THE HISTORY OF QUEEN ANNE ARCHITECTURE

The Hutchinson House 1903 (rear view) Ypsilanti, MI

I love the "Queen Anne" style homes and one of my friends on facebook loves the "Victorians". I thought Queen Anne homes were Victorians and indeed they are from Queen Victoria's time. But they have much more history and I thought I'd share some of that with you today..

The Hutchinson House is in Ypsilanti Michigan and has quite a story behind that building as well. I once worked there and I actually held a candle party in it! The party was quite successful as the invitees bought candles just so they could visit the home. Good idea.

1899 Queen Anne Asheville NC

What is the Difference between Queen Anne and Victorian houses?

A Queen Anne home -- one of many styles classified under the broad heading of Victorian -- was built primarily during the latter part of Queen Victoria's reign from 1870 to 1910.

As the last Presbyterian Stuart who held the throne, Queen Anne reigned 135 years before Queen Victoria. Even though a well-known furniture style that developed during her reign has her name, it would be more than 150 years before she had an architectural style named after her. The decor style is specifically known for its complex, ornamental curvilinear turrets and towers, and steeply pitched roofs.

Eureka California

The home most people think of when they imagine or see a Victorian home is actually a Queen Anne home. Typically outfitted with a turret or tower, the home often has wrap-around porches and is made from brick, wood or stone, many with clapboard siding.

The Queen Anne style is known for its graceful curves and paneled insets. Look for angled bay windows, steeply pitched roofs with finials, stained glass, and handcrafted chimneys.

Asymmetry. Towers, turrets, bays, porches, and roofline break the box. Roofs and massing are often complex.

Texture. Surfaces are broken by a switch from stone or clapboard to shingles, often with fancy-cut butts. Belt courses, gable ornament, turnings, brackets, balustrades, and sawn-wood “gingerbread” keep it interesting. (Polychrome painting plays up surface texture even more.)

Wood trim. Sawn, chamfered, carved, lathe-turned, and applied ornament is used on porches, gables, cornices, and story breaks.

Other features include patterned shingles, decorative trim, and intricate spindles, banisters and staircases. Queen Anne homes have a storybook quality to them.

Choosing Queen Anne/Victorian paint colors

The History of Queen Anne, Victorian-Architecture Style

Despite roots in the English “Queen Anne Movement”—a return to early, vernacular architecture—it is here a peculiarly American style in its mass-produced ornamentation (including “gingerbread”) and lavish use of wood.

The Northeast, already heavily populated in the 1880s, has comparatively fewer examples that you might expect. Go south and west, however, and the style becomes more popular and more fanciful. The West Coast and resurgent areas of the New South have the most dizzying examples.

HISTORY OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE: CRANBOOK SERIES

The 75-minute, image-based lectures will survey four centuries of American architecture, focusing on the arc of modernism from the late 19th century to the present day. By examining the evolution of six building types, attendees will come to more fully understand and analyze the built landscape we live in every day. All levels of architecture knowledge are welcome.

Lectures will introduce major themes and theories that have shaped American architecture, along with significant individual projects and their architects. The course will analyze both the icons of architecture history and introduce you to less familiar people and places who have shaped American history.

WEEKLY TOPICS
The American House
The City & Suburb
Government & Public Buildings
Schools & Universities
Industry & Commerce
Museums, Theaters, & Entertainment

Six Monday Evenings, January 28, 2019 – 

March 4, 2019 | 6:30pm - 7:45pm

Cranbrook Art Museum deSalle Auditorium

39221 Woodward Avenue, 

Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304

$65 for Adults; $25 for Full-time Students with ID

Enroll online through the link below or by calling the Center at 248.645.3307

Advance registration required (Fee includes all six lectures)

PURCHASE TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT

UNCOVERING THE FANTASY AND MAGIC OF ALEXANDER GIRARD

Cranbrook Art Museum Presents the Symposium 

"Uncovering the Fantasy and Magic

of Alexander Girard"

Saturday, July 22, from 1-4pm

A fascinating examination of one of the most influential, yet overlooked, designers of modernism in America, Alexander Girard. Historian Deborah Kawsky will introduce us to Girard’s Detroit days—from his modern design shop in Grosse Pointe to the architecture of his lesser known residences. 

