FEATURED
ARCHITECTS
ARCHITECTS
Glenn Tsutomu Arai (1925-1998)
Los Angeles born Glenn Tsutomu Arai was interned with his parents and other Japanese families during WWII, between 1942 and 1945, at the Manzanar Relocation Center in California. While there, he was enrolled as a language specialist in the Military Intelligence Service Language School. Following his service, he received a B.A. in Architecture in 1947 from the University
of Illinois. He practiced in Chicago from 1950 to 1955 before moving to the small village of Suttons Bay in northern Michigan. In 1965, he partnered with Roger A. Hummel to create
Arai and Hummel.
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In numerous houses Mr. Arai designed in Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties, he often employed a modular construction technique that allowed for any number of pre-formed box-shaped units to be joined together to comprise the structure.
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His preference was to find something particular to a site, rocks or beams, and incorporate them into the building itself, thus creating something new but with a sense of history, perhaps as a way of insuring continuity. His use of natural and indigenous materials also reflected a connection to the region. In all his work Mr. Arai referenced his Japanese heritage through small, intimate spaces sometimes placed on several levels and accessed by only a few stairs. The stunning results provide many vantage points of both the interior and exterior spaces bringing the feeling of openness, yet exuding comfort and warmth.
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Robert Gene Bell (1929-2017)
Robert Gene Bell was born in 1929 in Sterling, Illinois. After receiving his B.S. in Architectural Engineering from Iowa State University in 1951, followed by service in the U. S. Air Force, he obtained a Master of Architecture degree in 1955 from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Mr. Bell began his professional career in the Midland office of Alden B. Dow. He moved to Traverse City in 1961 to work in the firm of Harford Field and Associates, at the time the largest firm in Traverse City. He established his own firm GBKB with William J. Graheck, Norman A. Kline and George H. Brown.
Inspired by Dow and Frank Lloyd Wright, Mr. Bell’s work reflects his love of nature and the idea that architecture should blend harmoniously with its environment. To that end, his vision led him to develop The Bluffs project, a celebration of modern architecture in a natural setting, overlooking East Bay on the Old Mission Peninsula.
As a young architect while working in the Midland Alden B. Dow office, he co-organized with colleague Phil Fedderson, an exhibition of Wright’s drawings, photographs and models. The exhibition was to “show a sequence of design development culminating in the work now in progress”... “with an emphasis on Michigan Usonian Houses”. It opened at the Grace A.
Dow Memorial Library in Midland in 1959 and was one of the last two exhibitions organized
in Wright’s lifetime.
Mr. Bell had a long and well-respected career designing private residences in and around Traverse City. He later practiced in the Tampa Bay area and northern California before
retiring to Arizona.
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Gordon Cornwell (1917-2011)
Gordon Cornwell attended Syracuse University receiving both a Bachelor’s degree and in 1941, a Master’s degree in Architecture. He spent his early architecture career in Rhode Island and Connecticut. In 1947 he moved to Traverse City and a year later, established his own firm, Cornwell and Associates. As an active member of the community, Mr. Cornwell served on the Traverse City Planning Commission for 35 years and was instrumental in drafting the city’s first zoning ordinance.
Throughout his long career, he designed over 700 projects featuring schools, churches, commercial buildings and residences throughout northern Michigan. He was the architect of choice for the new Traverse City High School built in 1955, the St. Francis High School and in 1969 designed the Traverse City Junior High. As a well-known church architect, he designed the Bethlehem Lutheran Church (1953), the First Congregational Church (1958), which he attended, and the All Faiths Chapel on the grounds of the Traverse City State Hospital (1965). His church architecture extended beyond Traverse City, notably to the Walling Congregational in Grand Rapids and a sanctuary addition for the Edgewood United Church in East Lansing.
