Detroiters reach for the sky, and our architecture is no different. Since Michigan's first skyscraper, the Hammond Building opened in 1889 at the corner of Griswold and West Fort Streets, the city’s architects have reached for greater and greater heights. When early experiments with structural steel proved successful, allowing for taller building construction, coupled with American cities densifying, making urban land sparse and expensive, architects looked skyward. Over the centuries the styles and technologies have changed and the skyline has morphed, in celebration of it all, Detroit History Tours proudly invites you to our two hour walking tour of the Motor City’s legendary skyscrapers.

Together with your expert guide, you’ll explore the legacies of the city’s great architects along with the financiers and owners who commissioned them. From Victorian-era iron-framed storefronts that informed later skyscraper design to murderous falling facades, intricate details to staggering heights, twisting buildings to curtain walls, we’ll cover it all. From Indiana limestone to Detroit manufactured terracotta, bricks to I-beams, marble to granite, you’ll get up close and personal with the buildings of Detroit; grasping the history of the cutthroat battles that went along with claiming “the tallest building in the city''.

We will traverse city streets, looking (up) at what defines our skyline, all the while exploring what the future may hold, as once again the skyline is set to drastically change. From construction to rehabilitation, new uses to reuses, implosions to projected plans you’ll examine what's next for a city that scrapes the sky.

This tour departs from and returns to the outdoor street corner of Griswold St. and W. Congress St. Please meet your tour guide on the sidewalk.

Meet your guide: Michael Boettcher is an urban planner with experience working for Wayne and Macomb Counties, the City of Detroit, and running a couple suburban downtown development agencies. He has served on the boards and staffs of a handful of Detroit-area community development nonprofits as well. He’s been creating and conducting tours since the early 1990s, having fallen in love with Detroit architecture and urban spaces while getting lost coming downtown in high school. Michael has sung in a handful of Michigan Opera Theater opera choruses, published a couple dozen poems, loves to show off his collection of antique Detroit architecture postcards and is very slowly building a scale model of downtown Detroit in Legos (brick donations accepted). He remembers seeing the Lions at Tiger Stadium and the Red Wings at Olympia. In May 2021, he finally made it to his 50 th state.

To best enjoy this tour guests should wear comfortable walking shoes, arrive prepared to walk approximately 1 mile over city streets, and stand for extended periods of time. Weather appropriate clothing is highly recommended. This tour is best suited for guests over the age of 12 years old, however we are happy to welcome guests as young as 8, at the discretion of their guardians.

Your order confirmation email will serve as your only ticket. Please save your email and be prepared to show it on your phone or printed to board the bus. (We do this to avoid the ticketing fees that come along with ticketing systems. The price of your ticket will remain the same throughout checkout with no added fees for tax.)

This tour departs from and returns to the street corner of Griswold St. and W. Congress St. Please meet your tour guide on the sidewalk. The Guardian Building dominates this corner and can be used at the navigation address (500 Griswold St, Detroit, MI 48226). Our tour guides will be wearing Detroit History Tours shirts and big ol’ smiles. Parking is available at The Buhl Parking Garage, across the street at 525 Griswold St, Detroit, MI 48226. The costs vary from 10.00-20.00 dollars; on street parking is also available for $1.50 per hour at city meters.