Chrysler House (Dime Building)

The name is the whole origin story: the Dime Savings Bank, founded in 1884 with barely $60,000 behind it, let anyone open an account with as little as ten cents — and enough Detroiters took the offer that the bank needed a skyscraper. It hired Daniel Burnham, of Flatiron Building fame, who wrapped 23 Neoclassical stories in his trademark white terra cotta; the building opened in 1912, months after Burnham died, making it one of his final works. His signature move is visible the moment you step inside: a skylit lobby beneath a central light court that carves the tower into a U above the third floor, so every office got a window in the age before air conditioning.

Today it’s Chrysler House — renamed in 2012 when the automaker took the top floors — and it sits shoulder to shoulder with the Penobscot. Its best secret runs underground: a tunnel still connects it to the Ford Building down the street, its Burnham-designed sibling. Two towers, one architect, one block of Griswold.