MAF is pleased to announce it recently awarded two Damian Farrell Architecture Awareness Grants. The grants provide financial assistance to organizations and individuals that organize, sponsor, and promote events, lectures, publications, and experiences that increase awareness and appreciation of architecture. Find out more about the grantees and their projects.
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research 2025 History of American Architecture lecture series, “Utopias”
Led by Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research Curator Kevin Adkisson, this year’s five-lecture series studies utopias and their role in shaping modern architecture, examining how utopian visions have given form to radical experimentation in architecture, though utopia itself remains elusive.
Each weekly lecture introduces new utopias — from ideas and plans to buildings and entire cities— in a 75-minute, image-rich lecture that draws from the resources of Cranbrook Academy of Art Library and Cranbrook Archives.
The 2025 lecture series commenced February 18, 2025, and concludes March 18, 2025, with virtual lectures each week on Tuesdays at both 12:00pm and 6:30pm and an in-person lecture at Cranbrook Art Museum in deSalle Auditorium at 6:30pm. https://center.cranbrook.edu/events/2025-03/history-american-architecture-utopias-0
BETWEEN: Approaches to Existing Buildings in Disinvested Communities (book by Amy Hetletvedt, AIA; Island Press, 2025)
‘BETWEEN: Approaches to Existing Buildings in Disinvested Communities’ unfolds a revolutionary but simple vision for re-thinking historic preservation in disinvested communities, presenting actions that re-enliven buildings to the benefit of the community. The book is a resource for community members and professionals, and contribution to the intersecting fields of historic preservation and community development.
Post-publication, the book will be promoted through free public author talks and book launches in communities around Michigan.
MAF’s board and the grant committee cited the diversity of work and ideas presented by the applicants among the deciding factors for the recent grants awarded.
Damian Farrell Architecture Awareness Grants are awarded each January and July (applications are now being accepted for the next round of grants in July). Applications are judged by the MAF Damian Farrell Architecture Awareness Committee and approved by the MAF Board of Trustees. In 2025, a total of $15,000 will be awarded.
Past projects benefitting from the grants include the Hidden in Plain Site and Forming Function Podcasts; MAF’s ArchiTreks educational series (in conjunction with Detroit Public Television, which airs on the Michigan Learning Channel); the award-winning documentary on Charlevoix’s unique Mushroom Houses, and the film ‘Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future’; NOMA Detroit’s Project Pipeline Architecture Camps for minority and under-represented high school students; free architecture tour maps of Michigan communities including Flint, Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids; the book, Guardians of Michigan, featuring architectural sculptures from buildings throughout the state; Flint’s Flat Lot Design Competition, Washtenaw County’s Community Action Network (CAN) Art & Design program, and countless others. (The program was renamed the Damian Farrell Architecture Awareness Grant in April 2023, in honor of the program’s late long-time chair Damian Farrell. The program is now being led by MAF Trustee Alan Cobb).
For more information on the grants and how to apply: https://michiganarchitecturalfoundation.org/grants/awareness-grants/