Mistaken Identity | Jason R Woods | Architectural Photography

One beautiful afternoon earlier this summer, I had a few hours to kill while I was in Detroit. I decided to head to Belle Isle and enjoy the nation’s largest city-owned park. If you haven’t been in recent years, it is making a comeback and is well worth the visit. A Michigan recreation passport is required (<<< the best $11 you can spend if you live in Michigan), or you can pay just $9 to enter and enjoy all of the park’s facilities for the day. There’s a zoo, an aquarium, a Great Lakes museum, the famous conservancy, a giant marble fountain, fields for days and some of the best views of Detroit.

While wandering around on this particular visit, I stumbled across what looked like an archetypal Eliel Saarinen building. All the signs were there, a low slung, horizontal structure with a flat roof and clad in masonry. Even my initial Google search confirmed that it was designed by Eliel Saarinen. I was wrong. But I was very close. The Flynn Memorial Pavilion was designed by Robert J. Swanson, who was once a principal at Saarinen’s firm and who was married to Eliel’s daughter.

Built in 1949, it was designed per the Modern motif, with nearly 1/3 of the structure being glazed in floor-to-ceiling windows. It sits on Lake Tacoma, where people renting kayaks may begin their aquatic adventure and when it freezes in the winter, is used as a skating rink.

Flynn Pavilion by Robert F. Swanson at Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan. Photograph by Jason R. Woods.