Concealed behind landscaping and a low brick wall is the S. Brooks and Florence Barron House, designed by Minoru Yamasaki. To an admirer from the street, it reveals only a low-pitched roof gable, a brick faade, and a few windows. This is typical of Yamasaki’s residential commissions. Like his other houses, most of the beauty of this structure lies in the way its interior space unfolds from within.
You can see that the building wraps around an entrance courtyard on the east side. Inside the courtyard there is a rectangular pond filled with aquatic plants. The building interior is spacious, with travertine and carpeted floors, and is well lit by skylights. Large windows integrate indoor spaces with a rock garden on the west and a deep backyard to the north. The intimate relationship between interior and exterior draws upon Japanese architectural traditions – perhaps influenced by Yamasaki’s 1954 tour of Asia.
The Barrons were prominent collectors of postwar American art. They sought out Yamasaki’s talent to design a home both for themselves and their growing collection. The house displayed masterpieces by artists such as Andy Warhol, Franz Kline, Claes Oldenburg, and Richard Artschwager. Henry Geldzahler, who was an art critic and curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, visited the home and gave credit to both Yamasaki’s vision and the Barrons’ taste for creating a rare environment in which art and architecture harmonize, rather than compete with, one another.
(Text excerpted from the Detroit Driving Tour script developed by the City of Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Board staff.)
