Detroit’s Historical landmark Fisher Building is one of the most recognizable buildings in the city. PMC’s team captured high detail information on the building façade.

History of Fisher Building, Detroit Michigan

The Fisher Building is a landmark skyscraper located on West Grand Boulevard in the heart of the New Center area of Detroit, Michigan. The ornate 30-story building, completed in 1928, is one of the major works of architect Albert Kahn, and is designed in an Art Deco style, faced with limestone, granite, and several types of marble.

Once known as the Cathedral to Commerce the Fisher Building serves as one of the premiere remaining examples of large Art Deco style. Originally planned as a campus of 3 towers where the existing Fisher Building would flank a 60-story building the Great Depression would put an end to the construction.

The Challenge

The Fisher Building has and extremely complex façade. Over the history of the building the maintenance of the façades has not been well documented. After a change of ownership, PMC was approached to see how technology could be applied to evaluate the current state of the façades.

The Solution

There are multiple ways to remotely capture information with technology today. After discussions with the client PMC took two approaches for the Building. First, we flew multiple drone flights with a high resolution, commercial drone. Second, using a high precision Leica P-series scanners we capture ultra-high resolution laser scanning.

Quick Facts

• 325,000 square feet of exterior marble
• More than 40 kinds of marble from all over the world were used
• Known as “Detroit’s largest art object”