Exclusive tour for the Michigan Historic Preservation Network annual conference.
Conference tickets are currently sold out. Visit the Michigan Historic Preservation Network website to learn more about the conference and membership opportunities.
Whereas the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe is best known for historic revival-style homes, it is also home to spectacular modern residences by Alden B. Dow, Alexander Girard, William Kessler, Paul Rudolph, Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Minoru Yamasaki and others. This somewhat contradictory coexistence mirrors the history of Grosse Pointe itself, which was developed in the 19th-century as a site of summer cottages for wealthy Detroit families but evolved during the early decades of the 20th-century into an exclusive residential district. As Detroit transformed into the “motor city,” members of its new automotive elite – who built factories in steel and glass – commissioned private residences in Colonial, Georgian, and Tudor styles, matching that of Detroit’s old money families.
By the 1930s, aesthetically adventurous Grosse Pointe patrons were inspired to commission homes that departed dramatically from their historically-inspired neighbors. This phenomenon reflected both the prosperity of Metro Detroit and Michigan’s primacy in modern design, not only in cars but in architecture, home furnishings, and educational institutions.
The tour will feature three residential masterpieces, each expressing the unique practical and aesthetic aspirations of its patrons. Alexander Girard’s John and Kathleen McLucas House (1950) features an enclosed atrium and accent walls of boldly-colored glazed bricks from the General Motors Technical Center. Paul Rudolph’s multi-level Frank and Anne Parcells House (1970) is composed of Brutalist-style, box-like projections, infilled with glass recesses, offering dramatic vistas over Lake St. Clair. William Kessler designed a modern lake-front home (1964) for art collector and architectural historian W. Hawkins Ferry with a unique spiral staircase and a two-story glass-walled living room to display his modern art collection. Current owners will share their experiences in owning and preserving these exemplars of Grosse Pointe’s modernist heritage.
The tour is organized by Docomomo Michigan and led by art historian and Docomomo MI board president, Deborah Lubera Kawsky, Ph.D.
W. Hawkins Ferry House - Photo Credit: James Haefner
John and Kathleen McLucas House - Photo Credit: Robert Lubera
Frank and Anne Parcells House - Photo Credit: Brian Conway