For more than three decades, Gregory Wittkopp has been shaping and stewarding Cranbrook’s collections, first as a curator, then as the Director of Cranbrook Art Museum, and now as the Founding Director of the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research. Major projects include the restoration of Saarinen House and the creation of the state-of-the-art Collections Wing, a $22 million project completed in 2011. Wittkopp holds an MA in Art History from Wayne State University and a BS in Architecture from the University of Michigan.

Founded in 1904 on the edge of metropolitan Detroit, Cranbrook is many things to many people—a world-renowned graduate art academy and contemporary art museum, a prestigious college-preparatory school, a preeminent natural history and earth sciences museum, three historic house museums and gardens, and much more. What they all share is a National Historic Landmark campus that has been described as the most enchanting setting in America. Join Gregory Wittkopp as he shares the stories of Cranbrook’s architects and the legacy of its founders, newspaper publishers George and Ellen Booth.

This is the third in a six-lecture series. The subject is Architecture: Shaping Buildings; Shaping Us. The next lecture series will start March 8, 2018. The title is Behavioral and Social Sciences: Real World Applications.