Our new book about Louis Kamper
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"LOUIS KAMPER, The Buildings and Life of a Great Detroit Architect (First Edition)" is available for purchase.
Author Bob Goldsmith spent a few years doing research and writing this book about architect Louis Kamper. There is a section about Detroit's Hecker Mansion and Kamper's time with the firm of Scott, Kamper & Scott, and a long section about Kamper's excellent residential work. The longest section covers his non-residential work. Many images accompany the text. There is also information about Kamper's family and his activities. Another section of the book discusses how much Kamper's work suffered from abandonment as the decades passed after his death,. The final section discusses how hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in the past couple of decades to bring a new life to many of those same buildings. The book includes some facts that will be surprising, and it presents a comprehensive but easy-to-read look at Louis Kamper's life and career.
Paperback only. 198 pages.
Architect Louis Kamper of Detroit
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A Few Facts About Kamper's Career
Some Facts About Louis Kamper's Career
Kamper came to the United States at around age 20 and started to work in New York City under the famous architect Stanford White.
After he completed the design of Hecker Mansion in Detroit, Kamper actually quit working in the field of architecture for a few years while he managed a local brewing company.
He designed more than one police station, plus more banks and factories than most people realize.
He designed a lot of hotels within a few years, including Detroit's Book-Cadillac Hotel, which was the tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1924.
He designed a skyscraper that would have been the tallest in the world (at 81 stories) when it was announced in 1926. Images were released, and construction began, but the project soon ended.
A controversy regarding the cost of his design for a new terminal at Detroit's City Airport caused a lot of bad publicity for Kamper at the end of his career.