Curbed’s national architecture critic, Alexandra Lange, will discuss Girard’s uncanny ability to bring structure to seemingly disparate things, from found artifacts to city streetscapes. Curator Monica Obniski will look at Girard’s prescient collection and use of folk art as an inspiration and antidote to modern design. A moderated discussion and question-and-answer session will follow the presentations.

Symposium: Uncovering the Fantasy and Magic of Alexander Girard
Saturday, July 22, 1-4pm
Free with Museum admission. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Future events include:

Alexander Girard Family Day
Saturday, August 12, 11am-3pm
A day filled with Girard-themed tours and activities! Kids under 12 are always free at Cranbrook Art Museum.

Just announced!
A Conversation in the Conversation Pit
Sunday, September 10, 1pm
Join us for a Girard-inspired conversation with legendary textile artist Ruth Adler Schnee and Historian Deborah Kawsky. Free with Museum admission.

This exhibition is organized by the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany. Global sponsors are Herman Miller and Maharam.

CRANBROOK'S SAARINEN HOUSE: A TOTAL WORK OF ART

"Saarinen Home: Living and Working with Cranbrook's First Family of Design" exhibition opens on April 30, 2017, offering public tours and four Finnish Fridays

Bloomfield Hills, MI - The Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research is pleased to announce the launch of reinvigorated and expanded tours of Cranbrook's landmark Saarinen House.

Curated by Center Collections Fellow Kevin Adkisson, this three-month installation expands on the life and work of the remarkable Saarinen family, presenting drawings, letters, and family photographs from the Cranbrook Archives and bringing out treasures designed for use in their home, at Cranbrook, and for projects around the country.

Designed in the late 1920s and located at the heart of Cranbrook Academy of Art, Saarinen House served as the home and studio of the Finnish-American designers Eliel Saarinen (Cranbrook's first resident architect and the Academy's first president and head of the Architecture Department) and Loja Saarinen (the Academy's first head of the Weaving Department) from 1930 through 1950.

Saarinen House has been open for tours since 1994 following a careful restoration overseen by Gregory Wittkopp, now director of the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

While continuing to interpret the house as a total work of art, new stories, sounds, and objects will enrich the space and add insight into how the family lived, entertained, and worked in their home.

Visitors will see silver, glass, and ceramics selected or designed by the Saarinens for Cranbrook sparkling on the dining room table, study Loja's intricate weaving on test pieces she made on her hand loom, take a close look at eclectic titles of the hand-bound volumes in the family library, and even inspect the steamer trunks they used to travel back and forth between Europe and the United States.

The Saarinen House Studio--where Loja worked on designs for her rugs and monumental tapestries, and Eliel practiced architecture and discussed projects with his two partners, son Eero Saarinen and son-in-law J. Robert F. Swanson--will be transformed into a showcase of work produced by the entire family from their arrival at Cranbrook in 1925 to Eliel's death in 1950.

Sketches, plans, and presentation drawings of their furniture and buildings, as well as period books, articles, and catalogues by or about the family, will be arranged on drafting tables in the Studio for guests to explore. Weavings by Studio Loja Saarinen, ceramics and illustrations by daughter-in-law Lily Swann Saarinen, dresses and tableware by daughter Pipsan Saarinen Swanson, and furniture by Eliel, Eero, and J. Robert F. will also be on display.

The exhibition will open to the public with a free Open House on Sunday, April 30, from 1pm through 4pm, during the Cranbrook Academy of Art OPEN(STUDIOS) event. During the remainder of the exhibition, visitors experience this special installation on regularly scheduled public tours May 5 through July 30, Fridays and Saturdays at 2pm and Sundays at 1pm and 3pm.

All tours start at Cranbrook Art Museum, where tickets may be purchased on the day of the tours. Saarinen Home tours cost $15 for adults, $13 for seniors (65 and older), and $11 for students with ID.

Tour price includes admission to the Art Museum. Private tours may be scheduled by calling the Center for Collections and Research at 248.645.3307. Private tours are $20 a person, with a $100 minimum to make a reservation.

Complementing the regularly scheduled tours will be four Finnish Fridays (May 5, May 19, June 9, and June 23, from 6 to 8:30pm), held in conjunction with the Cranbrook Art Museum's exhibition, Finland 100: The Cranbrook Connection. These evenings will include live music in the studio on the Swanson-designed piano, treats served in the house's courtyard (Loja's pineapple upside down cake), as well as Saarinen home movies screened in the living room.

