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Video and Slide Deck of Miller House and Garden Talk

The Ann Arbor District Library made a video of the recent presentation:

 

Quintessentially Modern—and Midwestern:
Landscape Typologies and Cultural Memes in the
Miller House and Garden, Columbus, Indiana
Peter Osler, speaker

 

 

You can watch the video here, courtesy of the Ann Arbor District Library.

 

 

Peter Osler made the slide deck he prepared available:

Download the slide deck here, courtesy of Peter Osler.

 

 

Miller House and Garden Talk

Miller House and Garden Talk

Quintessentially Modern—and Midwestern:

Landscape Typologies and Cultural Memes in the

Miller House and Garden, Columbus, Indiana

Peter Osler, speaker

 

Sunday, October 1, 2023
2:00 – 3:30 PM Eastern
Ann Arbor District Library Downtown
353 S. 5th Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48204
4th Floor Meeting Room
Admission is free, there is no need to register in advance

 

Long hailed as one the most iconic works of mid-20th-century American design, the J. Irwin and Xenia Miller residence (1957) is noted for its material and formal elegance. While the designers—and indeed, the client—for this project were of global importance in both reach and influence, Peter Osler, Architect and Site Designer, FAAR, will present a less common reading of this landmark, emphasizing its abstraction of familiar midwestern landscape typologies and cultural memes.

 

About the speaker: Peter Osler was born into a family with farmers on one side and an obscene number of architects on the other, and has spent his peripatetic adult life as a spatial practitioner and part time academician. He has lived in Ann Arbor—his birthplace, as well as that of his parents—for two-thirds of his life, but has also enjoyed stops in Bloomington, Indiana; Cambridge & Boston; San Francisco; Chicago; Champaign-Urbana; and Rome, Italy. He has taught at the University of Michigan (where he received his B.S. in Natural Resources and where he was Associate Professor of Practice at the Taubman College), the University of Illinois, the Escola Tecnica Superior d’Architectura in Barcelona (ETSAB), the Harvard Graduate School of Design (where he received his professional training in both landscape architecture and architecture), the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he directed the Master of Landscape Architecture Program for its first seven years, and most recently, Washington University, St Louis. He is currently developing a landscape design curriculum for the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, to improve both employment opportunities for, and the dignity of, its inmates and returning citizens. Osler’s academic interests are focused on modernist site planning and landscape materiality, especially plants as historical and cultural ciphers, their potential as a contemporary art medium, and their maintenance as an untapped source of poetics–a subject about which he has lectured widely, at venues such as the Arts Club of Chicago, the University of British Columbia, Ohio State University, and Harvard.
Professionally, he has worked in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design practices large and small, and as Campus Landscape Architect and Planner at the Cranbrook Educational Community. He works at a wide variety of landscape types and scales, both as a sole practitioner and in collaboration with larger firms. Recent completed projects range in scale from the outdoor spaces of Title Town in Green Bay, Wisconsin (in collaboration with Design Workshop), which won the Merit Award from state ASLA chapters of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Colorado, to sculptural stainless steel furniture for the Knight Wallace Journalism Fellowship program at the University of Michigan. His designs have been published in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and he has been an invited juror at universities throughout the U.S and in Europe. Having won the Rome Prize in landscape architecture, he is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.
Peter’s sister, Molly Osler, was a long-time a2modern board member until her passing in 2019.

The Kingswood School Cranbrook Tour Sponsored by a2modern of Ann Arbor

When: Saturday, March 18, 2023
Where: Cranbrook Educational Community, Bloomfield Hills
Program: Visit to the Collections Wing of the Cranbrook Art Museum
followed by a Visit to the Kingswood Building
Time: 3 hours, 1:00 to 4:00
Tour Leader: Kevin Adkisson, Curator of Cranbrook Collections
at The Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

 

The Collections Wing

The tour started in the Art Academy Museum with a welcome and introduction by Kevin Adkisson. Kevin covered the biographies of George G. Booth and Ellen S. Booth, Cranbrook’s founders, and the history of the community. Then it was on to the Collections Wing for our group of twenty.

Kevin introducing the tour on the lower level of the art museum

Kevin introducing the tour on the lower level of the art museum

On the way in, the group passed a niche framing a maquette of a figure titled “Precision Craftsmanship,” by Cranbrook Art Academy sculptor, Carl Milles. It was made for the great Hall of Progress in the General Motors building at the Chicago World’s Fair: Century of Progress, 1933. At the fair the worker would stand 16′ high on a pedestal 9′ high.

