Cranbrook

Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Cranbrook Cultural Landscape Report (PDF) 6MB

A National Historic Landmark, Cranbrook is a cultural complex founded in the early twentieth century by the newspaper magnate George Gough Booth and his wife, Ellen Warren Scripps Booth. The stellar list of architects commissioned to build there includes Eliel Saarinen, Albert Kahn, Bertram Goodhue, and, more recently, Steven Holl and Raphael Moneo. The buildings are set in important cultural landscapes, with formal gardens, natural woods, lakes, and waterways. Funding will enable Cranbrook to create a preservation plan for its historic landscape.

Cranbrook Educational Community received a Getty grant in 2003 for $170,000 to support campus heritage planning.

Report Summary

Purpose:

• Build on national designations, National Register Historic Places and National Historic Landmark requirements.
• Stewardship of 319 acres of land and open space resources.
• Report uses National Registry principles in the Dept of Interior, NPS and Guidelines for treatment of cultural landscapes and Cranbrook archives and resources.
• Guide growth of campus facilities.
• Preservation strategy.
• Give historians and students a reference document.
• To serve as model format for future.

History: George and Ellen Booth initiative. Landscape design by Gimonds, Carl Milles – sculpture and fountains. Eliel Saarinen design work. Vision of Booth for Academy of Art and natural landscape. Influence of Arts and Crafts movement (early 20th century).

Historic Designation(s): Cranbrook (National Register of Historic Places; National Historic Landmark)

Implementation concepts: Cultural landscape assessment process. Apply standard treatments for cultural landscape as defined by U.S. Dept of Interior(1998) Seven aspects of historic integrity: location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, association.

Treatment strategies: preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, reconstruction.

Established integrity for each area.

Applied treatment strategies to twelve specific sites or places. (restoration or preservation) Sites include water areas, shores and lakes, bridge, bogs, boathouse, school landscape, and specific gardens, e.g., Oriental Garden.

Cost budgets and preservation strategies included.

Noteworthy architects and other professionals:

• Eliel Saarinen
• Albert Kahn
• Bertram Goodhue
• Steven Holl
• Raphael Moneo

Development of Strategies for Landscape Preservation

• Capital Improvement Projects
• Deferred Maintenance Projects
• Recommended Process for Incorporating Historic Values in Project Development
• Suggested Amendment to the National Historic Register
• Record of Treatment