen by motorists on the street below.

Or me.

I had done enough research to get ready, but it did not suffice. In Roaring Twenties, Detroit was a world-wide industrial and commercial hub and the city grew with unprecedented prosperity. The newly organized Union Trust Company was anxious to communicate their public image through their flagship headquarters and new offices.

Cost was no object, and sky was literally the limit. UT commissioned the architectural firm of Smith Hinchman and Grylls to design their headquarters, which selected head designer Wirt C. Rowland to do the deed. He had previously done the Buhl Building, Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church and the Penobscot Building expansion. But the UT HQ was going to be the one that put Detroit in the record books.

I walked up to the revolving door and sauntered in to a cathedral. My God!

In fact, the Guardian Building was once promoted as “the Cathedral of Finance.” Its grandeur was, and still is, unconventional. Visitors are awestruck by the explosion of color, craftsmanship and blending of Native American, Aztec, and Arts & Crafts influences.

The building was completed in early 1929, the year of the Stock Market Crash. The Union Trust Company went belly up, but the assets were reorganized as the Union Guardian Trust Company. The building became known as the Union Guardian Building and today is known as simply as the Guardian Building.

The Griswold Street entrance is crowned with a semi-dome lined with symbolic custom tiles by Mary Chase Stratton’s Pewabic Pottery of Detroit.

The lobby features a large glass mosaic and the banking hall’s spectacular mural are both by Michigan artist Ezra Winter. Flanking the sides of the main entrance are reliefs designed by Detroit’s own architectural sculptor Corrado Parducci.

The lavish use of elegant and timeless materials is plentiful throughout the building. For example, the Italian Travertine marble used as steps and wall surfaces, contrasted with the deep red Numidian marble imported from Africa. Brilliantly colored Rookwood tiles fill the lobby’s vaulted ceiling.

Monel metal was used in the large ornamental screen dividing the banking hall and main lobby. Tavernelle marble from Tennessee lines the walls.

Apparently Wayne County scooped the building up for $14 million bucks. That should mean it is going to survive. I tailgated a guy who had an active badge to make the elevator work, and got as high as the 34th floor. I found the elevator to the taller of the towers, but couldn’t activate it.

I went back down to the lobby and browsed in the gift shop where I found a t-short that said “Imported from Detroit.” A nice young man helped me find the shirt with the line from Marshal Mather’s edgy Superbowl commercial: “Imported from Detroit.”

“Great building,” I said.

“Yes it is,” he responded. “It is an unquestioned architectural wonder. We have tenents and valet parking and precious ground floor retail. When Wayne County spent $14,000,000 to buy it no one said boo. What we don’t understand is why they spending another $38,000,000 to renovate it.”

“Hmmm,” I said, hefting the t-shirt. “It is probably the Coleman Young memorial mark-up. The corruption that killed the city is still here.”

“Could be,” he said. “The county doesn’t do anything productive. It is not like they generate any income. They just take it.”

Copyright 2011 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com