In the seven years after Alden B. Dow opened his practice in Midland, he built 13 houses using unit blocks, which became a kind of trademark. In the interest of flexibility and economy, he began exploring the use of frame and panel materials for textural...
In 1936 Miss Mary Dow asked her nephew, Alden B. Dow, to design a retirement home for her in Saginaw, Michigan. She had purchased a narrow, sloping lot next to the First Congregational Church and just down the street from Hoyt Library on S. Jefferson Avenue, where...
The Miner S. Keeler house in East Grand Rapids was designed by Alden B. Dow in 1958. Situated on a wooded, wedge-shaped lot on the shore of a lake, the house is oriented toward the water and the recreation it offers. On the lakeshore a low, semi-circular wall...
During the 1950’s and 1960’s, Alden B. Dow built six university and three civic buildings in Ann Arbor. Perhaps his most unusual campus building was the University of Michigan Administration Building, which he designed in 1964. The exterior is like a geometric...
Joseph Cavanagh worked in the agricultural chemicals sales department of the Dow Chemical Company for his entire career, at a time when the company would become one of the nation’s foremost producers of chemicals. Alden B. Dow began the drawings for a house for...
Thomas Defoe was the president of Defoe Shipbuilding, a major manufacturer of sea-going vessels of every description, from fishing skiffs and pleasure crafts to Navy torpedo chasers and palatial yachts. He commissioned Alden B. Dow to design a residence for his...
CLICK HERE for Autumn Reflections 2018 Google Map Alden B. Dow Renovated "As I see it, real housing should be a living, growing part of us and not a sterile machine. Real housing is not a place to hibernate, it is a place for individuals to grow." Alden B. Dow...
Robert Myers was a successful dairy farmer turned editor and publisher of the Lapeer, Michigan, County Press. In May of 1950, he approached Alden B. Dow with an idea to build an unconventional farm house on his 400-acre farm. Myers used the words of Henry David...
As President of the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, Alden B. Dow wrote a letter to Midland’s city manager in 1950 expressing the Foundation’s wish to finance the design and construction of a new public library to be situated in what then was the family’s...
Beginning in 1949, the Phoenix Civic Center was designed in stages by Alden B. Dow. His plan grouped a public library, a little theater, an art museum, and support facilities around a square interior courtyard whose landscaping included a pool and native plants,...
In the spring of 1936, Alden B. Dow prepared drawings of a residence for George Greene, a plant engineer with the Dow Chemical Company. Construction of the 1600 square foot house began in June 1936 and was completed in March 1937 at a final cost of $16, 983. It...
The Reece Endeavor Walk will have a Mid-Century Modern home on the walk again this year. Your ticket will not only grant you access to some beautiful gardens but it will also help support housing for individuals with special...