Cranbrook Educational Community
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| Cranbrook Educational Community | |
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| (U.S. National Historic Landmark District) | |
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| Location: | 39221 Woodward Avenue Bloomfield Hills, Michigan  United States |
| Built/Founded: | 1926-99 |
| Architect: | Eliel Saarinen Albert Kahn |
| Architectural style(s): | 20th Century American |
| Added to NRHP: | March 7, 1973 National Historic Landmark: June 29, 1989 |
| Governing body: | Cranbrook Board of Trustees |
The Cranbrook Educational Community, a National Historic Landmark, in the U.S. state of Michigan was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. Cranbrook campus is in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills consisting of Cranbrook Kingswood School, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook Institute of Science, Cranbrook House and Gardens, and Christ Church Cranbrook. The sprawling, 319-acre (129 hectare) campus began as a 174-acre (70 ha) farm, purchased in 1904. The organization takes its name from Cranbrook, England, the birthplace of the founder's father.
Cranbrook is renowned for its architecture in the Arts and Crafts Movement style. The chief architects were Albert Kahn and Eliel Saarinen. Renowned sculptors Carl Milles and Marshall Fredericks also spent many years in residence at Cranbrook.
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[edit] Schools at Cranbrook
See also Cranbrook Schools
The first school to open on the Cranbrook grounds was the Bloomfield Hills School. Founded by George Booth, this school was designed to be the community school for local area children (of which there were very few at the time.) Subsequent expansion and revision of the Bloomfield Hills School has converted it into today's Brookside School, the Lower School of Cranbrook Schools.
George Booth eagerly looked forward to building the Cranbrook School for Boys, an all boys College-Preparatory school which students from the Detroit area and abroad would come to reside. George Booth firmly believed in having the Cranbrook School for Boys having an architectural look reminiscent of the finest British Boarding Schools which can be seen most prominently by the focal point of the Cranbrook Campus -- The Quadrangle and its' fountain. Upon initial completion of the Cranbrook School for boys, several buildings were constructed -- The Academic Building, Marquis Hall, and the Cranbrook Dining Hall.
Over the years the Cranbrook School for Boys campus grew to also house Stevens Hall, Page Hall, and Coulter Hall. While primarily functioning as only residential spaces, Page Hall featured a smoking lounge as well as a shooting range. Lerchen Gymnasium, Keppel Gymnasium, and Thompson oval were also constructed on the campus. In the 1970s Cranbrook School for Boys also constructed a state-of-the-art Science Building named Gordon Science.
Realizing that young women would also need a place of their own to learn, Ellen Scripps Booth pressured her husband into building a school for girls. Mr. Booth decided to let Ellen supervise the project herself which she named the Kingswood School for Girls. Unlike her husband, Ellen encouraged Eliel Saarinen to come up with a unique interior design for the campus completely on his own. Unlike the Cranbrook School for Boys, which featured several buildings, the Kingswood School for Girls was only one building which included all necessary features inside of it. The building housed dormitories, a dining hall, auditorium, classrooms, bowling alley, lounge/common areas, and a ballroom. The education at Kingswood School for Girls was primarily viewed initially as a "finishing school" although that would change as time would pass.
In 1986, citing financial and other reasons the Cranbrook School for Boys and Kingswood School for Girls entered a joint merger renaming the new institution the Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School. For several years prior to the merger students had been taking courses on both campuses which aroused much protestation from several faculty and alumni. Although the schools are technically indistinguishable today, there is still a deep root in single-sex education. For example, only the boys are invited to attend the Cranbrook Senior Pageant, Freshmen year Science as well as Freshmen and Sophomore year English and History Courses are single-sex courses, and the two sexes do not have the same graduation ceremony (although they do share in the same Baccalaureate service).
[edit] Cranbrook Academy of Art
The Cranbrook Academy of Art, located in the affluent Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, MI, is a prominent graduate school of architecture, art and design. Founded in 1932 by philanthropist George Gough Booth and wife Ellen Scripps Booth, it is part of the larger Cranbrook Educational Community, also founded by the couple.
The Cranbrook Academy of Art was originally designed and headed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, who migrated design practices and theories from the arts and crafts movement through the international style. The school continues to be known for its apprenticeship method of teaching, in which a small group of students, usually only 7 to 10 per class (141 students for the total of ten departments), study under a single artist-in-residence for the duration of their curriculum. The graduate program is unusual because there are no "courses": all learning is self-directed under the guidance and supervision of the respective artist-in-residence.