The workman inspects a connecting rod for possible imperfections

The workman inspects a connecting rod for possible imperfections

First Stop: Cranbrook Archives Reading Room, where architectural drawings, letters, inventory materials, and artifacts, such as a dress designed by Eva-Lisa “Pipsan” Saarinen, were on display around the room. The entire Saarinen family participated in the design and dressing of the Kingswood building. Eliel Saarinen conceived the building, including the leaded glass windows and the Green Lobby with its translucent Pewabic tiles. Loja Saarinen, Eliel’s wife, designed the textiles, such as the large curtains for the entrance doors, and curtains for the classroom, library and dormitory windows, carpet runners for the public corridors, and rugs and mats for the dormitory. Besides furniture, Eliel’s son, Eero, designed the ceiling light panel for the auditorium (this dome form was used again for his Irwin Union Bank & Trust building, in Columbus, IN), and Eliel’s daughter, Pipsan, designed the stenciling for the auditorium walls, the auditorium stage curtain, and the door panels for the private dining room above and visible from both the dining hall and the auditorium.

Saarinen drawing of Kingswood Green Lobby Area

On display in the Archives Reading Room: a part of Eliel Saarinen’s composite drawing of the Kingswood Green Lobby area. The detail featured here is the stairway to the headmistress’s office and administrative offices on the second level.

 

Drawing table lamps for Kingswood School

In this detail, a drawing of the base of a wooden desk lamp, designed by Eero Saarinen. At age 19, Eero was invited to design all the furniture, including for the auditorium, dining hall, offices, classrooms, public reception areas and dormitory. Also, there are two ceramic pieces by him.

 

 

Second Stop: Upstairs from the Archive Reading Room, in the Plaza Vault, Kevin had on display Eliel Saarinen designed furniture, silver, textiles and other artifacts. Saarinen designed flatware

This silver service was expressly designed for use in Saarinen House. Eliel Saarinen invented and patented the design for a short-bladed knife. According to Kevin, this particular silver pattern is still available for purchase.

Kevin Adkisson shows items from the Cranbrook Archives Plaza Vault

Kevin is explaining how the museum obtained from Finland the blond table and chair behind his head. They are originals from Eliel Saarinen’s Helsinki Railroad Station (1914). To the left: a Kingswood dining hall sideboard with silver service, ceramic place setting, and chair behind.

The Kingswood Building

Next Stop: Entrance to the auditorium/dining hall/dormitory block on the Kingswood Oval. The site of the large leaded glass window in the central block was, at first, going to be the main entrance to this wing, but later the entrance was moved to the left side where the columned porch provided sheltered access.

Kingswood School showing main entrance

Note the stacking motif on the chimneys. The distant one is for the house for the first headmistress.

 

 

Kingswood School under columned porch

The columned porch spans the south wall of the Kingswood dining hall. The photo is taken standing at the entrance doorway.

 

To replace the original entrance porch, Eliel Saarinen designed this magnificent leaded glass window featuring the stacking motif characteristic throughout the Kingswood building.

Window Tracery

The large window illuminates the waiting area inside the entrance doors to the right.

The Kingswood Dining Hall, with tables and chairs, the Queen of the May tapestry on the wall, and leaded glass clerestory windows. Note the two aluminum torchiers flanking the tapestry.

Kingswood School dining hall

 

Across from the Dining Hall, the Kingswood Auditorium expands the space to accommodate very large groups that can circulate from one to the other. When preferred, both dining hall and auditorium spaces can be sealed off by means of heavy, leaded glass pocket doors.

Kingswood School auditorium

Note Pipsan’s stenciled stage curtain and Eero’s ceiling light panel with 40 domed light fixtures.

The Green Lobby is the ceremonial reception area for Kingswood, with the Dean’s office to the right, and access to the library wing behind. The Green Lobby space divides the dining hall/auditorium/dormitory area, to the right, from the classroom area, to the left.

Kingswood School Green Lobby looking toward entrance doors

The room pictured below is in the study hall wing, part of the classroom area arrayed around the Diana Courtyard. This room is now an informal gathering space in the Kingswood library.

