Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

The Melvyn Maxwell Smith and Sara Stein Smith House
Bloomfield, Michigan

The Melvyn Maxwell Smith and Sara Stein Smith House also known as My Haven is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Usonian home that was built by the owner/occupants in 1949 and 1950. The Smiths were two public school teachers living on a tight budget, to realize their dream they scrimped and scraped in ways most people would never consider, but the reward is this wonderful gem.

It is said that Mr. Smith, upon seeing a photo of Falling Water for the first time while studying to become a teacher, stood up in class and said: “One day I will own a Frank Lloyd Wright home”.

In the summer of 1941, the Smiths traveled to Taliesin, met with Wright, and he agreed to design a home for them with an initial budget of approximately $9,000.00.

In the summer of 1946, the Smiths took their entire savings of $3,600 and purchased the 3.3 acres the home would sit upon.

FLW would present his famous mark a red ceramic tile with his signature to many of the designated buildings that met his requirements and approval – a visible sign he accepted the structure as “truly- totally-Wright”.

Architect William Wesley Peters,  who served as president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, wrote that Wright “never had clients who were greater in the sense of love and appreciation than Melvyn Maxwell and Sara Smith. It was a two-way road because the more that came back to Frank Lloyd Wright, the more he gave, so it was a double gain

On Wright’s advice, Smith acted as his own general contractor in order to save money and maintain the quality standards he expected. He recruited skilled workers who wanted to work on a home designed by Wright so much that they would accept lower pay than usual. Suppliers of building materials also provided goods such as 14,000 board feet of red tidewater cypress lumber at discounted prices because of their wish to be involved with a Wright project.  Shopping center developer A. Alfred Taubman provided all of the windows at a deep discount because he considered the house a “fantastic structure”.

Wright visited the house himself in 1951, and called it “my little gem”. He visited the house again in 1953 and 1957.

In 1957, Melvyn Smith met with landscape architect Thomas Dolliver Church who visited the home and stayed for a spaghetti dinner prepared by Sara Smith. Church spent the night as their guest, and the following morning, produced a landscape plan on the spot for a nominal fee

The home is located near the Cranbrook Educational Community, and over the years, the Smiths built an extensive art collection by Cranbrook artists that fill the house today.

The home, while still in private hands, is open for tours and special events. 

Usonia was a word used by Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to his vision for the landscape of the United States, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings. Wright proposed the use of the adjective Usonian in place of American to describe the particular New World character of the American landscape as distinct and free of previous architectural conventions.The home is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photos are not allowed inside the home, but this lamp style is carried throughout the house.

Dabls’ MBAD African Bead Museum
6559 Grand River Avenue
Detroit, Michigan

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I had the absolute privilege to speak with Olayami Dabls, the creator of Dabls’ African Bead Museum (pictured above), and he told me some of his story.  He began this project during the Clean Up Detroit program, a project to help clear all of the empty lots of the trash and building parts left after many homes were bulldozed.

The N’kisi Iron House, now in the hands of an architect, was once owned by the City.

The African Language Wall

He repeated often, how he was surprised the city had not shut him down and how happy he was to just keep doing what he was doing.  He did point out that an architect had purchased the building next door from the city. Olayami offered to remove all the art, the architect was happy with it just the way it is, and I for one am very glad that he saw the value in what this folk art brings to this part of town. I highly doubt the city is going to stop him anytime soon as the museum has received a $100,000 grant from theKnight Foundation . If you are interested in helping with matching funds you can do so here.

Photo from African Bead Museum website

There is a very complete bead shop on the first floor of 6559 for shopping to your heart’s content.

Olayami Dabls’ visual story telling uses a wide range of materials. His work uses references from African material culture to tell stories about the human condition. Using iron, rock,  wood, and mirrors, Dabls found that these four materials are primary building blocks that speak universally to all cultures.

“Yeah, the students are made out of rocks. The exhibit is Iron Teaching Rocks How to Rust.  And, of course, rocks cannot rust, but you can teach people to believe pretty much anything you want them to believe. And they will.” Olayami Dbals.  From an interview to Michigan Radio

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A mad hatter’s tea party?

Dabls moved to Detroit with his parents from Mississippi because of the political and social unrest in the South during the 60s.

“In the years between 1975-1985, Dabls joined the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History as a curator and artist-in-residence. There, he learned how challenging it was to talk about the civil rights movement because in talking about emotionally charged history, there is no fixed perspective, only the memories, and experiences of millions of individuals. This inspired him to create the African Bead Museum as a space for communal understanding through his own sculptures and his collection of African material culture.”

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Thank you Olayami Dabls for bringing such beauty and brightness to a small corner of Detroit.

