Kevin Adkisson assists in the preservation, interpretation, and programming across the many buildings and treasures of Cranbrook, an educational community north of Detroit designed by Finnish-American architect Eliel Saarinen. Kevin’s work is focused on the community’s three historic homes, now operated as museums: the Albert Kahn-designed Cranbrook House (1908), Saarinen House (1930), and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Smith House (1950). He has curated exhibitions on Cranbrook history and legacy of craft, design, and architecture, as well as guiding countless students and visitors through Cranbrook each year. Kevin writes and edits the weekly Cranbrook Kitchen Sink history blog, and teaches an annual course on the history of American architecture.
A native of north Georgia, Adkisson has his BA in Architecture from Yale, where he lived in architect Eero Saarinen’s Morse College and worked in the Yale University Art Gallery’s American Decorative Arts Furniture Study. Adkisson is completing his MA from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, with a thesis examining the role of postmodernism in shopping mall architecture. Previously, Kevin worked for Robert A.M. Stern Architects in New York as a research and writing associate and at Kent Bloomer Studio in New Haven, where he designed and fabricated architectural ornament. Kevin served as the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research Collections Fellow from August 2016—June 2019.
Kevin is more than happy to answer any questions about the design and history of Morse College.