Construction of the library building began in 1922, requiring the demolition of an aging engineering building to accommodate the $200,000 structure, which was designed by Albert Kahn in Italian Renaissance style. Late in his life, Kahn declared that the Clements was the building for which he would most like to be remembered. Kahn originally planned a series of shields over the entrance, but William Clements insisted on only having 3: one shield of the United States, one of Michigan, and one of the Washington family. However, the shield was not George Washington’s because it had thistles, and Washington was not a Scot. Kahn had found the shield in a book of heraldry and marked it, but somewhere along the way a page was turned and the wrong shield was used.
