Behind-the-Scenes Tour
The Bricks of Cranbrook
Sunday, June 22, 2025
1:00—2:30pm ET
3:00—4:30pm ET
Thursday, September 18, 2025
1:00—2:30pm ET
3:00—4:30pm ET
6:00—7:30pm ET
Cranbrook Art Museum
39221 Woodward Avenue
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
$40 per person
Limited to 18 guests per tour
Tours begin at Cranbrook Art Museum. Parking is available in the Art Museum parking lot. Please note that this is an exterior walking tour and will include stairs.
Presented by Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
Tour Leader
Kevin Adkisson, Curator, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
Join curator Kevin Adkisson on a deep dive into Cranbrook’s bricks. From geometric sidewalks and patterned walls to basket-woven barrel vaults and figural sculptures, the bricks of Cranbrook tell stories—of design innovation, unparalleled craftsmanship, and architectural vision. Learn how something as humble as a brick becomes unforgettable in the right hands. This walking tour of campus will highlight details of brickwork at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook School, and the Williams Natatorium.
ABOUT THE TOUR
Cranbrook embodies the creative potential of brick architecture. Made in brickyards as close to campus as Detroit and as far-afield as The Netherlands, a staggering variety of brick shapes, colors, and finishes were made-to-order for Cranbrook throughout the 20th century.
Cranbrook’s principal architect, Eliel Saarinen, was a master of brick design. His campus structures from the 1920s through the 1940s are almost all built of load-bearing brick walls. Using a variety of colors, sizes, manufacturing techniques, and bonds (how bricks are stacked together), Saarinen’s Cranbrook is a showcase of brick brilliance. Later architects, like Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, extended the tradition of creative brickwork at Cranbrook.
But the ubiquity of brick buildings can mask the material’s fascinating history and expressive potential. This tour will help open your eye to brick beauty.
Through the simple geometry of the rectangular brick, an endless array of creative structures and arresting designs can be created. The tour will touch on the history of bricks in architecture and outline the process of making a brick: procuring the clay, molding it into a form, and drying and firing the bricks.
The 90-minute walking tour will start and end at Cranbrook Art Museum, located at 39221 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304. Guests must be able to walk and stand throughout most of the tour. The tour will include walking outdoors between campus buildings and multiple sets of stairs. Please arrive 10 minutes in advance of your tour time to check in; you do not need to print your ticket.
ABOUT KEVIN ADKISSON
Curator for Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research Kevin Adkisson works on preservation, interpretation, and programming across the many buildings and treasures of Cranbrook. He presents a popular History of American Architecture Lecture Series each winter, and has curated a variety of exhibitions within Cranbrook House, Saarinen House, and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Smith House. A native of Marietta, Georgia, Adkisson has his BA in Architecture from Yale and his MA from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, with a thesis examining the role of postmodernism in shopping mall architecture.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
WHEN YOU ARRIVE
Free parking is available at Cranbrook Art Museum. Overflow parking is available a short distance away at the Cranbrook Institute of Science Parking Deck.
TOURS
The tours will be approximately 90 minutes long and will include walking across the campus and will include several steps and stairs. Many of the spaces are not ADA-accessible.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography is permitted on the tours for personal use only. No special equipment or tripods may be brought on the tours.
COATS AND BAGS
Only small wallets and handheld cameras are permitted on the tours. Please leave all backpacks, purses, camera bags, camera equipment, and other cumbersome items in vehicles. This policy was created for the security and protection of the items on the campus and in Cranbrook School.
REFUND POLICY
Tickets are non-refundable. Your ticket may be transferred to another participant for the tour on the same day and time as the original ticket.
INCLEMENT WEATHER
These late winter tours will take place rain, snow, or shine. Tours will be cancelled for inclement weather only if Cranbrook Art Museum closes to the public. Cranbrook Art Museum's closures will be posted on both the Center's and the Art Museum's websites. If a tour is cancelled, you will be contacted by the Center and your tour will be rescheduled or your fee will be refunded.
SERVICE ANIMAL POLICY
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research is glad to accomodate visitors accompanied by service animals, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on tours of buildings and spaces of the Cranbrook campus. Under the ADA, a "service animal" is defined as a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person's disability. Regretfully, we cannot accomodate visitors accompanied by emotional support animals or pets. Visitors who will be accompanied by service animals are welcome to call the Center at (248) 645-3307 in advance of their scheduled tour so that we may address any questions or concerns.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For additional information on the Center and its programs, email center@cranbrook.edu or call (248) 645-3307.
ABOUT CRANBROOK CENTER FOR COLLECTIONS AND RESEARCH
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research reveals the Cranbrook story and offers intellectual and experiential engagement with its legacy. By sustaining and interpreting the community's unparalleled landscape, architecture, collections, and archives, the Center provides memorable educational experiences and meaningful research opportunities for regional, national, and international audiences.
PHOTO CREDITS
Banner Image: Exterior brick detail, Williams Natatorium, Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School. Photographer Kevin Adkisson, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.
Archway looking toward Sunglitter (Carl Milles, 1918), Arts and Crafts Courtyard, Cranbrook Academy of Art. Photographer James Haefner. Courtesy Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.
Main entrance bench, Kingswood Campus, Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School. Photographer James Haefner. Courtesy Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.
Kevin Adkisson, September 2021. Photographer Katie Severson, CAA 2D Design 2022. Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.
Gable, Page Hall Dormitory, Cranbrook Campus, Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School. Photographer Kevin Adkisson, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.