DETROIT – The 40-story Guardian Building’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places calls it “one of the most exuberant Art Deco skyscrapers built in America.”

Built with its own orange “Guardian Brick,” bands of pink granite, Mankato stone, terra cotta and green tan and red-brown glazed tile – the building’s exterior is unlike any other. Then you walk in the public lobby and mezzanine levels on the first floor – with it’s vaulted ceilings and incredible tile work – and you get the idea that the original architect, Wirt Rowland, was out to impress the public when the building opened along Griswold Street in 1929 for the Union Trust Company.

Indeed, he was out to make an impression, because he was under orders to build a headquarters for the bank that would be a “cathedral of finance” which would be a warm, inviting, grand space for the bank’s customers. Eighty years later, the building trades are back at the Guardian, but their skills are focused on turning the building’s less-ornate upper floors into modern office space for employees of Wayne County.

“We have about 250 tradespeople out here right now, but by early October it’s going to be full steam ahead,” said Chuck Hundley, senior project manager for construction manager Tooles-Sachse. “We’ll have about 450 to 500 out here when we’re at peak. The tradespeople out here have been excellent. They know they’re in an environment where they’re working around a lot of suit-and-tie people, and they’ve been very professional.”

Wayne County purchased the Guardian Building and is moving to get out of what county officials say is an expensive lease deal in their existing headquarters in the Wayne County Building a few blocks away. The total cost to renovate the Guardian Building: about $57 million – an amount that was significantly (and controversially) increased by the county, which wanted to renovate more space in the Guardian and add technology upgrades.

Hundley said the project involves the renovation of 16 of the building’s office floors. Some of the other floors have existing tenants, who aren’t moving. While the building has been renovated in the past, Hundley said most of its utilities are original, and plenty of old cast iron and steel pipe is in the building. The new plan involves the installation of new electrical, plumbing and duct work, and conduit for phones and technology. A sprinkler system will also be added. Much of the new work will go behind drop ceilings on each of the floors.

A temporary freight elevator installed on the northeast side of the building is proving to be a major help in the project, since the narrow building’s interior elevators are inadequate for large pieces of material, like drywall over eight feet long. “That’s really the biggest challenge in a project like this, moving materials in and out,” Hundley said. The county is scheduled to move in Dec. 18.

Rebecca Binno-Savage, vice president of the Detroit Area Art Deco Society, who included the Guardian Building in a book on the use of Art Deco in the Detroit area, said at the time it was built, “the Guardian building was built by Michigan’s largest bank with almost unlimited funds. It was during an era when there was much more focus on architectural detail. Labor was relatively cheap at the time, so there was more money available for materials.”

The National Register listing said the Guardian “is a part of the progression of the history of American skyscrapers. It is one of the most ebullient examples of the use of Arts and Crafts tiles covering a steel skeleton. This warm, colorful building was the most effective symbol of the cordial, friendly image that Union Trust wanted to portray to the public.”

Binno-Savage said the building has “national significance in terms of its use of Art Deco. It’ use of style and use of color make it so unique. With its level of craftsmanship and detail, we will probably never see this type of building built again.”