Saarinen House Garden Gate

Eliel Saarinen believed the architect's responsibility included design at every scale, from furniture and functional objects to buildings and landscape. This gate demarcates the private Academy President's garden (where Eliel and Loja Saarinen lived from 1930 to 1950 and 1951) from the semi-public footbath between the Triton Pools and Academy Way. The design is reminiscent of Saarinen's scalloped furniture and fluted columns inside, and coordinates with a nearby railing outside the Studio side door. This gate, made in the Cranbrook Arts and Crafts Studios forge, is one of over eighty gates installed on the Cranbrook campus since 1904.

Kevin Adkisson
Curator
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
November 2024