WJR Radio Transmitting Building (Riverview, Michigan)

 interesting place, Art Deco (architecture), 1934_construction

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The design by a Detroit architect who worked with C. Howard Crane exhibits all the hallmarks of the zigzag Art Deco style. Its jagged silhouette is stepped back to a central tower. Large rectangular brick piers create a symmetrical and balanced composition on all sides. Bays between the piers are filled with glass blocks. The most striking feature, however, is the lavish use of colorful ceramic tile on the facade. Geometric patterns in red, yellow, green, and black surround the doors and windows. The letters WJR were written in metal and neon down the single-mast antenna tower, which rose 733 feet—higher than any structure in the state at the time. The ornamentation and the Art Deco style turned a small utilitarian building into a flamboyant image for the modern age of radio. The Detroit Times (September 30, 1934) reported that engineers considered the tower to be the finest and most recent development in radio science and engineering.

The WJR Radio Transmitting Building is somehow not yet listed in the Michigan Register of Historic Places and is probably without a doubt Downriver's best example of Art Deco on any of its commercial buildings today.

sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-WN145
localwiki.org/wyandotte/WJR