Kingswood School library

Our Last Stop: The Kingswood Weaving Studio. Established by Loja Saarinen when the school opened in 1931, this room affirms that the arts remain a central element in a Cranbrook education. There are 60 looms in use today. Kevin had ready for us a newly finished weaving (rather reweaving) of a Loja Saarinen design for Saarinen House. This curtain panel took 4 months to weave and was funded by a grant from Finlandia Foundation National and donors to the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research’s 2022 “House Party” fundraiser. It was woven by Cranbrook alumnae, Paula Stebbins Becker (Cranbrook Academy of Art Fiber Department 1993) and Sim Rosseau (Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School 2017).

Reweaving of a Lola Saarinen design for Saarinen House

Here Kevin is unwrapping and holding it up for display. The curtain panel was woven on a Cranbrook loom, especially designed at Cranbrook for use by Studio Loja Saarinen.
The weaving studio exits onto the great entrance porch across from the Green Lobby. When the group spilled out onto the entrance porch, the sky was blue and the sun was shining even as a light squall filled up the Diana Courtyard with swirling snow. It was a scene from Fellini, for sure, and an appropriate conclusion for this magical experience conducted by Kevin Adkisson, The Man Who Knows.

Kingswood School courtyard

Note the stacking motif in the chimney and in the borders of the walkway in the direction of the Diana Fountain, pedestal and basin. The tawny porch column and base to the right or carved from Mankato stone.

Photos courtesy of Susan Wineberg and Jeffrey Welch.
Text and layout by Jeffrey Welch

The Return of Walking Tours!

Buy Tickets Here

 

 

Mark your calendars for our fall walking tour on September 18 at 1 p.m., starting at the corner of Devonshire and Heather Way. We will look at the exteriors of a variety of midcentury modern homes designed by local architects including Robert Metcalf, David Osler, Herb Johe, William Muschenheim, Joe Albano, Edward Olencki, Thomas Tanner, and Walter Sanders. We will also see an example of famous Midland architect Alden Dow.

 

The cost of the walk will be $15.00 per person. Follow this link for tickets.

 

If it rains, we will walk the following Sunday, at the same time.

Kainlauri Open House

EINO + GENEVIEVE KAINLAURI /CATHY WARD + WALLY GAUTHIER HOME

2255 BLUEBERRY LANE / OPEN HOUSE: SUNDAY MARCH 15

Buy Tickets Here

 

The homes that architects build for themselves and their families are always of special interest, as is this home designed by Eino Kainlauri in 1962. It follows the principles of midcentury style with wonderful siting on a 1.5 acre forested lot. There are large windows framing wooded views, an open floor plan, and natural materials. The exterior is cedar and brick, while inside is found Vermont slate entries, sandstone fireplace, walnut paneling, and red oak floors. The original walnut kitchen cabinets have been repurposed for storage.

Kainlauri was born in Finland in 1922. After serving as an officer in WWII, he studied engineering and architecture at Helsinki University. He came to Ann Arbor in 1947 on a Regent’s scholarship and received his Bachelor of Architecture from U of M in 1949. He planned to go on to a Masters at Cranbrook with his friend and fellow countryman Eliel Saarinen. Unfortunately, Mr. Saarinen died before he could enroll, so he earned his master’s in architecture at the University of Michigan. He stayed and worked for local architect Paul Kasurin, before forming his own firm of Kainlauri, MacMullan and Millman. During his 20 years of practice, Kainlauri was the architect for 73 schools, 45 churches, numerous commercial and public buildings. These included the Free Methodist Church on Newport Road, Abbot Elementary School, and the house next door to this one. Kainlauri left Ann Arbor in 1975 after accepting a teaching job at Iowa State University.


The house he designed for his family is an L-shape built around a pool on the non-street side, with the woods beyond. His daughter, Mary Ann Shao, remembers “it was wonderful to live in our house in the woods! We enjoyed the spring trilliums and May apples in the spring, summers at the pool, the beauty of the fall colors, and cross country skiing in the fields beyond the tree line in the winter.”


The house is positioned to take advantage of viewing of wildlife, seasonal color changes, and variations of light during the seasons, day and night. The bedrooms view sunrise, the family room receives full afternoon winter sun for solar gain, and the street side has sunset views. The family room overhangs limit solar gain in the summer. The moon crosses the living/dining areas. The public rooms and master bedroom are on the part facing street and rest on a concrete slab. The perpendicular part holds three more bedrooms and a bath resting on prestressed concrete planks over a basement that also served as a bomb shelter. (Remember it was built in 1962 by a sworn enemy of the Soviets). A large sunporch section along the bedroom hall was enclosed by subsequent owners to afford more living space.


