Cass Gilbert cladding a steel frame became the model for decades. Modernists embraced his work: John Marin painted it several times; even Frank Lloyd Wright praised the lines of the building, though he decried the ornamentation. Gilbert was one of the first celebrity architects in America, designing skyscrapers in New York City and Cincinnati, campus buildings at Oberlin College and the University of Texas at Austin, state capitols in Minnesota and West Virginia, the support towers of the George Washington Bridge, railroad stations (including the New Haven Union Station, 1920), and the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.. His reputation
Cass Building Cass Building The Cass Building is a low-rise office building at 455 West Fort Street, at the southeast corner of First Street, in Detroit, Michigan. It is also known as Detroit's Work Place. The building was designed in 1910 by the architectural firm of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls as a warehouse on the western edge of the city's central business district. In 1972, the reinforced concrete building was purchased by the firm and remodeled as its new headquarters. The structure was stripped to its shell and new exterior walls constructed. The north and west facades were covered with tinted glass