The Sanford Rossen Collection is comprised almost entirely of black and white photographs and color slides of buildings and complexes designed by Sanford-Neumann & Associates during the 1970s. There are a few folders of projects undertaken in the 1960s and in the early 1980s, but the bulk of the material represents the period during which Rossen was associated with Kenneth Neumann. Although the collection includes some slides and photographs of architectural drawings, there is little of substance in this regard, and there is virtually no printed documentation related to individual buildings. The collection will therefore best serve the researcher interested in the visual representation of newly constructed buildings in this time period.
Rossen utilized the services of Balthazar Korab, an internationally acclaimed Detroit-based photographer, to capture on film the essence of many of his buildings. (In 1964, Korab was awarded the American Institute of Architects' Medal for Photography of Architecture, and his photographs have been exhibited in numerous major galleries, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts.) Rossen had numbers of these prints dry-mounted to hang on office walls and featured others in marketing materials. Some of the photographs are signed by Korab, but the majority are not, and for most, the identity of the photographer is unknown. Researchers wishing to study examples of effective and exceptional architectural photography, however, will find the collection a rich resource, particularly for Michigan area buildings.
Michigan architect Sanford Rossen was born in Detroit in 1927 and died in 1984 at age 56. A graduate of Central High School, he served in the United States Navy before attending the University of Michigan's school of architecture. While earning a Bachelor of Architecture at Michigan, he was elected to membership in Tau Sigma Delta Architectural Honorary and received the American Institute of Architects' School Gold Medal, the highest award the architectural school bestows upon a student.
Upon graduation in 1951, Rossen worked for a number of Michigan architects as a project designer and project manager. In 1957, he founded Sanford Rossen A.I.A. Architects in Southfield, Michigan. Commissions included a variety of building types -- office structures, hotels, industrial buildings, banks, medical facilities, single and multi-family housing, theaters, race tracks, and commercial and office interiors. In 1964, the firm won a national design competition for the Elmwood Park Urban Redevelopment project in Detroit.
From 1968 to 1981, Rossen was in partnership with a former employee, Kenneth Neumann. Rossen-Neumann Associates consistently won awards for major projects, among them a national design competition for the Villa Site urban renewal area in Evansville, Indiana. The firm received widespread recognition for its design of outdoor music pavilions, most significantly Pine Knob in Michigan and Poplar Creek in the Chicago area. Other award winning projects included American Office Park (Southfield), Young Israel Synagogue (Southfield), Cleaners Hanger Company (Bloomfield), Troy Place Office Complex, and Farmington Professional Pavilion. When the partnership terminated in 1981, Rossen formed Sanford Rossen & Associates in the same year.
Rossen served for nine years on the Southfield, Michigan Planning Commission and was active in committee work for the Detroit chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He maintained contact with the University of Michigan, and was an adjunct professor in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He also lectured at Lawrence Institute of Technology School of Architecture in Southfield. A newspaper article at the time of Rossen's death, while recounting numerous exemplary achievements in commercial and public structures, reported that his favorite buildings were three houses, including the one he and his family lived in for twenty-five years on a wooded tract on Mulberry Court in Southfield, Michigan.
