Created 9-Nov-17
Modified 9-Nov-17
During my brief trip to Detroit, I visited the Fisher Building. Fisher, as in the company that made bodies for GM automobiles ("Body by Fisher"). They don't make office buildings like this anymore!
The Fisher Building opened its doors 89 years ago. There is great attention to detail in its 1,800 bronze windows, 641 bronze elevator doors (inside and out), and more than 325,000 square feet of exterior marble...the largest marble commercial structure in the world.
The building revolutionized the way people parked their cars. Fisher built an attached 11 story parking garage...the first of its kind in the world. Back in the day, visitors would tour the building mostly to view the new parking garage!
The Fisher Building is also thought to house the first indoor mall. The arcade (pictured in most of my photos) was three stories high and housed retail spaces along the walls. Visitors could shop in a variety of stores all under one roof...rather innovate in 1928.
The Fisher Building is very challenging to photograph. The building is situated downtown and so there is quite a bit of foot traffic in the building. The large windows let in a lot of bright daylight. When mixed with the light from the chandeliers, you must deal with two very different and strong light sources. I decided to process these in black & white as well (so both versions are included here for most of the pictures) in large part due to this challenge.
On the topic of the chandeliers....they are massive (I'm guessing 8 feet in length). They are valued at $125,000 each...so when you view the panoramic image below you can do the math!
© Glenn Nagel Photography