Cathy and Wally have lived in the house since 1989 and are the fourth and longest tenured owners. They have honored the original layout and materials. Their biggest changes have been to make the house more livable by opening up the kitchen to the living room, updating the kitchen and bathrooms, replacing the side porch wall to better match the rest of the home’s window walls, extending summer living and dining with a large deck between the kitchen and pool, and making the former bomb shelter into a pleasant recreation area with a half bath.

A Tribute to Molly Osler

Molly Osler, member of the a2Modern Board, died on November 22, 2019 at age 67.  We will miss her both as an important member of our group and as a good friend.  Molly grew up knowing firsthand about midcentury architecture as the daughter of David Osler, a major architect in the field. After she trained as an interior designer, she often worked with her father on his projects.  She was a storehouse of information about her father’s work and other architects of the era.   She was instrumental in arranging for open houses in her father’s projects including Oslund Condominiums, the Osler office, and the Mundus home. 

     –  the a2Modern Board Members: David Deromedi, Jim Elert, Linda Elert, Christine Goodale, John Mirsky, Grace Shackman, Jeffrey Welch, Susan Wineberg, and Fran Wright

 

Jeffrey and Christine have written the below remembrance of their relationship with Molly:

We got to know the artist Molly Osler at her Washtenaw Community College class on Interior Decoration. She presented a project on Long Island, the remodeling of a house done in collaboration with her architect sister, Robin. Molly wore her expertise and her aesthetic like a familiar but elegant cloak. It was this experience that led us to invite her to help us with a remodeling project of our own.

The Osler name was familiar to us, as landscape architect Peter Osler had carried out projects at Cranbrook while we were teachers there. He supervised the restoration of the Triton Pools (part of the Europa and the Bull Fountain) and he regraded the mall area between the Orpheus Fountain and the new Williams Natatorium to create an elegant turnaround for the school busses and vehicle traffic in the vicinity of Friendship Circle.

There was also the Molly Osler A2Modern board member, who seemed to know everyone in town. At the meetings she liked to listen, and then ratify, and if a call needed to be made or a connection followed up, she was right there to volunteer her aid. She was away from Ann Arbor for a time, working at SOM (Skidmore Owings and Merrill) in Chicago and San Francisco, but she had returned to Ann Arbor and for a long time looked after her mother. The A2Modern group took a tour of the Kingswood building at Cranbrook in 2017, and it was altogether delightful when Molly brought everyone to her room in the Kingswood dorm, where everything (furniture, arrangements, curtains, carpets, and colors) had stayed just as it had been. She talked about having such freedom at such a young age. She had been sent to Kingswood for one year when the new Huron High School project completion date was delayed.

Molly’s deep interest in her family history embraced not only her father David Osler’s career in Ann Arbor but also her desire to know more about “Grandfather” and “Uncle George.” “Grandfather” was Emil Lorch, the dynamic leader (and founder) of the Department of Architecture at the university from 1906 to 1936. He built the department from scratch and ended his career, having designed and built the building that bears his name, as Dean of the School of Architecture. “Uncle George” was George Grant Elmslie, brother of Molly’s grandmother Jemima Elmslie. Emil Lorch and “Myma” Elmslie met in Chicago in 1899 when Emil Lorch became assistant director at the Art Museum of Chicago School of Art. They became engaged in 1901 and married in August 1906 after he was hired at the university. George Elmslie was brought into the Chicago firm Adler and Sullivan by Frank Lloyd Wright. George Elmslie stayed with Louis Sullivan, leaving in 1909 to form a famous partnership with William Purcell and practicing in Minneapolis. In 1909, at the time Frank Lloyd Wright planned to travel to Europe, George Elmslie declined the invitation to take over Frank Lloyd Wright’s practice. Some of this material was published in the Awards Issue #3, by the Huron Valley Chapter of The American Institute of Architects on October 30, just in time for Molly to see the essay in print. She had provided key photographs, drawings and artefacts to illustrate the essay. It greatly pleased her to see proper recognition being paid to these members of her family.

Molly Osler brought a highly professional outlook and executive process of decision-making to the table. Her knowledge, experience and celebrity added glamor to the things she did and the circles she frequented. She brought beauty to the world. The memory of her will be a sweet one, her pixie smile, a lightly gravelly voice, witty ironic commentary and a love of her family and her town, Ann Arbor.

