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77 Monroe Center (Grand Rapids Trust Building, Michigan National Bank Building)

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Grand Rapids Trust Building, Michigan National Bank Building
1926, Wirt C. Rowland of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls. 77 Monroe Center NW
  • (Photograph by Catherine Boland Erkkila)
  • (Photograph by Catherine Boland Erkkila)
  • (Photograph by Catherine Boland Erkkila)

The strong, continuous piers terminating in pinnacles and the dominant three-story arches on the lower levels, with narrower arched forms repeated in the upper portions, give this building a vigorous vertical thrust. In fact, it seems almost a provocative transformation of H. H. Richardson's Marshall Field Store in Chicago into a vertical building. The exterior is sheathed in terra-cotta with reliefs by Corrado Joseph Parducci. Depicting the early history of the city, they include Indian tomahawks, canoes, pine trees, wolverines, and other native animals. The colonnaded second-floor banking room and safe deposit vaults are enriched with marble, terrazzo, and metalwork.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Kathryn Bishop Eckert
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Citation

Kathryn Bishop Eckert, "77 Monroe Center (Grand Rapids Trust Building, Michigan National Bank Building)", [Grand Rapids, Michigan], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-KT10.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Michigan

Buildings of Michigan, Kathryn Bishop Eckert. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 250-250.

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