Join Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research in Southwest Detroit for a memorable afternoon learning about the religious architecture of the region. In the spectacular Renaissance Revival sanctuary of the Most Holy Redeemer Church, Cranbrook Center Curator Kevin Adkisson will present a slideshow lecture covering a century of significant architects, artists, and artisans behind the monuments built for faith communities throughout Metropolitan Detroit. After the lecture, attendees will have an opportunity to tour and explore the art and design of the Most Holy Redeemer Church.

In the boom-years before World War II, architects built lavish parishes in an assortment of styles, including Gothic, Renaissance, Byzantine, and Colonial revivals, across the city. Churches from the Cathedral Church of St. Paul by Ralph Adams Cram (1915) to Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Associates Christ Church Cranbrook (1929) combine stone, stained glass, woodcarving, metalwork, and ceramics into monuments that rival European precedents.

In the second half of the century, modern architects relied on new forms and structural daring to shape churches. Minoru Yamasaki’s 1973 Temple Beth El, Nathan Johnson’s 1974 Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Gunnar Birkert’s 1977 Calvary Baptist Church each demonstrated new ways of achieving soaring spiritual space through modern design.

The lecture will take place in the ornate sanctuary of the Most Holy Redeemer Church, located in Southwest Detroit in the heart of Mexicantown. Built for what was once the largest Roman Catholic parish in North America, the Donaldson and Meier-designed brick-and-stone structure was constructed for the predominately Irish-American parish between 1921 and 1923. Its richly ornamented interior seats 1,400 and features stained glass windows by Boston artist Charles Jay Connick and the Detroit Stained Glass Works, and floors by Mary Chase Perry Stratton’s Pewabic Pottery. Today, the lovingly preserved church serves its predominately Latin American community as both a house of worship and home to Most Holy Redeemer School and Detroit Cristo Rey High School.

Kevin Adkisson, Curator for Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, works on preservation, interpretation, and programming across the many buildings and treasures of Cranbrook. Since arriving as a Collections Fellow in 2016, Adkisson has welcomed thousands of guests to Cranbrook’s National Historic Landmark campus, both in person and virtually. Through tours, lectures, and online programming, Adkisson makes history come alive with a friendly, humorous nature, and deep passion for art and architecture.

Raised in Marietta, Georgia, and introduced to architecture through the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Adkisson earned his BA in Architecture from Yale, where he worked for four years at the Yale University Art Gallery’s Furniture Study. Kevin Adkisson received 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.

Parking is available in the parking lots on the left side of Most Holy Redeemer Church, located at 1721 Junction Avenue, Detroit, MI 48209.