Frank Lloyd Wright's AD German Warehouse

Building History & Condition Report

Mariah Marshall

ContentsBuilding History.....................................................2

Structure & Condition..........................................15

Notes........................................................................30

Bibliography............................................................34

Appendix.................................................................36

1The small town of Richland Center, Wisconsin is the

unlikely home to a building that represents a significant shift in

the career of one of the most recognizable names in architec-

ture: Frank Lloyd Wright. In this building he brought influences

from early twentieth century architectural movements, his search

for an “American iconography,” Mayan architecture and new

technologies in concrete slab construction. The results were

the A.D. German Warehouse. Finished, incomplete, in 1921

the warehouse has a storied 90 year history of starts and stops

in construction, a long string of owners and a lack of direction.

The warehouse is located on the edge of Richland Center’s

business district and is strikingly different than any other

building in the town and most other cold-storage warehouses

in general. Weathering of the exterior materials is a visual

reminder of the fact that this building is 90 years old. Since

the warehouse is not a building type or style that is normally

associated with Wrights body of work it begs the question: how

and why is this building standing where it is? Wright’s Prairie

Style homes fostered his rise to notoriety in the early twentieth

century. Although regionally successful with his prairie style,

Wright desired more complex projects on grander scales than he

had been working with thus far.1 Wright consciously pursued

a change in direction for his career by traveling to Europe in

1909.2 After his return in 1910 he began to synthesize many

previous influences into a type of architecture that is strikingly

different from his earlier work. The construction of the A.D.

German Warehouse serves as one of the first attempts Frank

2Lloyd Wright made at combining the ideas he had become

famous for with influences he had not fully explored until

this period in his life.

The AD German Warehouse was built in a time

when Richland Center was still flush with money from an

economic boom that had begun in the 1880s. The town

was settled by Orrin & Ira Haseltine in 1849 along the Pine

River valley oriented in a north south.3 Richland Center has

a long tradition as a retail center that supports a surrounding

agricultural community. At this point in time wholesalers

were the main suppliers of goods to the surrounding

community of farmers. Albert Dell German was one of

seven wholesalers operating in the town at the time and

sold goods such as cheese, fruits, tobacco, lumber, produce,

livestock, poultry, eggs and feed.4 Richland Center not

suppored a surrounding community of about 17,000 people,

but it also was the governmental center. In 1852 the town

became the county seat and the courthouse that stands

today was built in 1889. The railroad came to Richland

Center at the prompting of another local business giant,

the Kroskoups, and helped foster an economic boom that

began at the 1880s. The town also had all the trappings of a

growing city, a public school system, teaching college, active

civic groups, suffrage organizations, health services, and a

city hall by 1911. 5

At the time the warehouse was constructed several

other large scale buildings were being built to fulfill the

3needs of local business owners. Most of these buildings

were of a similar style and were predominantly of brick

veneer and load bearing steel construction. Many examples

of the mercantile style buildings that dominate the

downtown area still exist today and have been restored.

Many of the marchantile buldings have had their storefronts

restored along the main downtown street. Some exemplary

structures are the Toms Funeral building Klining & Banker

Plumbing and the Prouty Block all finished in the early

1920s. One that stands out amongst the rest besides the

warehouse is the Edwards Block at 101 South Church, just

two blocks from the warehouse. Constructed by Judvine

Construction, the same builders of the AD German

Warehouse, this building was finished in 1913 and exhibits

a general prairie school influence different than the other

commectial buildings in town.6 These buildings all exhibit

the typical plain brick exterior that characterized commer-

cial buildings in early twentieth century Richland Center.

1917 marked the beginning of construction for the German

Warehouse and the beginning of a commercial building that

would stand in stark contrast to the rest of the town.

The commission for the warehouse came about

through a series of unpaid debts racked up by Wright.