Enjoy a cash bar on the Art Museum's Peristyle, with period games and Finnish-inspired art-making activities for your enjoyment. Center and Art Museum curators, archivists, and program presenters will be on hand with behind-the-scenes-stories to complete these remarkable evenings. Advance tickets for the Finnish Fridays are $12 per person; admission at the door is $15 each. Admission may be purchased by calling the Cranbrook Art Museum at 248.645.3320 or visiting their website: http://www.cranbrookartmuseum.org.

The "Saarinen Home" exhibition and interpretive project was organized by the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research and curated by Kevin Adkisson, the Center's 2016 - 2018 Collections Fellow. Foundation support for the Center's 2016 - 2018 Program Year is provided by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Towbes Foundation, and the Clannad Foundation. Addition support for the "Saarinen Home" project is provided by Knoll, Inc.

Cranbrook Art Museum 

39221 Woodward Avenue, 

Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304.

For more information on the "Saarinen Home: Living and Working with Cranbrook's First Family Design" exhibition or the Finnish Friday events, please call the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research at 248.645.3307, email center@cranbrook.edu, or visit www.cranbrook.edu/center.

JL HUDSON'S SITE TRANSITION LOOKS FANTASTIC!

Hudson's site to become 52-story development

New plans for the former J.L. Hudson site in downtown Detroit show a development rising from a nine-story base with a 734-foot residential tower, which will make it the tallest building in the city -- seven feet taller than the Renaissance Center. Bedrock Detroit.

For generations, Hudson’s (also known as the “Big Store” and “J.L. Hudson’s”) was the premier retailer in downtown Detroit, and one of the most important department stores in the country.

History of JL Hudson's Video

The massive flagship store anchored the bustling Woodward Avenue shopping corridor, and at 25 stories was the tallest department store in the world. Its more than 2 million square feet made it second in overall size only to Macy’s New York, and that by a mere 26,000 square feet.

Demo of Hudson's

The store’s enormity nearly defies belief in the era of online shopping with more than 200 departments spread over 49 acres of floor space and featuring roughly 600,000 items. Read More

Rendering of New Hudson's Site

Architects

They are working with both SHoP out of New York City and Hamilton Anderson from Detroit. Both bring extensive expertise in construction projects such as the one we are proposing. They think outside vision combined with local perspective will result in the most meaningful addition to downtown Detroit and metro region.

Marketplace

The group worked with WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, one of the nation’s leading economic analysis firms, to evaluate economic impact of this project. Overall, the project will support more than 5,800 jobs (new, direct and indirect) and generate $1.553 billion in new economic output during the construction phase. 

When complete, the development will support more than 3,000 permanent jobs and generate an estimated $560 million in total annual economic impact annually.

The plan is to break ground by December 1, 2017

What is your favorite Hudson's memory?

THIS OLD HOUSE IN DETROIT: EPISODES BEGINS APRIL 3

This Old House' in Detroit - With the Polk Family

Detroit Episodes Begin Monday, 

April 3 at 7:30pm ET

This Old House traveled to Detroit for the first time to work with retired firefighter Frank Polk as he and his family renovate a classic brick home. Renovations began last summer with the 10 episodes to premiere on Detroit Public Television (56.1) on Monday, April 3, 2017 at 7:30pm ET.

This Old House currently airs on Create (56.3) Fridays at 6pm ET, but we will add the Monday at 7:30pm time slot on 56.1 when the Detroit episodes begin in April. Visit the schedule to check if your provider carries Create.

WATCH A PREVIEW HERE

The team will work with retired firefighter Frank and his family as they renovate their classic brick home. The 1939 two-story property was one of thousands of abandoned structures owned by the Detroit Land Bank.

The family recently purchased the Russell Woods neighborhood house at auction with the promise they would make improvements and move in.

Expected work includes a new roof, kitchen and baths, plus new mechanicals to replace vandalized equipment in the basement. The team will look to preserve historic details such as leaded stained glass windows and archways as the homeowners blend their modern aesthetics with the home’s historic details. It’s a total family affair as THIS OLD HOUSE pitches in to help reclaim this beautiful corner of the city.