Art deco architecture is very distinctive. It was briefly popular
in the United States in the 1920s. The best-preserved and most extensive collection
of art deco buildings—primarily hotels—is found in Miami Beach south
of Lincoln Road. When construction activity resumed after World War II, the
art deco style was discarded.
There are a few art deco buildings in Detroit including Cass Motors. Lee Plaza was built as an art deco apartment house for the prosperous on then-prestigious West Grand Boulevard. The architect—Charles Noble—emphasized the vertical. There is a substantial and defining rectangular terra cotta base. And then there is the soaring fifteen-story building done in attractive orange glazed brick. This is capped with an impressive chatequsque roof in copper.
This building has not undergone any major renovation, so it clearly illustrates the type of apartment buildings architects designed for upscale clients just before the catastrophic Depression contorted Detroit. This building became controversial in the first decade of the 21st century. At one time there was an impressive array of decorative lions ornamenting the distinction between the base and the apartments. Apparently, these were stolen from Lee Plaza with no regard to the structural integrity of the historic building. In 2001, some of them were found on the facades of newly renovated buildings in Chicago. Detroit preservations sought to have them returned and raised questions about litigation concerning the destruction of buildings on the National Historic Register but, so far as I know, the lions have not yet been returned to Lee Plaza and no one has been convicted of a felony for their removal.
Date of construction: 1929
Architect: Charles Noble
Style: Art Deco
Michigan Historical Register: P25160
National Register of Historic Sites: Listed November 5, 1981
Use in 2002: Vacant building
Photo: Ren Farley, September 2002