Modernism in the Motor City

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Hello Again Everyone:

Today's the day I rant on about positive things in the City of Detroit, Michigan.  It's not all doom and gloom in the Motor City.  After all, how horrible can a city that gave the world The Temptations, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles be.  It's also home to the Detroit Art Institute which contains a magnificent mural by Diego Rivera celebrating Detroit's industrial history.  So it would stand to reason that the city's industrial heritage would foster great works of mid-century modern architecture that could rival Los Angeles' modernist history.  Humm, we'll see about that.  An upcoming symposium titled Michigan Modern (http://www.michiganmodern.org) slated for June 13-16 and a four-month exhibit (June 16-October 13) assembled by the Michigan State Office of Historic Preservation (http://www.michigan.gov/mshda) and the Cranbrook Art Museum (http://www.cranbrookart.edu/museum/) will highlight the work of one-time Michigan residents Albert Kahn, Minoru, Yamasaki, Eliel Saarinen, Charles and Rae Eames and the role they played in American Modern Architecture.

Mid-century American modernism has largely been associated with Los Angeles, a city who came of age in the post-World War II period.  In the meantime, car culture, high design homes, and Herman Miller furniture, along with the iconic Eames lounge chair and Cadillac fins all originated in Michigan.  "When it comes to modern design, Michigan often gets left out of the conversation," says exhibit project manager Amy Arnold.  Following World War II, the Cranbrook Academy of Art (http://www.cranbrookart.edu) in Bloomfield Hills under the guidance of Eliel Saarinen attracted some of the world's best artists and designers.  The design tradition of the booming automobile industry, the modernist principles of the University of Michigan College of Architecture, the innovative furniture design of Herman Miller, Inc, and the strong base pre-Modern work by Albert Kahn and Alden B. Dow provided an environment for modernism to flourish.
Notable modern designers and architects such as Charles and Rae Eames, Alexander Girard, George Nelson, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, and Minoru Yamasaki  all studied and worked in Michigan.  Michigan also contains resources by Saarinen and Thomas Church's General Motors Technical Center in Warren and Lafayette Park, cited by Dwell magazine as "the single largest collection of [Ludwig] Mies van de Rohe buildings in the world."

Michigan Modern will document the period between 1940 and 1970 and will identify Michigan-based artists, designers, architects that worked in the modernist mode by presenting their oral histories.  This would be great.  Imagine this, listening to the actual voices of Charles and Rae Eames as they talk about their design philosophy.  Additionally, the program will document the Michigan work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer.  Ten resources, not identified, will placed on the National Register of Historic Places which qualifies them for preservation tax credits.  The goal of the project is to change the perception of Michigan and feature the state's overlooked contribution to design, which has been as great as its contribution to manufacturing.  The hope is that the symposium and exhibit will inspire a new audience to learn about the wealth of design history and opportunity that Michigan has to offer.

The Michigan Modern symposium and exhibit are part of the greater goal to reclaim Michigan's place as a leader in international design.  The State Historic Preservation Office hope that when people hear the name "Michigan" they'll think "modern design" in the same way that the name "Hollywood" is synonymous with the film industry.  This all sounds promising but I can't help but asking what happens after the lights go down and everyone goes home?  How does this translate into bringing the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan back to some level of prominence?  What will happen to the unidentified resources once they're placed on the National Register? and what about the ones that don't make the register?  Who's deciding what get placed on the register and what are criteria?  They're real questions that will need an answer at some point.  I'm not saying that California has been so fantastic about historic preservation but at least we still have some of our modernist buildings and they're being used.  We'll what happens next in Michigan.