The Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (CAYMC, said "K-mac") is a government office building and courthouse located in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It has the main offices of the City of Detroit government and the offices of the Wayne County government. The building was completed in 1954 and was first called the City-County Building. After the death of former mayor Coleman A. Young in 1997, the building was renamed in his honor.
Overview
The building is split into two connected parts with different heights. The shorter and northern part, called the Administration Tower, is 197 feet (60 meters) tall and has 13 floors. These floors contain offices for city and county governments. The Detroit City Council rooms are on the 13th floor. The tower’s roof has a garden.
The taller part, called the Courts Tower, is 318 feet (97 meters) tall and has 20 floors. It includes offices and courtrooms for the 3rd Circuit Court and the Wayne County Probate Court. Floors 1 through 8 have office space, while floors 9 through 19 have courtrooms, judges’ rooms, and jury rooms. The 20th floor holds the building’s mechanical equipment.
The building is located between Jefferson Avenue and Larned Street. A covered walkway connects it to the Millender Center to the north, but only employees can use the walkway. Southwest of the building is a former section of Woodward Avenue. This area was made into a walking space called Spirit Plaza, a small public square, in 2017.
Architecture
The modern-style building was designed by the architectural firm Harley, Ellington and Day. Construction started in 1951 and was finished in 1954. The building has 20 floors above ground and one basement floor, making a total of 21 floors.
Three sides of the building’s outside are covered with white Vermont marble. Below the windows of the Courts Tower, black marble panels are placed to highlight the building’s vertical shape. The Courts Tower section, with its white marble-covered columns and dark panels, creates a clear difference from the 14-story Administration Tower. The Administration Tower uses horizontal lines in its design. The brick on the Randolph Street side was not covered with marble to allow for easier future expansion.
Near the southwestern entrance of the Courts Tower is a monument called The Spirit of Detroit. This monument includes a 43.5-foot (13.3 m) marble wall and a bronze statue made by sculptor Marshall Fredericks. The wall has carvings of the seals of Detroit and Wayne County, along with a quote from the Bible. A canopy connects the marble wall to the building’s entrance.
The statue is a well-known landmark in Detroit and is often used as a symbol of the city. Images of the statue frequently appear in materials that represent Detroit.
Operations
The Coleman A. Young Municipal Center is owned and managed by the Detroit-Wayne Joint Building Authority, a group formed by different government groups in Michigan in 1948.
When it opened, the City-County Building replaced the old Detroit City Hall and the old Wayne County Building. Many offices from Wayne County have since moved to the nearby Guardian Building, which is now the main office for the county. The offices of the Wayne County Clerk, one part of the Wayne County (Third Judicial) Circuit Court, the Circuit Court Administrative Offices, and the Wayne County Probate Court remain in the building.
On June 28, 2008, the building was hit by lightning during a series of strong thunderstorms, which caused a fire in a transformer inside the building. The building reopened on July 9, 2008. Smoke and fire damage from the event could be seen across the river in Windsor, Ontario.