Encyclopedia Of Detroit
David Broderick Tower
Anchoring the southeast corner of Grand Circus Park at Woodward Avenue and Witherell Street, the 34-story Broderick Tower was once the second tallest building in Michigan, after the Book Tower building. From 1997 to 2006 it was identified by the huge whale mural on its facade.
Broderick Tower began life as Eaton Tower, constructed from 1926-28, named by owner Berrien Eaton to honor the founder of the Eaton Company, his grandfather Theodore H. Eaton. It was designed by architect Louis Kamper, who also designed the Book-Cadillac Hotel.
When the building opened, its top four floors were lit by floodlights that inspired the advertising slogan “a beauty by day – a jewel by night." The first five floors were retail and the remaining floors housed professional offices. The barrel vaulted lobby was covered in elegant black marble with marble wainscoting throughout the building.
Insurance broker David Broderick, head of Intertown Corp., bought the building in 1944 and promptly gave it his name. Broderick had his company offices there, and on the ground floor the Flaming Embers restaurant was a popular destination from the 1950s until it closed in 1993. The Broderick family sold the building in 1966 and from there it changed hands twice, retaining its name. In 1976 Michael Higgins, with other investors, purchased it.
In the following decades many office building tenants left the struggling city for the suburbs. The Higgins group faced tax challenges then bankruptcy, and the building, for a period called Woodward Tower, became empty in 1988 and gradually deteriorated. However it maintained its structural integrity, though much of the ornamentation from the upper floors was lost.
In 1995 when plans were made for Comerica Park to be built a few blocks away Higgins announced his intention to turn the Broderick into loft spaces with a new restaurant and a nightclub. This did not happen, however in 1997, an enormous mural of a hump-backed whale was added to the rear of the building, painted by local artist Wyland (the mural was covered with advertising beginning in 2006). When Campus Martius became reinvigorated in 2002 plans for the building were renewed but never executed.
It wasn’t until 2010 that funding was obtained by current owner Motown Construction Partners LLC and Broderick Tower reopened on November 2, 2012. Its interior restored and renovated, the first four floors of Broderick Tower are office and commercial space with the remaining floors housing 124 studio, one, two and three bedroom apartments. The original elegant, barrel vaulted, marble-lined lobby still welcomes all.
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