Cranbrook Academy of Art intends to pause admission to the Architecture program for Fall of 2021 as the institution embarks on “an ambitious plan to reimagine the Architecture department at the Academy”. In a letter to alumni (copied at the bottom of this article), Cranbrook Educational Community President Dominic DiMarco, who oversees the entire institution (which includes the graduate-level Art Academy, private K-12 Boys and Girls Schools, Art Museum, Institute of Science, and historic houses, campus, and grounds), explains that while the Class of 2022 Architecture students will be able to complete their degrees on schedule, they will not be admitting a new class at this time.
The goal is to ensure the new department is reflective of the evolving architecture and design environment, and that we are offering our students what they are seeking in multidisciplinary learning.” – Letter From the President’s Office, Cranbrook Educational Community
The Cranbrook Master of Architecture is a non-accredited degree, which means program graduates cannot become licensed unless they have an accredited degree from elsewhere or live in one of a handful of states that accept alternative experience instead of an MArch. But as the definition of “architectural practice” continues to become more fuzzy around the edges, including related design areas such as products, immersive environments, landscapes and urbanism, and supply chain optimization, it’s not a stretch to ask whether the professional degree and licensure is still appropriate as a gateway to pursuing a meaningful and successful life in architecture.
Ted Galante, of The Galante Architecture Studio, contacted me shortly after we both received the President's letter. We are both Cranbrook architecture alumni, (’95 MArch) and my first reaction upon hearing the news that the program is being “reimagined” was excitement. The discipline – both practice and theory - has changed vastly in the 26 years since I completed the program, as has the global community at large. If we architects are going to be part of solving complex problems like global climate change and racial-economic inequities, the world needs designers who can reimagine entire systems of extraction, distribution, and consumer relationships. Opportunities for collaboration across disciplines have always been a hallmark of the Cranbrook Artist-in-Residence model, and have become important, and fashionable, in most higher education programs recently. Most of these collaborative pursuits, however, are birthed in the world of monetization and consumption, not in the world of art.
If we architects are going to be part of solving complex problems like global climate change and racial-economic inequities, the world needs designers who can reimagine entire systems of extraction, distribution, and consumer relationships
The Eliel Saarinen-designed Cranbrook campus is integral to the education of architects, artists, even private school boys like Mitt Romney and Todd Williams FAIA. A National Historic Landmark, the entire campus is a celebration of the joy of handcraft; every brick, every leaded glass came, every bronze figural sculpture and handwoven rug sings the song of beauty and possibility from the hands of a skilled craftsperson. It is not exaggeration to say that Cranbrook educates through physical making, especially in the architecture department. In our world of increasing digital isolation, the romance of materials may be making a comeback. This is an opportune moment for a reimagined Architecture Department program that, to paraphrase former Architect-in-Residence Dan Hoffman, cleaves together the orbits of two opposing stars: the bright star of technology and the dark star of philosophy. I’m optimistic.
Text of the letter below...
Cranbrook Academy of Art Alumni,
I hope you are safe and well.
The entire Cranbrook Educational Community remains in awe of the work at the Academy of Art to remain a beacon amid challenging times. Unlike many other schools, we were able to open our doors and provide students with an in-person learning experience this year due to the dedication of our Artists-in-Residence and staff, and I am extremely proud of their efforts. I have been especially impressed with how they quickly pivoted to move their reviews and critiques online, while continuing to bring in engaging voices from around the world for critical discussions.
We look forward to an exciting spring and summer as we prepare for commencement, our STUDIO fundraiser, the 2021 Graduate Degree Exhibition at Cranbrook Art Museum, and the 2020 Graduate Degree Exhibition at Wasserman Projects. We also look forward to the With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932 exhibition opening at Cranbrook Art Museum in June, which is the largest examination of the Academy since the 1983 exhibition, Design in America.
As we also prepare for the fall of 2021 and beyond, I have a few announcements that I wanted to share with you directly.
