Situated on Euclid Avenue near the southeast corner of Cleveland’s Public Square is The May, an upscale apartment development built into the remnants of the iconic May Company Building, the historic white terra cotta department store designed by architect Daniel Burnham and originally opened in 1915. Developed by Bedrock Detroit and designed by Geis Companies, The May brings contemporary apartment style living to the historic department store footprint.
While the interior of the building has been converted into luxury apartments, the exterior was given a complete restoration, including the original terra cotta tiles and ornamentation, as well as the original pediment signage (complete with clock), and the Chicago style windows (including frosted glazing that continues the original May company “M” logos from the original design). If you didn’t know better, you might think that the May Company Department Store was still around. You wouldn’t know otherwise until you stepped inside. 300 apartments, 500 parking spaces, an open-air atrium on the sixth floor, luxury amenities, and still room for a rooftop restaurant and some 80,000 square feet of retail fill out the space. Quite the turnaround.
It was both a pleasure and a challenge to photograph the building up close through late summer and into the fall. At two-plus months, 12 trips, and over 95 final images, it was my largest architectural shoot to date, and it was just a joy. The respect for historic detail taken while breathing new life into this once majestic jewel of a building excited both the architect and photographer in me. I wish there were more like it.