Open House at Hammett Designed Home

a2modern is hosting an open house on Sunday, July 21st at the home of Margaret Leary and Russ Serbay. Their home is at 1056 Newport Road just north of Miller Avenue.

When Ralph Hammett designed the Newport house in 1942, there were very few Mid-Century Modern houses in town to model on and World War II was in progress so it was hard to get materials, as most were needed for the war effort. However, he was well versed in MCM principles and did a wonderful job of siting the house on the two and a half acre former farm land and creating a home with large windows well placed for maximum sunlight and built-in furniture to make it look less cluttered. He was able to use recycled materials, including a support beam and other wood from the First Methodist Church who were replacing their 1866 church with a new one.

The next year Hammett joined the Monument Men, saving Europe’s art treasures from war devastation. After the war he resumed teaching at U-M and became a nationally recognized expert on modern church architecture, spending his sabbatical year in Europe studying their modern churches. He built three churches in Ann Arbor – Lord of Light Lutheran Church, Northside Community Church, and Trinity Lutheran, of which he was a member. He designed additions for St. Andrews, first Congregational, and also for the City Club (then the Woman’s City Club).

Hammett was also interested in historic architecture. When he came to town he and his family lived in the 1842 Guy Beckley house, which he spent years restoring. He oversaw the restoration of Kempf House after the city bought it in the 1950s. Meanwhile, in 1957 he built an ultra-modern house for his family at 485 Riverview.

The house was built by Dr. Ruth Cecelia Wanstrom. She retired in 1958 and sold the house to Alfred H. Stockard, head of the UM Biological Station on Douglas Lake. Margaret Leary bought the house from Stockard’s widow. They have kept or restored the original features including bathroom tile, wooden kitchen cabinets, and marble window sills. They enlisted the help of Mary Jane Williamson, interior designer for Gunner Birkerts, who Margaret, now retired as head of the Law Library, met when she was working on the Birkert-designed Law School addition, to help with paint colors and furniture selection. Russ, an architect with Hobbs and Black, designed an addition over the garage that creates a luxurious master bedroom and bathroom.

Tickets can be purchased here. Parking is on the opposite side of the street. After the inside tour, people are welcome to wander in the gardens around the house.

Crane House Tours

On June 29th, a2modern will be hosting tours of the Crane House. Built for Florence and Richard Crane in 1954, it was the first commission for Ann Arbor architect Robert Metcalf, who went on to design over 60 midcentury modern homes in the area.

Considered a novelty at the time, the Crane House immediately attracted the attention of neighbors, journalists, and Dr. Crane’s colleagues at the physics department, who soon supplied Metcalf with additional commissions.

The house is built into a hillside with expansive dining and living room windows facing south from the second floor. Behind the house to the north the second floor is at ground level and leads through sliding glass doors to a private, trellised patio.

Metcalf worked closely with the Cranes to provide them with a beautiful, functional home. One requirement was that the house be designed so that the three teenage children would have a place to play music and entertain their friends without bothering their parents. The second floor master bedroom, located at the western end of the house, included a built-in desk and a dressing area for Florence. The children’s three bedrooms were placed at the eastern end of the house. The central area of the second floor included the kitchen, dining and living areas.

Florence Crane was Ann Arbor’s first female City Council member and was politically active at the local, state and national levels. Richard Crane interacted with other notable scientists including Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Edwin Hubble, and was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan. Many of the original science displays at the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum were designed and built by Dick Crane.The common areas were accordingly designed for frequent social interactions. Friends, neighbors, and visiting dignitaries enjoyed the modern open floor plan, the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the comfortable family setting. Robert McNamara and other local intellectuals joined Florence here for her book club meetings.

In 2012 the Elerts acquired the house and started an extensive restoration effort. The updates include a kitchen remodel (approved by Metcalf), all new windows, landscape improvements, a new geothermal HVAC system, a new roof, and a new back patio.They were awarded a Rehabilitation Award by the Ann Arbor Historic District Commission in 2018. The Crane House recently appeared in Michigan Modern, Designs that Shaped America by Amy Arnold and Brian Conway. The Elerts enjoy hosting tours for architect students from the University, and home tours by various local and national organizations.

The main entrance on the first floor, which contains the garage, utility room, family room, and study are joined to the main living area by a graceful foyer which leads to a redwood paneled hallway. The hallway connects the second floor living areas which open from it to the higher ceilinged rooms and to the private patio behind the house.

Tickets can be purchased at a2modern.myevents.com.