“Just look at this place,” enthused Local 324 operating engineer “Big Jake” Jacobs, walking up the front steps of the Wayne County Building. “Look at all the details. Nobody builds them like this any more.”

Nobody, indeed.

But masonry contractor Chezcore, Inc. and the building trades are putting their considerable skills to work to rebuild and restore the masonry exterior of the tower portion of the Wayne County Building so that it will be a structurally sound architectural gem for years to come.

Completed in 1902, the Wayne County Building is on the list of the National Register of Historic Places, which passed along a description of the landmark as “the most sumptuous building in Michigan.” We’re not sure what that means exactly, but if it refers to the building’s copper-clad steel horses pulling chariots and human figures, the multitude of decorative masonry elements and an interior filled with rich mahogany, mosaic tile and plaster, then sumptuous it is.

According to the Detroit Central Business District Foundation, the Beaux-Arts-style building served as the seat of Wayne County government until the 1950s, when offices were moved to the City-County Building which opened a few blocks away. By the 1970s, with the structure neglected and worn down, the foundation said the only factor that saved the Wayne County Building was the cost of demolition – in excess of $1.5 million.

Eventually, preservationists won the day. The county sold the building to the Old Wayne County Building Limited Partnership in 1984, which then undertook a $25 million interior restoration in 1987. The 250,000-square-foot building is currently leased to the county, and includes a children’s day-care center, and other businesses.

While the interior was beautifully restored, Chezcore President David Cieszkowski said the exterior “has never had a full-blown restoration.” Granite panels clad the exterior of the first two floors, while the rest of the building is covered with sandstone. Cieszkowski said some sandstone panels on the 275-foot-tall tower have spalled and cracked, and steel anchors have rusted. The sandstone panels that cannot be repaired will be replaced by Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 members working for Chezcore.

“We’re going to be removing about 500 sandstones from the skeleton,” Cieszkowski said. “Once we started opening up the exterior we also found a lot of rust in the support steel, and that will need replacing.” Up to 20 construction workers in various crafts will toil on this project.

The tower itself is vacant space and is currently open to the weather and the pigeons.

The scaffolding that surrounds the tower has been in place for more than two years, although renovation work has only recently started. The delay in work came after a dispute between the county and the partnership over who would pay for the renovations. Restoration of the tower is expected to be complete in December 2005. Similar work on the exterior of the main portion of the rest of the Wayne County Building may follow the restoration of the tower.

“It’s an amazing building, and for me it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Chezcore Project Manager Jim Parrinello. “I’ve heard that next to the state Capitol Building in Lansing, people say this is the most beautiful building in Michigan. I feel as if we’re working on a piece of art.”

THE WAYNE COUNTY Building in downtown Detroit was completed in 1902 at a cost of $1.5 million. Scaffolding hides the ongoing renovation of the four-story tower. At the base of the tower are two copper-clad chariots, which symbolize progress.

A CORNER WATERTABLE section of sandstone is removed from the upper reaches of the Wayne County Building's tower by Rick Krueger and Jeff Nacy of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 and Chezcore, Inc.

Red Van Steenis of Loca1 1 moves one of the building's front stairs, which were moved to make way for a crane.