Minoru Yamasaki, Detroit’s best-known midcentury architect, left his mark all over the city. Locally he designed office buildings, houses of worships, educational institutions, and residences. Learn how Yamasaki came to Wayne State University in the mid-1950s to extend and execute their master plan with new buildings and a pedestrian-friendly campus, and then helped to establish the College for Creative Studies' new 1950s campus. This tour explores Yamasaki’s legacy in Detroit's Cultural Center, including a stop at Wayne State University’s magnificent McGregor Memorial Conference Center and reflecting pool.

In the decades before Michael Grave’s Portland Building grabbed global headlines, local Modernist pioneers John Yeon and Pietro Belluschi brought fame to the city with architectural designs of their own. They were soon followed by big name firms such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, as well as a few “starchitects” of their time, namely Charles Luckman and Hugh Stubbins. Added to this mix was the exceptional work of landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and a plethora of local firms including ZGF. This tour takes a look at the work of these and other architects that have left their mark on downtown Portland over the past several decades.