Much of the collection documents the meetings and correspondence of Cranbrook Academy of Art (CAA) faculty and various boards, councils, and committees. Communications amongst CAA staff, faculty, volunteers (like the Women’s Committee and later ArtMembers), Academy alumni and other stakeholders, other CEC departments, and the artists, groups, and institutions with which Knodel and the Academy staff collaborated. Some of these materials were created during routine Academy business, others discuss one-time projects like exhibitions, events, travel, and the efforts to design, fund, and construct the New Studios Building and to complete Academy renovations.

Series I: Administration (1994-2010)

Includes letters and memos, faculty files, meeting minutes or notes, and materials produced by boards and councils.

Notes and printed materials were also preserved from regularly-occurring faculty meetings, and yearly events like new student orientation, Director's Day, and the humanities and critical studies symposiums.

Series II: Special Projects (1995-2006)

Contains office files about special projects: councils, events, exhibits, and trips, including the Millenium Project, in which students of the different Academy departments made a dozen or more trips, mostly from 1996-2000. These files often contain agendas, correspondence planning the visits, and sometimes printed ephemera from the trips. In some cases, Knodel retained written student reflections. There are also plans that were cancelled because of, or otherwise refer to, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Series III: New Studios Building (1996-2002)

Holds assessment documents like studies and surveys, plans, and design and construction correspondence about the New Studios Building and other architectural improvements to Academy buildings. Files track the design, construction and funding processes for a long-desired Academy studio space for fiber, ceramics, and metalsmithing students, as well as renovations to existing CAA facilities. Event planning for the 2000 groundbreaking and the 2002 dedication of the building, and promotional media like brochures, press releases and article clippings are included.

Project Initiative Team (PIT) files include correspondence with the architects Jean-Claude Azar, George Hedgespeth, Dan Hoffman, Mary Kauper, Joe Metro, Marsha Miro, Peter Osler, Roberta Stewart, Beth Stone, and Greg Wittkopp.