For those of you that are curious, and have gotten to this point and wondered, MBAD are the initials of Olayami’s children.  Their names are: Makada, Barkan, Alake and Davida, and please, forgive me all four of you if I have spelled them wrong.

Academy Way
Cranbrook
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

A tour of the Saarinen house is an amazing look into the perfectionism of Eliel Saarinen and his design beliefs and senses.  The house combines  Arts and Craft movement ideas with Art Deco elements for a stunning and harmonious work of art.

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Decorative elements are integral to the architecture and include patterned brickwork and leaded glass windows with triangles, square and rectangles.

The home was built concurrently with sculptor Carl Milles next door for a cost $140,000 for the two.  The typical cost of a home at that time in Detroit was $6250.

The home was completely restored in 1994, after having been changed by subsequent owners from 1950 to the 1990s.

The living room is anchored by a rug created and woven by Eliel’s wife and weaving artist Loja Saarinen. The pattern is meant to echo the brickwork of the building.

All of the wooden furniture was crafted at Cranbrook by Swedish cabinet maker Tor Berglund using Eliel’s designs. The woods included greenheart, African walnut, rosewood, and ebony.

The sofa is based on a Finnish tradition in which rugs were draped onto the floor so they could be folded up over the sitters feet and lap for warmth.  In this case, Saarinen used the rug decoratively rather than functionally.

The andirons, designed by Saarinen, are stylized peacocks.

The weaving above the fireplace is, again, by Loja Saarinen.  The tiles on the fireplace were designed by Saarinen but they were made by Mary Perry Chase Stratton of Pewabic Tile Company.

Above the credenza is a painting of Loja Saarinen done by her husband Eliel

Silver designed by Saarinen

The globe table is the one piece in the house not designed by Berglund, it was, instead, designed by Saarinen’s son-in-law Robert F. Swanson.  The lighting in the house while designed by Saarinen it was all manufactured by Edward F. Caldwell and Company.

The Book Room is stunningly separated from the living room by a simple change of color on the molding.

The table is covered in Saarinen designed silver pieces and pottery for Cranbrook Academy and the various Cranbrook schools

The dining room is one of the more spectacular rooms in the house. It is a square room made octagonal by the four corner niches. The table has an octagonal base but a circular top. The unique thing about the table is the four arch shaped extension leaves that came out from the exterior perimeter that allows the table to remain circular when expanded from an intimate 4 to a large 14.

The light is a gold-leaf-covered dome.

The wall hanging on the left was designed and woven by Finnish artist Greta Skogster.  It depicts birds in a tree.  It has open weave panels that mimic the panels of the dining room and allow you to see the birch wood behind the hanging.

Through the door is the butler’s pantry with a Monel metal countertops, a Frigidaire and the personal pottery of the Saarinen’s. The kitchen is on the second floor and is not open to the public.

This small, blue furniture, alcove sits on the landing of the second floor and is where breakfast was brought to Eliel and Loja at 7:30 am by the housekeeper. The second floor contains the master bedroom and bath with four additional rooms and a guest bath. The other rooms have been modified into a small apartment for the use of the museum curator and are not open to the public.

The doors on this floor had stencils on them by Saarinen daughter, Pipsan Swanson.  When the home was restored it was impossible to determine what they were so the restorer, Director Gregory Wittkopp,  utilized a pattern that Pipsan designed for the Kingswood School for girls, which is part of Cranbrook.

Son, Eero Saarinen was 20 years old when his parents asked him to design the furniture for the bedroom. This would be one of his first commissions and the beginning of a successful architecture and furniture design career.

Loja Saarinen’s dressing table, designed by son Eero, the lamp and mirror were designed by his father Eliel.

The Saarinen studio, located on the first floor, is broken into three sections.  The alcove, dubbed the “cozy corner” by Loja, was the main entertaining and work area.

Art pieces by daughter Pipsan

The above photo is the far end of the studio.  The center of the studio consisted of drafting tables and large windows for light.

The exquisiteness of this home and the incredible, masterful attention to detail is found throughout all of the buildings designed by Saarinen on the Cranbrook campus.

Saarinen was the chief architect of Cranbrook.  During his tenure, he designed Cranbrook School for boys (1925-1929), Kingswood School for Girls (1929-1931), Cranbrook Institute of Science (1935-1938), Cranbrook Academy of Art (1925-1942) and Cranbrook Art Museum and Library (1938-1942).  He also served as the Academy’s first president from 1932 – 1946 and headed the Department of Architecture and Urban Design from 1932-1950.

The home is operated by Cranbrook Art Museum and is open for tours from May through October.