As you know, Susan Ewing is retiring in June and we will soon launch a national search for a new Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum. We will contract with a search firm to look for a Director who both respects the past of our institution, but also has an inspirational vision for its future. We will also appoint an interim Dean at the Academy very soon and will share details regarding that appointment in the coming weeks.
In other news, Architect-in-Residence Gretchen Wilkins will undertake an ambitious plan to reimagine the Architecture department at the Academy. As a result, we will pause our admission to the Architecture department for the fall of 2021. Our Class of 2022 students will still move through the program toward graduation, but we will not be admitting a new class at this time.
Gretchen will be working with the other departments on campus to create a new program that will prepare our graduates for a changing architectural landscape. The goal is to ensure the new department is reflective of the evolving architecture and design environment, and that we are offering our students what they are seeking in multidisciplinary learning.
Innovation is what Cranbrook does best. We are embracing these dynamic times, listening to our students, and moving forward to protect our position as a world-class leader in art, architecture, craft, and design. The pioneering legacy of Architecture is a hallmark of Cranbrook and we are intent on preserving, and building upon, that legacy at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Thank you, as always, for your support and feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.
Dominic DiMarco
President
Cranbrook Educational Community
I'm had lots of messages from Cranbrook alumni about this topic recently. Maybe some of them will weigh in here.
Maybe it's becuase I graduated from Cranbrook's program, or maybe I graduated from Cranrbook's program because of this, but my strongest beleif about architecture is that it's a material practice. Paper architecture/drawings are fine, and beautiful in themselves, but the work we do *is* entirely about the physical world. My hope is that whatever focus the reimagined Cranbrook program takes that making, buidling, materials will not leave the curriculum.
We just recently had a forum question asking how to learn how buildings are put together. Building a wall of CMUs that are then printed with the phototgrpah of each block being palced in the wall (A Wall, Dan Hoffman) might not teach you how to put together a flashing detail, but it teaches one a lot about weight, tolerances, labor, and longevity.
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I'm had lots of messages from Cranbrook alumni about this topic recently. Maybe some of them will weigh in here.
Maybe it's becuase I graduated from Cranbrook's program, or maybe I graduated from Cranrbook's program because of this, but my strongest beleif about architecture is that it's a material practice. Paper architecture/drawings are fine, and beautiful in themselves, but the work we do *is* entirely about the physical world. My hope is that whatever focus the reimagined Cranbrook program takes that making, buidling, materials will not leave the curriculum.
We just recently had a forum question asking how to learn how buildings are put together. Building a wall of CMUs that are then printed with the phototgrpah of each block being palced in the wall (A Wall, Dan Hoffman) might not teach you how to put together a flashing detail, but it teaches one a lot about weight, tolerances, labor, and longevity.
The original response to the President's letter...
February 17, 2021
Dominic DiMarco President Cranbrook Educational Community
RE: The demise of making as thinking
To the Cranbrook Educational Community:
I was saddened to read the following paragraph in the President’s letter today.
“In other news, Architect-in-Residence Gretchen Wilkins will undertake an ambitious plan to reimagine the Architecture department at the Academy. As a result, we will pause our admission to the Architecture department for the fall of 2021. Our Class of 2022 students will still move through the program toward graduation, but we will not be admitting a new class at this time.”
Perhaps I should allow more time for this to percolate, but it seems time is of the essence. I am saddened, but not shocked.
Personally, Cranbrook shaped the very soul of our architecture practice. It is the place that contoured my eyes to help me understand connections and separations between the discipline of architecture and profession of architecture – for they are two distinct pursuits with occasion for meeting at tangents given the right circumstances. It is one of the seminal places that shaped how I visualize, think, and work today. It’s DNA will forever be part of me and I was able to leave behind significant imprints by building on campus including; construction of the trellis bridge, having key roles in the entry feature, the arrival plaza, the Brookside school, and quietly the science center. It took some effort to leave the place, but I brought as much with me as my soul could carry.
