What’s the matter dawg you embarrassed?

The concert hall is problematic. It is an example of a design that looks exquisite in the model (as you stand above, all white cardboard.)...........but the finality is a dud. Too much blank space. Too much theory. Too much of the old man forgetting that beauty is in thje details....in the tiniest element of the project. There is no tiny element here. It is all bombast. The birth of bombastic architecture in the U.S. Poor Bernard Maybeck would have thought this horrid building a bad joke. Let's assemble Maybeck, Harrison, Van Alen as a jury and see what they have to say. Better luck next time. Part 2: If any architecture students watch this.: Beware! Walk in another direction.

Wow... I'm the first to comment. Why so few view? Everything Kevin does is first rate. Names matter and we want to know about Adkisson: where does it come from and what does it mean. Now:As slick as Sarinnen Jr.'s furniture may appear, the father's are a finer design. The modern look is slick but all the furniture is too low, too undignified to sit in and too hard to get out of. And lacks a human / organic quality. The Architect King Lui Wu (a teacher of ES' ---and mine---) used to say "Imagination is not enough." Later in life he said "Imagination does not boil rice." George Howe used to say: "All that white furniture reminds me of an ice cream parlor". I add: "They wobble." The father's chairs did not wobble as the supposedly un-aesthetic legs adjust themselves in a wooden, hand made chair. All ES Jr's tables wobble ands whenrever you see them you will see folded pieces of cardboard under part of the curve. Wright was there.....he needed to see that one could detail as good or better than he. Someone in the Sullivan or Purcell league. =========Thanks again for the tour.

Firsst Rate. Than you K. Adkisson. George Booth had a vision and a love for the hand made...for the worker. A remarkable guy. The world is made better by a few remarkable guys.......very few in number. Thanks for a first rate show.

You know I am very critical of the Cr. Academy and other work at the Academy. I am an old Architect (300 projects) but.............1) Thanks to Kevin Adkisson for an A-1 Tour! 2) I am overwhelmed by the design of Eliel Saarinen (ES). As a critic I have not one negative remark to make about the Prep School. Every architecture school in the USA (and the world) ought to bring its students here for at least a month a year. I do not mean that they should only copy the details but that shouild absorb the design process, the sense of delight, of ceremony (this Latin word connotes the Hebrew blessing for bread/sustenence) and the amount of work required to make every building a pleasure, a delight, a work of art. Sadly, I think ES lost this in his subsequent work at the grown-ups school. Why? I can't figure it out. Maybe the influence of the "Modernist" Movement...who knows. It's just not there nor in the work of his son.----------------I was in Detroit for a solely commercial reason but due to a flight schedule Malcolm, my engineer, and I had the chance to visit here. I was thunderstruck. It changed my life. If Wright ever visited here he would have blushed with jealousy. This work equals the details and ideas of Sullivan and the Green Brothers and Maybeck.

Thank You K. Adkisson. Well Done. The new museum is problematical for a humanist people (person)-oriented Architect. It lacks finesse, and sweet detail which is often called scale. Human scale. The Prarie School guys NEVER forgot these principles ; it thus seems to me to be crude. It is a kind of false intellectualism by people who are not historically oriented. [By this I mean : knowing who they are and where.] The "new" addition to Yale Architectrure Building is in the same anti-intellectualist, anti-historicism category. The odd thing here is that it replaced a very old, very elegant, architect-designed men's shop which had wonderful brick details and was a jewel of the campus. That could have been incorporated into any kind of an effanescent modern glass/ steel building but as usual these days, the architects wanted-----above all else---self expression. What I am trying to say, I guess, is that Humility tops pop philosophy. {For a very few architects} ----------from a 93 year old Architect

Kevin Adkisson is an exuberant and knowledgable guide---as always. The exterior of this house is a kind of up-tight horror........let's refer to Adkisson's fine tour of Cranbrook in England. If only Kahn had the sense to go there and look at "Human Scale"....Proportion....careful rather than crude use of country historical style...if only. ES should have done the same but in the cause of "Grandeur" he forgot the roots of the "Handmade" Movement. ES, however knew how tro detail and how to put brick to brick to metal with verve and affection.....not very evident in the exterior of this house. Written by an old Arts and Crafts Architect. Thanks Kevin!

From an Architect / 93 years old /350 projects in 9 states and 4 foreign countries.......apprentice to Wallace Harrison....Victor Lundy.....Louis Kahn...just so you know where I am coming from. I admire ES as an Architect. I very much like his work in Finland and was overwhelmed by my visit to the Cranbrook site. More than this tour (which is great) I recall the masterful "Weaving" of the brick which is better in reality than in TV. There are however....sadly elements of Power---one might say Fascism (Breuer /Gropius / Mies were Fascists but just not Fascist enough for Hitler so they landed in the USA...........Wright was an avid Americas Firster (Fascist) and we all know about Alfred Speer..........and another famous American Architect (Philip Johnson a Hitler admirer).....but elements such as super collonades defeat the original intent which was rural England and esp. Chipping Camden and the genesis of the world-wide Arts and Crafts Movement. ES certainly knew how to put materials together....the best! But he like the others mentionerd seems to have lost his sense of "the little" or "the human scale. He seems to have been corrupted by America, a little. Of couse I am a little crude in my evaluation and may well recive needed correction and criticism. I just realised that I said and wrote most of above 50 years ago. Note #1: Add Le Corbusier to the list. What's wrong with these guys? Note #2: A mea culpa: After a lifetime of work (and a job just went to bid a few months ago) I conclude that the only honorable style ("Do No Harm") is American Arts and Crafts which incliudes Prarie Style. My hero is the author H.Allen Brooks, who I knew as a student and never appreciated until 30 years later. He is a cool head.I apologise profoundly to his ghost, wherever that may be. One grows wise with age.

