The Fisher Building

The Fisher Building has been called “Detroit’s largest art object,” and it’s hard to argue once you’re standing under its three-story, barrel-vaulted arcade ceiling — a hand-painted mass of color and gilded detail that a 1928 newspaper described as shimmering “like the plumage of exotic birds.” Albert Kahn designed it in 1928 with the Fisher brothers’ full backing (they’d just sold Fisher Body to GM and reportedly gave Kahn a blank check), and the arcade alone uses forty different kinds of marble.

Pure Detroit runs a free public tour of the building, and even without one, the ground-floor arcade — lined with local shops, a cafe, and the entrance to the historic Fisher Theatre — is open to wander during business hours. The building’s gold-tiled roof (green since WWII, when the gold was feared to attract enemy bombers, and now lit gold at night) remains one of the most recognizable pieces of the Detroit skyline, especially when it turns Red Wings red during playoff runs.

On our radar for a free, jaw-dropping Art Deco interior most people drive past without ever walking into, or for pairing with a show at the Fisher Theatre next door.