Cranbrook Art Museum Collections Building

Flanking the majestic peristyle of Eliel Saarinen’s
Cranbrook Academy Art Museum, the new 31,200 gsf
Collections Building completes the second phase of the
Museum Master Plan. The brick is toned a deep rich
brown with a clear glaze to provide for gentle reflections.
The eastern side of the building reveals the three
rectangular volumes that decrease in width and height, as
they recede northward from the museum. The simple
expression of the building creates a respectful dialogue
with the clean lines of Saarinen’s Museum.

Within, the building is an expression of utilitarian concrete
block construction enhanced to an artistic light. The gray
block has the joints raked and the soft concrete coating
retained to provide sheen as a backdrop to finely crafted
details. Each opening within the block has a stainless
steel plate surround. Mahogany plank doors are
introduced with custom stainless steel push/pulls to
accentuate the act of crossing each threshold, a
continued Saarinen theme. Within the paths of circulation
recessed niches of stainless steel and granite provide
place for art.

Nearly doubling the museum’s usable floor space, the
building provides 7,000 gsf of storage to allow the full
collection of design, textiles, ceramics and fine art, many
from famed designers, such as Charles Eames, Florence
Knoll and various other luminaries, to be displayed and
accessed, underscoring the pedagogical mission of the
institution by bringing the collection to life for a new
generation of artists, students and visitors.

The Collections Building Archive Room is designed as a
place of learning about art within the art itself. Each of
the collection storage rooms are outfitted so the Academy
teachers and Museum curators can teach within the
collection itself.