For most of the twentieth century McKay Tower, the Art Deco skyscraper above you, defined the Grand Rapids skyline. When it opened in 1927, its sixteen stories made it the tallest building in Michigan outside Detroit, a fact the city advertised with considerable pride. The tower was financed by Frank McKay, the powerful Republican political boss who effectively ran Michigan politics through patronage and backroom deals for decades — a man who shaped the state's fortunes in ways that historians are still untangling.
The building's terra cotta ornament at the upper stories is particularly fine, with geometric patterns typical of the Art Deco movement that was sweeping through American architecture in the late 1920s. Look at the setbacks as the building rises, each terrace reducing the floor plate as the tower climbs — a design strategy that became the signature of the era. Today McKay Tower has been converted to apartments and ground-floor retail, part of the broader reinvention of downtown Grand Rapids that accelerated in the 2000s.