However, I do admit leaving the gates leaves a gap for alumni that perhaps the academy just simply doesn’t realize. There is a clear lack of connection and Inquiry into exploits of graduates and each seems left to fend for themselves. There seems a resistance to invite back, contact, or support either architecture or art school graduates in any way. Occasionally there is follow on or news about one or another graduate, but only after a certain level of notoriety. Rarely do I hear of other architecture graduates from the academy. There have been a few tangential connections over the years when asked to host (and fund) a group coming to my area, or an occasional pitch for alumni donations, but other than that, the message seems to be...once out of the gates the wings you built are yours and not ours. Let us know when you’d like to send money…thus it does not shock me that the department of architecture is struggling.
There are also, it seems to me, much more academic reasons for this darkening of a once bright light.
Making as a means of thinking
It could be argued that the Daniel Libeskind era was a push against the norms of modern architecture and that 90 degrees was no longer considered a primary angle (Libeskind’s words). This era was a rebirth of the architecture program at Cranbrook and a direct descendant of John Hedjuk’s Cooper Union where Libeskind hailed. It seemed a new resurgence of exploration at a time when both the practice and the discipline of architecture was struggling. Out of the tiny Midwest came work that shuddered the architecture world in many ways. It was one vortex among a few, but clearly it’s impact went on for generations - and arguably still does today. Students at the time developed a body of work that questioned the foundations of architecture, and arguably interconnected those foundations with the art world in a way that only Cranbrook can allow. That set of questions evolved under Dan Hoffman and those who followed pressing further into what the limits of architecture might be. Full scale making as a way of thinking suppressed architectural representation completely (and brought with it greater risks of failure).
This “being in the world” way of making brings about leaps in conceptual thinking. When operating in this way, real time details and deep material understanding became essential to an architectural project’s survival. The architect is laid vulnerable much like the painter, printmaker, or sculptor. In retrospect, this seemed on a direct collision course with continued digitization of the profession, and asked for the material pursuits to become their own discipline rather than part of the profession. As the likes of Libeskind, perhaps Jesse Riser and others took their discipline and turned it into a stylistic way of making buildings, impacts from the academy seemed more a professional achievement goal verses a way of living with material in the studio and the world.
For me, at the ends of an architect’s hands are where are the materials finally lay. When the person is gone, the building stands, hopefully for ages. The education of an architect must include material pursuits otherwise how would an architect know the rusting capacity of steel, how easy aluminum can bend, the smell of concrete, or the pliability of wood? Cranbrook’s history is built on such ideas and obvious examples come from Eames and Sarinaan’s. Had they not known material, much of today’s “icons” would not be in place for the world to experience.
Cranbrook is one of the last places in the United States (on earth?) where is this kind of architectural education can happen. The Academy must present itself to the world not only as a maker space, but as the foremost exploratory maker space. It is one place on earth that allows a student to pursue ideas that shape their souls in ways a computer simply cannot. The academy must find ways to inspire undergraduate students to take their digital undergraduate skills, drop their phones, and explore the discipline of architecture with their hands. The profession asks us to design buildings, the discipline asks us to explore ideas about buildings and Cranbrook asks us to do that with our hands, our eyes, and our minds. It is not for architects to use their hands to make buildings in future, but to use haptic knowledge to direct the hands of others. Ours is to guide the metalsmith to fold metal in a way that allows the standing seam of a building to be properly capped and create a minimal shadow line. This kind of understanding allows one to master design, master building, master visual communication of an idea embedded in the object they are going to leave behind. Without this knowledge the building risks becoming yet another standardized system defined by the construction industry and not informed by the discipline of architecture.
These are fragments of my experience after leaving the academy in 1993. And here I would emphasize “leaving”. Perhaps it’s too much of an ask, but the academy chooses to be an island free from its graduates. Perhaps a more integrated approach that involves less asking for support, but instead nurturing mutual support that helps the place and its graduates grow and advance will ultimately make everyone stronger.
