Design Pilgrimage: Cranbrook

The extremely special Saarinen family architectural/arts/design/craft compound, plus everything you need to see when you visit

It’s universally acknowledged that Cranbrook, located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (just outside Detroit), is a total work of art, designed in an Arts and Crafts-meets-Nordic style by the highly esteemed Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, who served as the Academy’s first president and head of architecture. He worked alongside his wife, sculptor and textile artist Loja Saarinen, who is often overshadowed by her famous husband, as well as a European cadre of furniture makers, silversmiths, iron workers, bookbinders and printers, whose skilled artisanship can be appreciated in every nook and cranny.

Set back by rolling hills, discreetly veiled beyond a curtain of towering deciduous trees, the 300-acre arts campus was the result of a simple yet innovative premise:

“What if we built an arts academy in the countryside? What if we not only designed everything on campus, but made as much of it as we can right here on the property, while training future generations to do the same?”

It really cannot be overstated: Cranbrook’s contributions to modern art, craft and design in America is significant and sweeping. The educational and design community, founded in 1904 by Detroit philanthropists George Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth, produced many of this country’s greatest designers, including Charles and Ray Eames, Harry Bertoia, and Florence Knoll, and this is where they all worked, lived and dreamed design.

Worth a full day or more of exploring (I have been dozens of times, and still notice something new each time), the entire campus is living, breathing testament to their collective imagination and genius, but it’s the Saarinen’s private family residence that gives you the most intimate glimpse inside the process and principles that echo across the community. Starting with a tour of brick, ivy-covered home, cloistered among other private residences and studios on the tree-lined Academy Way, grounds you in place for the rest of your meanderings.