Mr. Cornwell’s soaring A-frames and light-filled interiors mark his religious architecture, while
his distinctive residential work is rooted in strong rectilinear forms framed by flat roofs, with spacious interiors and large, floor to ceiling windows, flooding the interior spaces with natural light. His numerous designs for private residences dot the Old Mission Peninsula including the home of Governor William G. and First Lady Helen Milliken.
The success of Mr. Cornwell’s practice was rooted in his desire to exceed his clients’ goals through listening, attention to detail and seeking creative solutions.
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Alden B. Dow (1904-1983)
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Noted Midwestern architect, Alden B. Dow, was born in Midland, Michigan in 1904. He received
a Bachelor of Architecture from Columbia University in 1931 and worked as a draftsman for Frantz and Spence, Architects in Saginaw before establishing Alden B. Dow, Architect in
Midland in 1933.
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Influenced early on by Frank Lloyd Wright's guiding principles of organic architecture, he went on to study with him at Taliesen in Spring Green, Wisconsin in 1933. Shortly after, he incorporated Wright's principles of harmonious integration of life and environment and his own unit block building system, patented in 1935, into the design of his home and studio in Midland, later to receive the designation of National Historic Landmark.
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Mr. Dow designed over 70 residences, numerous schools, civic and art centers, and commercial buildings. His residential architecture is distinguished by a sensibility that celebrates human interaction explored through intimate, human scale spaces, often capped with a flat roof emphasizing horizontality, and utilizing natural materials.
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In 1968, Mr. Dow designed the Holiday Inn on Munson Avenue in Traverse City. In keeping with his philosophy of incorporating the natural world into the interior environment, each room has a view of Grand Traverse Bay.
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Richard Rhodes Drury (1923-2004)
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Richard Drury was born, raised and educated in Ann Arbor, Michigan, graduating from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1950. He moved to Traverse
City in 1953, working first with Harford Field and Associates before partnering with Carter
Strong to form Strong Drury, Architects in 1958. The need for professional collaboration was
ever greater and in 1968, Strong Drury merged with Gordie, Miller, Batzer & Fraser, Architects, Engineers, Land Surveyors.
In the mid-1950s, both Richard Drury and Carter Strong designed and built family houses
on Boughey Hill, a new development high on a hill overlooking Traverse City. Stylistically
their houses featured a single story, flat roofs, open floor plan, and large windows looking
out onto a courtyard.
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Beyond residential architecture, Mr. Drury specialized in remodeling and designing religious buildings. The latter began with his interest in improving church worship and his belief that there was a strong connection between religious worship and architecture. St. Francis Church in Traverse City, completed in 1977, was his most important design. Here he made a concerted effort to call upon local artists to create all the interior decoration including a life-sized bronze sculpture of Saint Francis, a metal tabernacle, candleholders and chalices, ceramic fonts
for holy water, and all the stained glass windows featuring abstract liturgical images by the
Welch Holdeman Studio.
Mr. Drury’s community commitment extended to his involvement with local peace groups and Habitat for Humanity.
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Orus Orvill Eash (1915-2008)
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Orus O. Eash, whose modernist style spread far beyond Michigan, designed over 500 edifices including large office buildings, churches and private residences. Throughout his career, he maintained offices in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Sarasota, Florida, Sacramento, California and Traverse City.
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He was born in Middlebury, Indiana, and attended the University of Michigan where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture in 1939.
Upon graduation, Mr. Eash moved to Traverse City to work in the office of Ralph L. Bauer, but
left in 1941 to take a position with the Carnegie Illinois Steel Company in Etna, Pennsylvania.
He returned to Traverse City and in 1944 partnered with Ralph L. Bauer to become Bauer and
Eash, Architects until 1950 when he established his own firm, Orus O. Eash, Architect. Between 1953 and 1960, Mr. Eash designed numerous residences in Traverse City and Leelanau counties, including a President’s Residence for the first two presidents of Northwestern Michigan College. They featured spacious, open floor plans, materials indigenous to northern Michigan, floor-to-ceiling windows often framing open courtyards, and flat roofs that emphasized horizontality. Notable public buildings in Traverse City include the renovation and expansion
of the First People’s State Bank in 1954 and St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in 1955.