Many options come to mind. One simple version is to review, critique, post, and even publish the work of its graduates in a way that promotes not only their smaller, less famous accomplishments, but the academy overall. What might a monograph of the academy look like right now? What buildings have the architecture graduates designed, built, or influenced in some significant way? How does the interdisciplinary nature of studying at an art academy impact the design work, and how can that be illustrated in a monograph. How can that book become required reading for undergraduate students so they can learn about an option such as Cranbrook. With so much emphasis on MBA degrees, what can the academy do to inspire undergraduate students to understand money is one path, disciplined passion for architecture is another.
Instead of asking how much money can you send, the academy might ask its graduates from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s what can the academy do for your pursuit of architecture? How can the academy support its graduates so the graduates can support the academy, and how can this mutual system inspire future students? What do you see for the next generation of architecture students? What are the contours of architectural education at Cranbrook and how might they evolve to feed the discipline and the profession so that in the end, better ideas, buildings, and design in general continues to emanate from that place? A first step might be asking what have you been up to and how did the academy influence your thinking.
With sincere regards for the pursuit of architecture,
Ted Galante, March ‘93
The Galante Architecture Studio Inc
"...it’s not a stretch to ask whether the professional degree and licensure is still appropriate as a gateway to pursuing a meaningful and successful life in architecture."
Preach it.
Excellent. The tradition of architectural education as taught in the top schools has been irrelevent for decades.
Miles I'm guessing that by "top schools" you mean ivies bringing in a starchitect to "teach" for a semester?
To quote from Ted's excellent letter above: The education of an architect must include material pursuits otherwise how would an architect know the rusting capacity of steel, how easy aluminum can bend, the smell of concrete, or the pliability of wood? Cranbrook’s history is built on such ideas and obvious examples come from Eames and Sarinaan’s. Had they not known material, much of today’s “icons” would not be in place for the world to experience.
Bold above is mine, and if anyone might doubt this skill I invite them to look at the way the standing seam slides under the roof cap on Galante Studio's Boston EMS buidling. This detailing - based on knowledge found in material experimentation - gives me a sense of universal calmness. It's so right.
At 70, looking back my Finnish background living in the Aalto Designed Campus in Otaniemi, working in photography, being a sound engineer with he Rolling Stones, and then giving that up to Study architecture in London, (they kept using me for 3 years part time financing my studies also) - but I entered NELP, a low key college in London, but they had revamped the curriculum totally. I was accepted to AA in London the following year but I turned it down.
We were taught GREEN from the first second, which did not take away any of the creativity...but they also had a method of doing fast 4 to 6 week studios where we first studied the the project types on field as much as in the central London Library. So we had contact with users, and the cutting edge that we then presented to the glass as a small group. I had the advantage that if there was a recording with the mobile studio somewhere in Europe I flew there and saw 'the things but done differently due to local culture' which inspired me tremendously.
The following two 1/2 years in Ball State university was enhanced due to my internship with SOM, in Chicago. On my thesis research on greyhound on Eastern USA,I ended up in New York, and got a job by intervening key interests.
I lucked out to work with Edward Barnes who though architect ONLY straight out of college. He said that was the only way avoiding bad habits in other offices.
After trying to spring out on my own - with the best thing having done a major concert hall competition, got me back into office working with Philip Johnson as principal designer for 6 years (and then went bust 1992)
I think the UK teaching was by far the most interesting, Barnes, Johnson and Steven Holl good follow ups. The only thing we learn too late is how to market our skills... and finance.
In New York one could grow with the best of times with Architecture League and being able to hear the most fantastic presentations at Peter Eisenman founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies.
What I would hope that students are not shut from society but DRAW from society.
My sons are called Eero and Eliel
Thanks for this article and the comments as I always associated Cranbrook with this:
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