David Whitney Building, 2013

Philip Jarmain grew up near London, Ontario, with part of his childhood spent in Switzerland and Ireland. There were also many family trips to Mexico. His mother is a textile artist and fathers an entrepreneur. A childhood love of storytelling led to early fascination with film, photography and cameras. dShort dramas shot with an 8 mm wind-up camera were a passion. Later, his training was in film (Vancouver Film School), and for some years he worked in lighting for feature films and episodic television, and after that as stills photographer for film.

While establishing himself as a full time artist in photography, Jarmain supports himself as a commercial photographer specializing in conceptual advertising, based in Vancouver, where he lives, and Toronto. In this area he is a recipient of multiple Lürzers Archive and Communication Arts awards as well as other international honors.

Behind a modernized brick facade, the lobby of Detroit’s David Whitney Building stands out as one of the most unique
spaces to be found in the city.

David Charles Whitney sought out to create a monument building honor of his father, local lumber baron David Whitney,
who died in 1900. The 19 story building would be commissioned in 1914, and opened a year later. The Chicago firm of
Graham, Burnham & Co., designed the building with a trademark central light court, with a large atrium ringing the lower
four floors. The atrium contained a skylight at the top, lined with lightbulbs and a large open retail arcade with white marble and terra cotta corbels and balconies. Above the retail spaces were general offices for rent, most of which were doctors and dentists.

With changing tastes in architecture came an updated facade in 1959. The decorative exterior bands of detailed terra cotta was replaced with white brick that gave the facade a clean modern look devoid of any detail. Harley, Ellington & Day were the architects for the renovation. The newly occupied tower began to loose occupancy with the rest of downtown in the late 60s, slowly emptying out until around 2000 when the last tenant, a training center for one of the arriving casinos in the city moved out.

Largely vacant but watched with utilities on, the building made an easy target for rehabilitation. Financing began in 2011
to turn the building into a boutique hotel, and after a ribbon cutting in 2013, crews have been undertaking the renovation
and conversion of the space.