Guardian to Kirk: Architect subject of history program
Three buildings created an image of Detroit in the 1920s that underscored its position as the modern Motor City: the Guardian, the Buhl and the Penobscot. They were groundbreaking in the mid-1920s, when they were designed by Wirt Rowland.
The Guardian, with its brilliantly colored interior lobby; its sister, the Buhl, across the street with its tony Savoyard Club; and the Penobscot showed the country that Detroit could build skyscrapers as well as cars.
Rowland was a prolific architect, designing among others, Hill Auditorium, many Detroit area schools and the hangers at Langley Air Force Base.
His last commission in the early 1950s was from Bloomfield’s Col. Edwin George, who wanted to create a Presbyterian church to be known as Kirk in the Hills. Rowland died, however, after finishing the preliminary design sketches.
Rowland’s career as a visionary and challenger of the old order in architecture will be the topic of the next local history program sponsored by the Bloomfield Historical Society and the Bloomfield Township Public Library.
Architectural historian Michael G. Smith, author of "Designing Detroit: Wirt Rowland and the Rise of Modern American Architecture," will talk about how the three iconic Detroit buildings made such an impact on architecture throughout the country and explain how Rowland got the commission to design Kirk.
The presentation will take place 3-4:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24, in the Community Room of the Bloomfield Township Public Library, 1099 Lone Pine Road. The program is free and open to the public. For more information call 248-642-5800 or email email@example.com.