The simple elegance of Mr. Eash’s architectural designs stems from his life-long interests in engineering and art, fostering the integration of structural strength and aesthetic beauty to create a harmony of clear uncluttered spaces. He was deeply influenced and inspired by the purity
and clarity of design and innovation of the International style and in particular the work of Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier.
In 1938, while still a student, the AIA awarded him the Pond Book Award for architectural designs of enduring significance.
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Harford Field (1901-1990)
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Harford Field was born in Chicago in 1901 and attended the University of Illinois, graduating in 1926 with a degree in Architecture. After working as a structural engineer and draftsman in the Chicago firm of Holabird and Roche, later Holabird and Root, he established Harford Field, Architect in Hinsdale, Illinois. He served as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant during WWII, and in 1949 relocated to Traverse City and founded Harford Field and Associates with William J. Grahek.
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Harford Field and Associates was known for its modernist residential, religious, and commercial architecture. Major projects included the Immaculate Conception Church (1953). He also designed the Sheffer Collett Factory (1954), the Clinch Park Zoo (1955), both in Traverse City, the Glen Lake High School (1958), and the Immaculate Conception High School, adjacent to
the church (1960).
By the end of the decade, Mr. Field turned his attention almost exclusively to hospital design
and remodels. He is most-noted for designing the Grand Traverse Medical Care Facility in 1959, remodeling Munson Hospital in 1960, and designing the Osteopathic Hospital in 1961.
As the largest architectural firm in Traverse City, Harford Field and Associates attracted other young, modernist architects David Stiffler, Robert Bell and Robert Holdeman, before each opened his own firm.
Harford Field and Associates later merged to become Field, Grahek, Bell and Klein.
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Robert L. Holdeman (born 1941)
Robert L. Holdeman was born and raised in the small mid-western town of Napanee, Indiana. Although always interested in art and design, his inclination toward architecture began
at age 12 when a close friend of the family, a structural engineer, introduced him to the process of integrating engineering and architecture.
From that point on his path was shaped. He attended the University of Cincinnati specifically because of its unique six-year program, based on an alternating 10 week schedule of study and work experience, with a strong emphasis on the humanities and the arts. He returned to Elkhart, Indiana for an internship to work with his structural engineer mentor who gave him the opportunity to incorporate his drawing and design experience with engineering requirements.
In 1965, Mr. Holdeman relocated to Traverse City where he took a position with the area’s
largest firm, Harford Field and Associates. There he met mentor and project partner, Robert Bell. Through him, Mr. Holdeman acquired property on The Bluffs overlooking East Bay on the Old Mission Peninsula where he designed and built his own home nestled among rolling hills dense with hardwood and evergreen trees.
Mr. Holdeman’s style emerged as a confluence of Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture
and Japanese architecture, which emphasized the clarity and strength of post and beam construction, extensive use of natural materials and natural light flooding intimate spaces resulting in tranquil, serene environments.
By 1970, when Harford Field’s primary focus was hospital architecture, Mr. Holdeman left to work with David Stiffler on residences throughout the Grand Traverse region. In 1975, he established his own firm, AAI, and served as principal until 2014.
In 1968, he co-founded the Welch-Holdeman Studio specializing in abstract-designed stained glass windows used in religious, commercial and residential buildings throughout the Grand Traverse region.
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https://www.in.gov/dnr/historic/files/hp-pletcherhouse.pdf
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David L. Stiffler (1922-2001)
David Stiffler, a native of Traverse City, was born in 1922. His mechanical engineering studies at Lawrence Institute of Technology were interrupted by WWII in 1942. In 1943, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps as an aerial navigator and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Air Medals for his service. In 1948, he returned to school and earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Michigan in 1950. While there, he also studied at the University of Michigan Engineering Research Institute.
