Guest-edited by Gretchen Wilkins The renowned Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, Michigan, has been described as the epicentre of American Modernism. When it opened in 1932 it combined a stunning Eliel Saarinen-designed campus with a radically open educational philosophy to attract and produce some of the most influential artists, designers and architects in US history, including Charles and Ray Eames, Fumihiko Maki, Florence Knoll and Edmund Bacon. Often compared to other experimental schools such as the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College and Taliesin, Cranbrook’s sustained purpose has been advancing a wide, interdisciplinary latitude and self-directed design research to expand and diversify its approaches to architectural practice. There is a deep and persistent idea that open and experimental acts of making should define pedagogy, and by extension that education should shape practice, not the other way around. Cranbrook’s rigorous defiance of dogma and loose grip on the disciplines enables an educational model that combines the practices of art, design, making and urbanism. In this issue, alumni, faculty and scholars reflect on Cranbrook’s model in light of contemporary and challenging questions in architectural education, practice and the profession. Contributors: Kevin Adkisson, Emily Baker, Peggy Deamer, Pia Ednie-Brown, Ronit Eisenbach, Dan Hoffman, Yu-Chih Hsiao, Peter Lynch, Bill Massie, Hani Rashid, Jesse Reiser, Lois Weinthal, and Tod Williams. Featured architects: Asymptote Architecture, Building Culture PLA, Reiser+Umemoto (RUR), Studio Libeskind, and Tod Williams Billie Tsien.

Florence Knoll (1917–2019) was a leading force of modern design. She worked from 1945 to 1965 at Knoll Associates, first as business partner with her husband Hans Knoll, later as president after his death, and, finally, as design director. Her commissions became hallmarks of the modern era, including the Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe, the Diamond Chair by Harry Bertoia, and the Platner Collection by Warren Platner. She created classics like the Parallel Bar Collection, still in production today. Knoll invented the visual language of the modern office through her groundbreaking interiors and the creation of the acclaimed "Knoll look," which remains a standard for interior design today. She reinvigorated the International Style through humanizing textiles, lighting, and accessories. Although Knoll's motto was "no compromise, ever," as a woman in a white, upper-middle-class, male-dominated environment, she often had to make accommodations to gain respect from her colleagues, clients, and collaborators. No Compromise looks at Knoll's extraordinary career in close-up, from her student days to her professional accomplishments.

Cranbrook is an estate that became a set of schools and cultural institutions. This work shows readers that Cranbrook is an assemblage of great architecture in which the whole is even more than the sum of the parts. It aims to capture not only the beauty and delight in the buildings and public art of Cranbrook but the meaning of the place itself.

This exhibition catalog documents the emergence of modern American design in the second quarter of the 20th century. Cranbrook was one of the few institutions in the United States that offered instruction in design during the 1920s and 30s and its influence on architecture, interior design, art and crafts after World War II was crucial and extensive. The exhibition includes over 200 objects and photo-panels and surveys the history of the Cranbrook facility, as well as the achievements of the teachers and students. Presenting the history of the Cranbrook community, it covers Eliel Saarinen's contribution to architecture and urban design, interior design and furniture, metalwork and bookbinding, textiles, ceramics, sculpture and painting. ISBN 0-89558-097-7 (pbk.); ISBN 0-87099-341-0 (pbk.) : $45.00 (For use only in the library).

Michigan Modern: An Architectural Legacy takes readers on a privileged tour of iconic buildings and interiors designed by some of the world¿s most renowned and celebrated architects and interior designers. Each of the 34 selected projects is carefully documented to record its place in art history and the story behind both its architect and client.

Michigan Modern: Design That Shaped America is an impressive collection of important essays touching on all aspects of Michigan’s architecture and design heritage. The Great Lakes State has always been known for its contributions to twentieth-century manufacturing, but it’s only beginning to receive wide attention for its contributions to Modern design and architecture. Brian D. Conway, Michigan’s State Historic Preservation Officer, and Amy L. Arnold, project manager for Michigan Modern, have curated nearly thirty essays and interviews from a number of prominent architects, academics, architectural historians, journalists, and designers, including historian Alan Hess, designers Mira Nakashima, Ruth Adler Schnee, and Todd Oldham, and architect Gunnar Birkerts, describing Michigan’s contributions to Modern design in architecture, automobiles, furniture and education.

Molly McClain tells the remarkable story of Ellen Browning Scripps (1836–1932), an American newspaperwoman, feminist, suffragist, abolitionist, and social reformer. She used her fortune to support women’s education, the labor movement, and public access to science, the arts, and education. Born in London, Scripps grew up in rural poverty on the Illinois prairie. She went from rags to riches, living out that cherished American story in which people pull themselves up by their bootstraps with audacity, hard work, and luck. She and her brother, E. W. Scripps, built America’s largest chain of newspapers, linking midwestern industrial cities with booming towns in the West. Less well known today than the papers started by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, Scripps newspapers transformed their owners into millionaires almost overnight. By the 1920s Scripps was worth an estimated $30 million, most of which she gave away. She established the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine after founding Scripps College in Claremont, California. She also provided major financial support to organizations worldwide that promised to advance democratic principles and public education. In Ellen Browning Scripps, McClain brings to life an extraordinary woman who played a vital role in the history of women, California, and the American West.