In 1934 the Upjohn Company was outgrowing their aging downtown buildings. Industrial design Albert Kahn, of Detroit, developed a design to overcome inadequacies of floor-loading capacity, fireproofing, unsafe elevators, and poor ventilation. In May of that year directors and stockholders voted to begin construction on the first of several new buildings. Building 24 would become the new executive offices for Upjohn, funded completely by invested surplus and profits. While Kahn’s original plan was designed to allow Upjohn to continue to grow and expand in the center of the city, by the late 1940’s it was evident that the traditional vertical method of manufacturing where raw materials are taken to the top of the building and processed as they move down, would be abandoned for the new trend of horizontal manufacturing. Prior to change to the current ownership, Building 24 was operated by Pfizer and was part of their pharmaceutical research and development efforts. 

Formerly – Upjohn Building 24