3.22.2019 | DIGS.NET 33
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L E G E N D S | C R A N B R O O K
Conceived as a creative
laborator y for American
Modernists—now with
a Usonian abode—
Cranbrook continues its
grand experiment
in Michigan
M I DL A N D
W R I T T E N B Y J E N N T H O R N T O N
MODERN
C
onsidered now,
when so much of the
country's innovation
and enterprise is the sole
property of big cities on
both coasts, Cranbrook—a
creative epicenter in America's
heartland—is not the
oxymoron it might seem. It's
further proof of the Midwest
as a seat of progressive design,
not only in Michigan, but also
Wisconsin, where one finds at
SC Johnson, iconic buildings
by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Before that, Wright's Prairie
School style transformed the
suburbs of Chicago, much
like his mentor Louis Sullivan
changed the city's skyline with
steel high-rises. One could go
on, to Minneapolis, and the
Guthrie eatre, to St. Louis,
and the Gateway Arch.
