Detroit Architect

Eliel Saarinen1873–1950

Eliel Saarinen arrived from Finland in 1923 and built Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills — a complete educational community of school, academy, museum, and library that became one of the most consequential American campuses of the twentieth century. He taught Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, Florence Knoll, and Harry Bertoia. The Cranbrook complex is his masterwork.

7 buildings in our guide