Detroit Area Art Deco Society

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Detroit Area Art Deco Society

DAADS is dedicated to the celebration and preservation of Art Deco architecture - culture & fashion

06/10/2026

3100 Woodward, Detroit. Constructed in 1919 in Brush Park as a ballroom, this building was designed by Bernard C Wetzel for Hugh Chalmers.

Woodward Ave was widened in the 1930's, many structures had their facades shaved off. In 1936 the exterior of this building received a new Art Deco facade including a "frozen fountain" design over the entrance.

In 2005 the building was redeveloped into a mixed use space including upper floor residential units and commercial ground floor spaces. Bakersfield Detroit and James Oliver coffee currently reside in the building.

06/09/2026

The Turkel House: Join us for an evening of architecture, music and design!
Thursday, July 16th 5:30 - 9 pm

Please join our hosts and homeowners, Norm Silk and Dale Morgan, for a special evening celebrating architecture, landscape, and the enduring legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Enjoy a lovely selection of hors d’oeuvres, hand-selected wines and beverages along with a silent auction. The Ben Dannug Trio will set the tone of this special evening for Deco Society members.

Guests will experience the home’s remarkable music room — a soaring central living space with 15-foot ceilings, pierced concrete blocks set with glass, polished concrete floors, and restored Philippine mahogany built-ins — along with a thoughtfully reimagined garden inspired by Wright’s belief that the garden was “the most important room of the house.”

Once an overgrown lot, the landscape has been transformed into an elegant extension of the home, with a sculpture courtyard, naturalized perennial gardens, Annabelle hydrangeas, a winding gravel drive, and a terrace with water feature that reflects Wright’s organic principles of bringing indoors and outdoors together.

We are pleased to welcome Richard Hass, who will join us for a thoughtful discussion on Wright’s ideas of “The Living City,” the relationship between city and suburb, and the continuing relevance of his work in Detroit’s urban landscape.

Join us for an intimate evening of design, dialogue, and discovery.

Tickets: $125 for members and $150 for non-members.

Proceeds from this event benefit the Detroit Area Art Deco Society’s scholarship program.
📸 James Haefner

The Detroit Area Art Deco Society is a Michigan not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization.

Tickets are available online at www.daads.org.

06/06/2026

Thank You to everyone who attended our tour of the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House! It was a lovely evening to be on Lake St Clair and take in the beauty and history of the house. Check out our website for upcoming events and membership information www.daads.org

06/01/2026

It's !

In 1957, architect Eero Saarinen completed his bold design for the Milwaukee Art Museum, a striking fusion of concrete, steel, and glass set along the shores of Lake Michigan. Saarinen’s innovative approach lifted much of the structure off the ground on reinforced columns, giving it a light, floating presence despite its monumental form.

#1957

05/27/2026

This moody shot of West Grand Boulevard with the Fisher Building lurking above caught our eye!
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05/23/2026

This gorgeous Art Deco building is often overlooked. Perhaps it's because of its location on Cass Park or because of its use as offices or research facilities. It definitely deserves recognition as one of Detroit's gems.

96 years ago, the S.S. Kresge Co. moved into its new headquarters at Temple Avenue and Second Boulevard on Cass Park, on May 19, 1930.

The 250,000-square-foot building was designed by Albert Kahn and commissioned by Sebastian S. Kresge, founder of the S.S. Kresge Co. The company opened its first store in 1898, a simple five-and-dime, and soon grew into a major national retailer - and, in 1977, became Kmart.

Kresge left this building and the city for suburban Troy in 1972. Over the years, this Art Deco gem would become the Metropolitan Center for High Technology. In 2014, it was rebranded yet again, as The Block at Cass Park, and serves as a research, startup and creative space owned by Wayne State University.

Photos by Helmut Ziewers/HistoricDetroit.org
#1930

05/14/2026

It's !

This is the 205 River St, Elk Rapids, MI

On September 20, 1940, the second cinema in Elk Rapids opened. It stands near the same spot as the original Community Theatre that showcased early motion pictures and live performances in this idyllic coastal town on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Known as the Elk Rapids State Theatre, it was built and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Loomis and designed by Louis C. Kingscott of the Stewart-Kingscott Company. It stands today as a beautiful example of the Art Deco style and a historic single-screen movie house.

The Elk Rapids Cinema is home to the largest black-light mural in the world. Artist Robert Spinner originally sketched the design on graph paper, later transferring it to the ceiling where it was illuminated by ultraviolet light fixtures in the bent sconces on the walls. These sconces were custom-built by the original cinema owner, who created the clear and curved Lucite tubes over the kitchen range in his home. There are six of these unique lamps.

The light-play continued to the fluoresced aisle-carpets where they too shined, brightened by rectangular fixtures in the ceiling.

The original control booth boasted two Brenkert BX 80 Arc Lamp projectors side-by-side. When the Cinema played the original 3-D format, both projectors would be running at the same time. Two metal buckets were fixed to the floor where projectionists could toss hot-spent carbon rods from the lamps.
elkrapidscinema.com

#1940

05/11/2026

It's !
This is the Northwestern National Life Building (1965) in Minneapolis, MN.

A Minoru Yamasaki–designed building in Minneapolis is about to become a hotel.
On April 20 Minneapolis developer Chad Tepley walked a KARE 11 camera crew through the empty lobby of the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company headquarters at 20 Washington Avenue South. Tepley, who purchased the building in November for $7.1 million, described what he intends to do with it: 165 hotel rooms, a ballroom and pool deck in the former mechanical penthouse, a 17,000-square-foot patio built on top of the portico, and a restaurant along the reflecting pools. This is a 6,000-square-foot porch,” he said. “People know it as the porch to the city.”

John Pillsbury, who ran the largest life insurance company in Minnesota, interviewed 39 architects before picking Yamasaki for the job.

Yamasaki described his building design as “a park with a building in it.” He said the porch would be “delicate” and “a delight to walk through.” His partner Henry Guthard said the idea was a portico “you could look through”—a way to let the pedestrian mall that landscape architect Lawrence Halprin had just finished drawing for downtown Minneapolis unspool its full length and come to rest, visually, on the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.
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Text: The Architects Newspaper Mariana Martinez-Pazzi

05/06/2026

It's

You are looking at at 65 Niagara, Buffalo, NY.

This 32-story Art Deco masterpiece was completed November 10, 1931. Architects: George J Dietel and John Wade.

From the richly carved granite base to the illuminated polychrome terra cotta crown, the soaring tower of limestone and sandstone is finely detailed to accentuate the skyscraper’s height and Buffalo’s place in history.
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05/05/2026

It's !

DeRoy from Prentis 📸

The last of four buildings on the Wayne State University campus designed by world-renowned architect Minoru Yamasaki, the Helen L. DeRoy Auditorium’s sculptural forms affirmed the University’s commitment to contemporary design and demonstrated an exciting new direction in American architecture.

The groundbreaking was held Aug. 1, 1962. The firm Darin & Armstrong erected the structure at a cost of about $600,000. The auditorium officially opened March 3, 1964.

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Detroit, MI

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+12485823326

Website

http://www.daads.org/

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