LINDO PEINADO !!!

Super I'm just in the middle of restoring my vintage Saarinen table.. The example of the table you are showing is almost certainly a late cast aluminium bass, rather than the early cast iron version. Btw it's seriously windswept at your location😉

Thank- you - 🥰 Can you show the under side of the tulip chair please -is there a 'logo' ? Do they all swivel ? 'Prototype' chair is called ...?

I like that the kitchen is called a workspace. I think it emphasizes women's work.

Fantastic job @Colin Fanning tying together the theoretical and practical facets of Cranbrook's McCoy dynasty!

A great masterpiece!

I came here to learn about a mural that he painted in Kalamazoo MI, commissioned for a bank in 1951. The building was later demolished and I'm afraid the mural was lost. I saw this mural as a child, and have been unable to find a photograph of it. It depicted native americans and the origin story for the name for the kalamazoo river and the city.

The way you try to make cheap plastic more than what it is absolutely fascinating. I fell for the nostalgia I experienced a kid in college. And bought 2 of those trash chairs for nearly $10K.

Absolutely fantastic, thank you so much!

Omg I worked on this project and have been looking for it for ever! So glad I found it

I just discovered your wonderful video. I await my own Womb Chair, which I ordered in a wine-colored mohair. I have wanted this chair for years and years and soon I shall have it. Loved this history lesson in Saarinen and Florence. Most of the furniture in my apartment was designed by women. I do think there is a different aesthetic. But the Womb Chair seems to happily and beautifully support many different human shapes and sizes. I look forward to my first reading session and napping session when it arrives. Thank you!

Thank you; very enjoyable. I like the phrase "pure sculpture!"

amazing story telling. thank you !

Are you kidding!?

For the love of money.

The design for construction method developed by FLW seems similar to curtain wall construction. Slab or foundation is built and the structural load bearing skeleton is built. Afterwards, the roof is built creating a covered workshop to continue construction. After that the windows, non load bearing walls, and doors are installed.

I have a early womb chair with 804 stamped in black frame. Found it when redoing it

Beautifull presentation, i love your attention to detail conserving the history of this home

Lovely!💕💕💕

Thanks for this wonderful video tour !! Im a big fan and collector of Frank Koralewsky ironwork .

Thank you for this video I one day will visit your collections .

Awesome presentation. I was captivated.

Wright got on to the Cypress wood after a big Florida storm put a lot of it on the market. He bought it up and sold it to clients. By the time of this house, I suppose it was all gone

Great explanation of the owners and the process. FLW was truly a visionary and a national treasure.

How come you didn't mention what state its in?

Really poor video. You should never shoot an architectural video in portrait mode. And what's the super close ups of everything.

We have the Womb Settee. It took forever to arrive, but it was well worth it!

I’m so sorry I missed the lecture about the WPA mural, formerly at the Lincoln Park post office. I will plan to visit Beaver Island to see it. I would love to talk about Zepeshy’s work, esp. re. his paintings for the Michigan on Canvas exhibition. Also Doris Lee’s & the other 8 artists who were commissioned by the J.L.Hudson Co. to paint scenes all over Michigan. I am working on a project to locate those approximately 100 paintings that were sent out to Michigan museums, libraries, & other institutions.

I loved this :) Did you know that US guitar legend Duane Eddy traces his ancestry to Cranbrook, Kent? Did you know that Grammy winning New Orleans jazz pianist Jon Cleary is from Cranbrook, Kent? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gNyaadtyl5uVlZs.html Did you know that rapper Eminem insults your Cranbrook School in the film '8 Mile'?! You wouldn't know that in 1981 I went from Cranbrook School, in Kent, to your Cranbrook School, with our cross-country running team and the cross-country running team from Judd School, Tonbridge, Kent

5:52 I love this little design on the doorways.

😄😄😄 architects and their tastes…. A wet roof….. oh boy….. form should never come first, function should. Nevertheless, I am very fond of all the architectural works of Mr Wright.

Nice presentation of some really fine design. Thanks.

We have a video about the design story of Saarinen Pedestal Collection in our channel- " dEsign storytime". The Pedestal Collection video link is kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gteXkpem38vecYk.html Welcome to our channel for more design stories. @dEsignstorytime.

So spacious looking. Dealing with bank and builders is a definite issue because they will require compromises in the design of the house. On the other hand, there are design elements Wright's aren't practical enough (he was being true to his vision), like the flat roof, though it adds so much to the horizonal which, adds to the equanimity & the feeling that you can just relax into the moment. I wish, in a way, that he would come back to us and continue designing more homes. And I wish that he would have collaborated with women. That's where we can go into the future, learning from him and improving, rather than just idolizing and wanting to duplicate what he has achieved.

Thanks Kevin. I have been watching live at five for a couple of years and always enjoyed your content. This new format is so professional and a total joy to watch. Thanks for this wonderful story.

What a lovely video! Kevin, you are a national treasure and such a gift to the Cranbrook Community. Thank you!

Thank you, Kevin...that was outstanding. Your efforts continue to educate us on the Cranbrook story...a great story that each of our docents love to tell. Keep it up. Every little bit we learn, we're delighted to pass along to our guests.

Kevin, Polks, et. al,. Thank you for this. Through these videos, I am discovering so much more about the Cranbrook institutions than I was able to absorb, while attending there. I actually made a similar pilgrimage to Cranbrook, Kent, England many years ago. It was during a mad dash from Bath back to Heathrow. Completely unplanned. Needless to say, a foreigner's inquiries into the location, history, and activities of the local school were not well received at the pub I visited. I was only able to walk the graveyard at St. Dunstan's at dusk. I am sure the constabulary were not far behind. This video has provided the connection that I had hoped to establish then. ADIII (C'71)