In the 1930s, before expensive coffee table art books were as widely available as they are today, those who wanted to enjoy the beauty of art in their homes collected art prints. Alden and Vada Dow owned several beautiful portfolios of art prints from the 1920s and...
The value of face-to-face instruction and the importance of re-opening schools is very much in the news and on everyone’s minds these days. Just what is the ideal environment for learning? Alden B. Dow, the architect of many school and college buildings,...
A previous post highlighting one of the rare finds of the Archives featured the work, The Decoration of Palace Buildings of Peking, a portfolio of 80 illustrated plates printed in 1906 in Japan. Its companion publication is the equally rare two-volume...
One of the most prolific sculptors of the 20th century, Marshall M. Fredericks is known in America and abroad for his monumental figurative sculpture, public memorials and fountains, portraits, and animal figures. He was born of Scandinavian descent in Illinois and...
Yvonne Bannelier Lagier met Alden and Vada Dow when they were among the charter members of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship in the spring of 1933. Ms. Lagier was an academically-trained artist in her native France and a multi-faceted painter, sculptor,...
Alden B. Dow made his debut as a young architect on the international stage when he was awarded the Grand Prize in residential architecture at the 1937 Paris Exposition for his designs of the John Whitman residence and his own studio. Architecture was just one of...
It’s difficult to know for certain when Alden B. Dow and Buckminster Fuller first connected, but it must have been well before the letter Fuller sent to Mr. Dow in December 1951. In it he thanked Mr. Dow for his generous pledge of $1000 toward the production of his...
Alden B. Dow and his friend Peters “Pat” Oppermann possessed many of the same personal qualities: an inquisitive mind, a love of travel, an appreciation of music, an innate creativity, and a joyful, playful sense of humor. Oppermann was born and raised in Saginaw,...
Born to a baker and orphaned at age 12, Florence Schust grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. She demonstrated an early interest in architecture and was enrolled at the Kingswood School for Girls, adjacent to the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan....
It has always been inspiring to learn about the passions and interests Alden B. Dow and Vada B. Dow explored throughout their lives. As inquisitive humans, their passion to learn, grow and understand the world around them only increased with time. This need to...
In 1960, the citizens of Ann Arbor approved a $2.3 million bond for the construction of a new city hall. Alden B. Dow was selected as the architect and began the design of this important civic project that year. When it opened in the summer of 1963, it had a...
Between 1936 and 1960, Alden B. Dow designed a number of projects located in the city of Mt. Pleasant, some 30 miles from his Home and Studio in Midland. Three residential projects were built. Six projects were never built but presentation drawings and, in some...