Upon graduation, between 1950 and 1952, Mr. Stiffler took a position with Urquahart, Skidmore Owings and Merrill in Morocco utilizing both his architectural and engineering skills on American military projects. Returning to Traverse City, between 1952 and 1956, Mr. Stiffler worked in the
firm of Orus O. Eash, Architect, then partnered with Allied Design and Engineering Co. for two years before establishing his own firm, David L. Stiffler and Associates, Architects and Landscape Architects from 1958-1980.
Mr. Stiffler’s residential work reflects Frank Lloyd Wright’s and Alden B. Dow’s philosophy of harmoniously uniting the natural world with interior spaces. His architectural design is noted for its quiet elegance achieved through the use of natural materials and large open spaces flooded with light filtered through curtain walls of glass, striking a harmony of balance between the exterior world and interior space.
Aside from his numerous residential work, he designed the Professional Buildings at the Eastfield Plaza. As a contributing member of the community, he served as Chair of the Planning Commission and on the Traverse City Board of Zoning Appeals.
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Carter B. Strong (1924-2005)
Carter Strong was born in Jackson, Michigan in 1924. He attended Louisiana State University and graduated from the University of Michigan College of Architecture as Class President and member of the Alpha Rho Chi Architectural Fraternity in 1950. He moved to Traverse City in
1952 and in 1956 became a partner in Harford Field and Associates. In 1958, he partnered
with classmate Richard Drury to form Strong, Drury, Architects until 1968.
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In the mid-1950s, Strong and Drury designed their own family homes in the newly developed Boughey Hill neighborhood at the south edge of Traverse City. Utilizing modernist principles,
they emphasized an open floor plan often with a step-down living room, and large windows looking out into a courtyard unifying the natural environment with interior spaces.
He is most noted for his work on the St. Francis Catholic Church and High School, and Riverview Terrace, a modern high rise for seniors.
He served as President of the Northern Michigan Chapter of the Architectural Institute of America and as Director of the Michigan Society of Architects. With a deep commitment to civic responsibilities, Mr. Strong was elected to the Traverse City City Commission for three years
and served on the Zoning Board of Appeals from 1959 to 1963, before becoming mayor in 1967.
After a 32-year career in architecture, he retired in 1982.
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The Architects Collaborative (TAC) (1946-1995)
The Architects Collaborative (TAC) based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was established in 1946 by Walter Gropius while he was at Harvard University and seven younger architects. Mr. Gropius is most known for founding the Bauhaus, a school that merged practice and theory, applied arts and fine arts, in Weimar, Germany in 1919. He is considered to be one of the most influential architects between WWI and WWII and is credited for introducing the International Style of architecture to America.
TAC became known for its innovative approach to design. Although the primary focus was educational facilities, the firm designed such notable buildings as the Pan Am World Airways Building, N.Y.C., the AIA Headquarters Washington D.C., the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the Harvard Graduate Center in Cambridge, which was the first modern building on campus and viewed as a turning point in accepting modern architecture.
TAC’s philosophy was based on Mr. Gropius’ central belief that architecture should be rooted
in social responsibility, that art could not only reflect society but improve it as well, and collaboration, placing importance on group input. To that end, each architect was involved in every project with a partner-in-charge.
The Shirley S. Okerstrom Fine Arts Building on the Northwestern Michigan College campus is
a prime example of this ideology. Although Norman Fletcher is the Architect of Record, Herbert Gallagher and Konstancija Brazdys also served as primary architects for this project. The building speaks to the Bauhaus commitment of the union of technology and art. It features two separate wings, one for art, the other for music, linked by a lecture hall/auditorium in keeping with the idea that education should be both practical (the studios) and academic (the auditorium for lectures and performances).
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http://www.michiganmodern.org/designers/norman-fletcher?designer_type=53
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