[edit] Degrees and rankings
This method of teaching has proved extremely beneficial for the school, as many of its graduate programs are considered among the best in the country by both US News and World Report and Design Intelligence. The school currently confers the following degrees, with 2009 US News national rankings [1] in italics:
- Master of Architecture.(Post-professional degree) Due to Cranbrook's method of teaching, it is important to note that the Master of Architecture degree is unable to be accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board.
- Master of Fine Arts. Overall MFA program ranked 5th [2]. Degrees are conferred in the following areas:
- 2-D Design (also known as graphic design), 2nd.
- 3-D Design (also known as industrial design), 7th. 3rd by Design Intelligence (2003) [3].
- Ceramics, 2nd.
- Fiber 7th. (2003)
- Metalsmithing 1st. (2003)
- Painting, 10th.
- Photography, 10th.
- Print Media, 7th.
- Sculpture, 5th.
[edit] Notable alumni
Famous students include Marc Awodey, Ed Bacon, Harry Bertoia, Andrew Blauvelt, Neils Diffrient, Charles Eames, Ray Eames, Elliott Earls, Ed Fella, Betty Davenport Ford, Leza McVey, Maija Grotell, Frederic James, Florence Knoll (did not graduate), Duane Hanson, Ruth Ava Lyons, Tony Matelli, P. Scott Makela and Laurie Haycock Makela, Fumihiko Maki, Gyo Obata, Hani Rashid, Eero Saarinen, Kim Salander, Nancy Skolos, Peter Stathis, Ralph Rapson, and Martin Venezky Lorraine Wild.
[edit] Cranbrook Art Museum
The Cranbrook Art Museum is located at the heart of the Cranbrook Educational Community, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan outside of Detroit. It is a museum of contemporary art. Completed in 1942 under the direction of world renowned architect Eliel Saarinen, the museum is housed in the same building as the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Sculptor Carl Milles' numerous works in Metro Detroit include those at Cranbrook Educational Community such as Mermaids & Tritons Fountain (1930), Sven Hedin on a Camel (1932), Jonah and the Whale Fountain {1932}, Orpheus Fountain (1936), and the Spirit of Transportation (1952) at the Detroit Civic Center.[1]
In 1932 renowned sculptor Marshall Fredericks was invited by Milles to join the staffs of the academy and schools, teaching there until he enlisted in the armed forces in 1942.
[edit] Cranbrook Institute of Science
The Cranbrook Institute of Science is located in the Cranbrook Educational Community, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It is a popular tourist attraction in the Detroit metropolitan area. It includes a permanent collection of scientific artifacts and also displays annual temporary exhibits. It also features a planetarium and a powerful telescope which visitors may peer through on selected nights.
The museum grounds feature a life-sized statue of a stegosaurus, as well as a koi pond.
[edit] Cranbrook House and Gardens
Cranbrook House and Gardens are the centerpiece of the Cranbrook Educational Community campus. The 1908 English Arts and Crafts-style house was designed by Albert Kahn for Cranbrook founders George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth. Ten first-floor rooms can be seen on guided tours, and contain tapestries, hand-carved woodworking and English Arts and Crafts-style antiques. The upper floors of the house are used for the executive offices of Cranbrook Education Community.
The 40 acre gardens were originally designed by George Gough Booth, and include a sunken garden, formal gardens, bog garden, herb garden, wildflower garden, Oriental garden, sculpture, fountains, specimen trees and a lake.
The house and gardens are open to the public from May through October.
[edit] See also
- Architecture of metropolitan Detroit
- Cranbrook Kingswood
- List of Eye magazine issues - (No.3, Vol 1. Spring 1991)
- Tourism in metropolitan Detroit
[edit] Notes
- ^ Baulch, Vivian M. (September 6, 1999).Carl Milles, Cranbrook's favorite sculptor. Michigan History, The Detroit News. Retrieved on November 23, 2007.
[edit] References and further reading
- A&E with Richard Guy Wilson, Ph.D.,(2000). America's Castles: Newspaper Moguls, Pittock Mansion, Cranbrook House & Gardens, The American Swedish Institute. A&E Television Network.
- Hill, Eric J. and John Gallagher (2002). AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3120-3.
- Merkel, Jayne (2005). Eero Saarinen. London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 071484277X.
- Pelkonen, Eeva-Liisa (2006). Eero Saarinen. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300112823.
- Roman, Antonio (2003). Eero Saarinen. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1568983409.
- Saarinen, Aline B. (ed) (1968). Eero Saarinen on His Work. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Serraino, Pierluigi (2006). Saarinen, 1910-1961: a Structural Expressionist. KöLn: Taschen. ISBN 3822836451.
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