• April 8: Maryann Thompson (Maryann Thompson Architects, Watertown, MA)
• April 29: Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee (Johnston Marklee, Los Angeles, CA, and Cambridge, MA)
• May 6: Tod Williams (Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners, New York, NY)
• May 13: Níall McLaughlin (Níall McLaughlin Architects, London, England)

Hosted by Gregory Wittkopp, Director, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

$45 for Adults (Fee includes all four lectures)
Free for Cranbrook Faculty, Students, and Staff (Register by using your “Cranbrook.edu” email address)
Free for Full-time Students (Register by emailing center@cranbrook.edu)

Presented by Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

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Cranbrook is in the process of selecting an architect to design a new home for Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, including Cranbrook Archives. You are invited to join us as we learn more about the four firms under consideration and how their work aligns with the needs of the Center’s future.

The site for this ambitious project is adjacent to Cranbrook’s main public entrance on Woodward Avenue, just north of the Kingswood Campus. The site includes a home that the legendary Detroit architect Albert Kahn designed for a Detroit banker and his wife, Ralph and Mary Stone. Stonelea, as they named it, was home to four families before Cranbrook acquired it in 2003.

Stonelea will be renovated and expanded to accommodate not only the offices and workspaces of the Center staff, but also new public and student spaces, including a classroom and a gallery. Critically, the project includes a new building adjacent to the existing residence that will house a state-of-the-art vault for the 2.5 million documents that comprise the collections of Cranbrook Archives—a facility that makes these collections accessible to the Center’s audiences, whether they are active researchers, classroom students, or tour and event visitors.

ABOUT THE ARCHITECTS

The firm’s projects, which range in scale from large institutional buildings to small scale residential work, have garnered some fifty design awards, including two AIA National Honor Awards, numerous AIA New England Design Honor Awards, and BSA Honor Awards for Design Excellence. Their projects have been widely published in magazines including Architectural Record, Architectural Digest, the Boston Globe, Design New England, Boston Magazine, New England Home, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Art New England, Progressive Architecture, Architecture, and in various architectural books, including Norton’s A Guide to 250 Key Twentieth-Century American Buildings, 40 Under 40, and Contemporary American Architects.

Maryann Thompson was educated at Princeton University and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where she received a Master’s in Architecture and in Landscape Architecture. She taught design studios as a Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design from 2002 – 2017. She has also taught design as a visiting faculty member at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Virginia, University of Michigan, and Rice University. She founded Maryann Thompson Architects in 2000.

For more information on Maryann Thompson Architects, please explore their website.

Projects undertaken by Johnston Marklee are diverse in scale and type, spanning fourteen countries through North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Recent cultural projects have included the Menil Drawing Institute on the campus of the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas; a renovation of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; the first permanent home for the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program (ISP) at Roy Lichtenstein Studio in New York’s Greenwich Village; and the UCLA Graduate Art Studios campus in Culver City, California, a LEED Gold Project that included the adaptive reuse of a historic wallpaper factory.

Johnston Marklee has garnered notable awards including Progressive Architecture Awards, a Lafarge Holcim Award, National Awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Award for Excellence in Public Engagement with the Built Environment by the Society of Architectural Historians, and the Presidential Award for Emerging Practice by the AIA Los Angeles Chapter. In 2016, the team was honored with a USA Artists Fellowship Award. Johnston and Lee served as the Artistic Directors of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Both Johnston and Lee are Professors in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where Lee served as the Chair of the Department of Architecture from 2018 to 2023.

For more information on Johnston Marklee, please explore their website.

Some of their notable projects include the Asia Society Hong Kong, Lefrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park, and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Their current work includes the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, and the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, Chicago. Recent work also includes reimagining the public spaces for David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City and creating a cohesive campus at the Frederik Meijer Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids, MI. Williams and the firm’s work have been recognized by numerous citations including the 2019 Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association and the National Medal of Arts from President Obama.

In parallel with his practice, Tod Williams is a devoted participant in the broader cultural community with longstanding associations with many arts organizations. He is a Senior Trustee of Cranbrook Educational Community and a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome and has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy of Design, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Williams also maintains an active academic career and lectures worldwide. As an educator and practitioner, he is deeply committed to creating a better world through architecture .

For more information on Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners, please explore their website.

McLaughlin is Professor of Architectural Practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He was a visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles from 2012 – 2013 and was appointed Lord Norman Foster Visiting Professor of Architecture at Yale for 2014 – 2015.

For more information on Níall McLaughlin Architects, please explore their website.

ABOUT THE CENTER
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research is the newest of Cranbrook Educational Community’s five major Program Areas, which also include Cranbrook’s Schools, Academy of Art, Institute of Science, and Art Museum. Launched in 2012, the Center is responsible for stewarding and sharing Cranbrook’s 120-year story and offering intellectual engagement with Cranbrook’s legacy. The Center encompasses the management and curatorial leadership of Cranbrook’s campus-wide collection of Cultural Properties, historic architecture (most notably Cranbrook House, Saarinen House, and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Smith House), Cultural Heritage Areas, cultural landscapes, and Cranbrook Archives. By preserving and interpreting the Community’s unparalleled landscape, architecture, and collections, the Center provides memorable educational experiences and meaningful research opportunities for both internal and external audiences.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The Stonelea Architect Lecture Series is presented by Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research. The fee includes admission to all four lectures. Regretfully, discounted tickets cannot be sold to individual lectures although admission for individual lectures may be transferred to other guests by contacting the Center at least three days prior to a lecture.

Cranbrook Art Museum is accessed through Cranbrook’s main entrance at 39221 Woodward Avenue. Free parking is available on the east side of the Art Museum and in the parking deck located midway between Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook Institute of Science. Access to deSalle Auditorium will be through the Art Museum’s main entrance, on the east side of the Art Museum Peristyle. Attendees who would like access to the Art Museum’s barrier-free entrance (through the New Studios Buildings) will need to make advance arrangements with the Center the week before each lecture.

Cranbrook Art Museum
39221 Woodward Avenue
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48304

For additional information in advance of the lecture, please email center@cranbrook.edu or call the Center at 248.645.3307.

• register for lecture series