Fadil Abdi

Dr. Erik Mortenson

Honors 1000
9/7/2016
Simultaneously Walking and Looking Back
Close your eyes and try to visualize the Detroit Skyline. Imagine
yourself traversing on the Detroit River, trying to capture the citys lively
aura during the bleak weary days of Michigan weather. What do you see?
Steel, concrete? Identical gray corporate buildings? Do you see the countless
people moving in and out of the city contrasting a monotone back drop of
what the city is? But look very closely, in the sea of gray a tangerine golden
building stands out. A building that shines like a holy cathedral in the
colorlessness of it all. In fact, this building has coined the nickname The
Cathedral of Finance because of the holy persona it emanates. The buildings
slight attraction actually represents what the city is and what its trying to
be. Its trying to emerge from the distasteful critiques of a desolate machine
like city into a central cultural and economic hub. Its the chase of the future,
by looking back to the past.

Looking from the outside, immediately one can see a juxtaposition of

historical beauty and corporate design. One can clearly depict the skyscraper
faade, but the cathedral crown on top of the tower gives the building a
sense of uniqueness not found anywhere else. But as soon as you step into

those doors and look at the building from the inside, every single emotion is
immediately captured by the grandeur of architecture. The story telling
murals, the eye popping tiles, the vibrant mosaics, the grand ceiling all
abducts your way of thinking and turns it into something euphoric. The
receptionist laughed when my group started documenting these new
esthetic feelings, and would later state that no matter who enters the
building, whether its an employee or a city tourist, the expression is the
same. The lavishness can definitely be seen throughout from marble
imported from Africa and Italy to the Native American, Aztec, and
Renaissance influence on the walls. This is important to note because
originally there was no history and past when it came to assimilating
different cultures during construction, it was all to attract the modernity of
the roaring twenties. City skyscrapers were being built left and right, so a
sense of uniqueness was in need in order for the building to be built and to
attract the massive flock of hope and innovation of that time. But at the
same time, the incorporation of history in a corporate setting allowed for a
new way of thinking during that time period. This new way of thinking was to
look forward towards the future, and focus on the modern aspect while at the
same time trying to live in a beautiful past. Our group immediately
contrasted the original way of seeing of the Guardian building in the 1930s
with the present, and came to a conclusion that as time goes on we starting
seeing ourselves differently, becoming more analytical of a pioneered past,
we learn from our lack of history and mistakes. We move towards a modern

future but we cant forget who we are, almost a century later we cant forget
because the successes and failures blend in to our line of thinking and our
pursuits. Thus a clash happens and a balance occurs, we start forming an
identity.

A growth of an identity, is something so foreign for a city like Detroit.

But its necessary for it to grow as a whole and to capture people just like
how the Guardian Building apprehends our emotions. This way of seeing is
the antithesis of a creative destruction, we arent destroying our history over
and over again for a sense of innovation because we are renovating the City
with our ideals. This clash between renovation and innovation, future and
past, is beneficial. The reason for this present way of seeing? Its because we
are making our own history, the evidence can be seen with the continuous
change of management and the designation of the Guardian Building (and
other buildings) as a national historic landmark. The passage of time is
necessary for history to occur, for an identity to be formed. So the guardian
building, the vividness, the ability to capture the hopes and emotions of
everyone can be correlated to what Detroit is trying to become as a whole.
The Guardian Building is a perfect blend of economy and culture. The
foundation for growth and future economic pursuit stems from the beautiful
historic past. Which highlights the importance of our new identity, something
that wasnt so prevalent when the Guardian Building was first built.

I imagine the Guardian Building as a tangible metaphor of walking

forward while always looking behind. One has to always analyze ones past
actions to take a step into the future. What is very interesting to note and
concludes this ideology is the success found in the largest economically and
historically sound metropolises. Downtown LA, Washington, New York, and
Chicago all have successfully incorporated and blended the notion of
accepting the past and moving forward. And I imagine Detroit isnt too far
behind if it follows this template of knowing who we were, who we are, and
who we are trying to be.

Works Cited
HistoricDetroit.org, By DAN AUSTIN of. "Historic Detroit." Guardian Building -. N.p., n.d.
Web. 08 Nov. 2016.
Rybczynski, Witold. City Life: Urban Expectations in a New World. New York: Scribner, 1995.
Print.