(The following is an extract from the introduction by Roy Slade to the book “Saarinen House and Garden: A Total Work of Art”. The story of the restoration of Saarinen House and its transformation into a museum. Published by Abrams, 1995. Gregory Wittkopp, Editor.)
Living room
Master bathroom
Back courtyard
"Having accepted the invitation to be the fifth president of Cranbrook Academy of Art, I visited Saarinen House early in the spring of 1977. Completed in 1930, the house had been used as the home of the president of the Academy and, over the years, it had been altered and adapted by the different residents in many ways to meet their personal tastes and needs. My first impression of the house was one of endless corridors, rooms and doors. By the summer of that year, the decision was made to open up the spaces; the partitions and false walls were removed and the interiors painted white.
Like those of my predecessors, my initial intention was to refurbish the house to accommodate my needs, rather than to restore it. During that first visit to the house, the long room in the rear seemed to be an ideal place for my painting studio. My curiosity was aroused, however, when the false walls were removed and the scale of the room revealed. On first experiencing the grandeur of the space, with its dramatic proportions and barrel- vaulted ceiling, I was impressed. Of particular interest to me was the uncovering of the columns, which retained remnants of the paint that accentuated their delicate detailing and fluting. The room was so intimidating and chapel-like that no painter could use it as a studio.
…..Mary Riordan, then curator of Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum….. volunteered to collect vintage photographs of the Saarinen interior. So impressive were the period views of this interior with its carpets, wall hangings, leaded windows and furniture that I innocently asked, “Why not restore this room?” Mary was almost overcome, for although she had always cherished the idea, no one had ever proposed restoring this work of Eliel Saarinen. So began an undertaking which was to turn eventually into a quest, a search for knowledge on Eliel and Loja Saarinen and Saarinen House.
In those early months, Cranbrook seemed to me an architectural oddity, so English in appearance, yet just over 20 miles north of Detroit. How ironic that I, having been born and educated in Wales, would after only a decade in America come to view Cranbrook as an English “home away from home”. As far as my knowledge of Saarinen was concerned, I knew only the work of Eliel and Loja's son Eero Saarinen, who had designed Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C. Having spent 10 years at the Corcoran Gallery and School of Art, eventually as its director and dean, I was familiar with the airport’s futuristic and sculptural architecture. Without realizing it, moving into Saarinen House signaled for me the beginning of intense appreciation of the work of Eliel Saarinen. My intention was not to come to Cranbrook to restore Saarinen House nor to celebrate Eliel Saarinen, yet both were inevitable."
In this introduction, I talk of my initial visit to Saarinen House but never discuss how I originally came to Cranbrook. My first visit was in October 1975 when the National Association of Schools of Art and Design was hosted by the University of Michigan and Cranbrook Academy. At that conference, Wally Mitchell, then president of the Academy, and I had dinner in which he urged me to consider coming to Cranbrook to take over as president for he was about to retire. I had met Wally, a fellow painter, at previous conferences and was flattered but uninterested.
The following day, deans and presidents from across the country took a bus to Cranbrook and my first impressions were most disappointing. The museum galleries were empty due to an installation and there was a certain arrogance about the staff as they told us the museum was closed. Obviously, the opportunity to show off Cranbrook to this distinguished group was not taken and the experience was unpleasant. After visiting the museum, we wandered the grounds and ended up at Cranbrook House for a reception. Members of the board, including Pat Hartmann, were most gracious and asked if I was interested in becoming a candidate. Naturally, my first impressions of the Academy and Museum were not favorable; again, I politely declined. Moreover, I was director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the heart of the nation’s capital about to celebrate the Bicentennial.
At the end of 1976, a headhunter came to me at the Corcoran and urged me to rethink my position; he was most persuasive. After 10 years at the Corcoran, I thought maybe it was time, at least, to go back to Cranbrook and meet with the Board of Governors. By the time I accepted the position that following spring, Wally Mitchell had died and never knew that I accepted the position to be his successor; rather sad, as he wrote to me often.
When the announcement was made of my appointment, the first question asked by Washington journalists was, “Why did I leave the nation's capital for suburban Detroit?” I replied that “I was going from the nation's capital to the world capital of design!” I went on to point out that Dulles Airport was designed by Eero Saarinen; the Metro Rail and Arena Stage by Harry Weese; the Air Space Museum by Gyo Obata; all from Cranbrook as were the designers Ray & Charles Eames; Florence Knoll and many others who had helped shape our nation and world.
The initial and partial restoration of Saarinen House, in 1977, included the original architecture of Eliel Saarinen with furniture by Eliel and Eero Saarinen and textiles by Loja and daughter Pipsan Saarinen Swanson. In the theme of “Cranbrook Past and Present”, furniture by former Academy students and faculty including Harry Bertoia, Charles & Ray Eames and Florence Knoll along with textiles by Jack Lenor Larsen further enriched the interiors.
In the spring of 1978, architectural critic Paul Goldberger wrote on the restoration in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. The article, “Bringing Back Saarinen”, lavishly illustrated with color photographs, greatly impressed the Trustees and Governors of Cranbrook; leading to renewed appreciation of Saarinen and restoration of his architecture throughout the community. The director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Fred Cummings, invited me to meet with him as he was interested in doing an exhibition on Cranbrook. That meeting eventually led to the major exhibition and publication “Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision 1925-50”. The exhibition opened in 1983 at the Detroit Institute of Arts and was shown the following year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, and in Helsinki at the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Museum of Applied Arts. Many scholars, curators, individuals and institutions were involved in the exhibition and publication but that is another tale to be told. Suffice to say that, in 1985, I was honored to receive Finland's most prestigious decoration 'Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland' for my part in promoting knowledge of the works of Eliel and Eero Saarinen.
This month, further acclaim and deserved recognition will come to Eliel and Eero Saarinen at Cranbrook Art Museum with the international symposium and major retrospective exhibition, “Eero Saarinen :Shaping the Future”.
Roy Slade,
Director Emeritus
Cranbrook Art Academy and Museum
Florida 11/01/07