The Reynolds Metals Company Regional Sales Office was constructed to house regional staff and to show off the functional possibilities of aluminum, particularly to representatives from the automotive industry. The building opened in September 1959 and was dubbed a “Jewel on Stilts” by the Detroit Free Press. Situated in burgeoning Southfield across from Northland Mall and near the John C. Lodge Freeway and Eight Mile Roads, the building was ideally-situated to capture people’s attention.
The three-story rectangle, which is placed on a podium, has an open first-story lobby, and second and third stories shielded by an aluminum grille. The aluminum space-frame skylight crowning the open central core gives finish and silhouette to the exterior skyline and floods the interior with day light. The gold anodized grille consists of ten-and-a-half-inch diameter rings, two-and-a quarter inches deep, locked together in a pattern. These, together with the walkway gratings at the windows, cut off the rays of the sun until they are at a very low angle. There are many other uses of aluminum in the building, including the formed ceiling pans of the first floor display area, the luminous ceilings of hexagonal louvers, the doors, window sashes, gratings and also in many unexposed areas as well.