Albert Dell German often sold goods to Wright and his

apprentices while they lived at Taliesin in Spring Green, a

little over twenty five miles southeast of Richland Center.7

Due to the unreliable nature of Wright’s income at the time

Richland County Courthouse

A.A. Bulard Building built 1883

Edwards Block Building

4he was often unable to pay German in full. This brought

about the commission for the warehouse as a way to pay

back German, and for German to fulfill a need to expand

his own business with a larger building. A 1916 article from

local paper the Richland Democrat describes the original plan

for the warehouse to include a “small teahouse restaurant,

specialized retail shops, a wholesale outlet store and a gallery

for local and regional artists, as well as space for Wright

exhibits.”8 Although this reciprocal plan between Wright

and German appeared to be a good deal for all parties

involved, German suffered from a string of bad luck with

his business and the construction costs, originally estimated

at $30,000 sky rocketed to $125, 000.9

Albert Dell German & His Wife

Richland Center is approximately 30 miles from Taliesin

5

�

The exorbitant final construction costs were not the

only misfortune to plague Mr. German. One of the first

major flaws in the planning of the warehouse came when

German failed to make sure a fork in the railroad line would

approach the side of the warehouse. His competitor A.H.

Kroskoup, who went on to become a prominent historical

figure in the history of Richland Center, built his house

in the precise location where the railroad line would have

approached the warehouse. German also suffered from

events on a global scale far out of his control. World War I

brought about rationing of dry goods and coal, that German

would have sold, were suddenly unavailable for him to

sell. The train line even stopped serving the entire town at

one point in 1918 because fuel was needed for the military

and trains were needed to transport troops. Ultimately

skyrocketing construction costs combined with German’s

declining business revenues ended construction. Although

incomplete, and lacking easy access to the railroad, the

state in which the warehouse was completed functioned

adequately for German while he was still in business with

the first three floors housing dry goods and the fourth

housing. His original thoughts of a teahouse, restaurant

and shops never materialized during the original round of

construction. German’s luck seemed to turn around in the

late 1920s before the advent of the Great Depression and

he took another chance at fulfilling his original plans for the

Warehouse under construction, around 1917

6warehouse.

Commercial commissions were rare for Wright

before 1910 as up until this time he had built his reputation

on his residences like the Robie House in Chicago. The

Larkin building, begun in 1903, was one of Wright’s first

commercial commissions and is an early example of how

Wright treated commercial space. The light court in the

center of the building provides natural light for the workers

and an air-intake system to drastically improve the quality of

life for workers.11 In 1909 he broke with domesticity, both

in his work and his personal life, by leaving Chicago and his

first wife and children to travel through Europe with Mamah

Cheney till 1910. While in Europe Wright oversaw the first

ever publication of his work, The Wasmuth Portfolio and

came in contact with many of the most famous buildings

of the western world for the first time in his life. Although

Wright visited Vienna after the height of the secession

movement, the city was still very much a thriving cultural

center in many regards.12 He greatly admired the work

of Otto Wagner and met with students of his and Josef

Hoffman’s during his time in Vienna. Because of this he

certainly would have visited buildings like Joseph Olbrich’s

Secession Building which exhibits many architectural details

derived from ancient civilizations.13 The secessionists’ ideas

on looking to the history of non-western civilizations for

form and views on designing environments as total works of

art are often cited as having an impact on Wright’s career.

Central Court of Larkin Building: Image: USC Department of Architecture

7Whether they truly influenced him or not Wright

would never admit.14 At the very least, Wright was exposed

to, and interested in these ideas. Even before his trip to

Europe Wright would have had access to images of Mayan

architecture simply by living in Chicago. Anthony Alofsin

wrote that “He tried to define a specifically American

iconography by searching for universal sources. This

approach includes using and transforming the motifs of

primary forms found in many other cultures.” Other

scholars on Wright have written that he could have easily

been reading things like John L. Stephen’s Incidents of

Travel in Central America, Chiapas & Yucatan with illustra-

tions by Frederick Catherwood.

These books depicted images from their travels in

the 1840s in Southern Mexico and Guatemala. Casts of

Mayan buildings were also present at the Chicago Colombian

Exposition of 1893. Striking photographs by Teobert Maler

were being published at the time as and the Chicago Field

Museum had exhibits on pre-Columbian culture at the time

that Wright lived in Chicago. In any event it would have

been easy for Wright to have discovered these sources of

influence simply by paying attention to popular exhibits and

publications of his day.15 Conclusions and comparisons

can be made from the buildings that followed his trip about

how he may have been playing with forms from non-western

cultures and architecture as total works of art, or gesamt-

kunstwerk. Many critics consider this time following his trip

8to Europe to be of little consequence and that from 1910

onward his work had less value to society than it had previ-

ously.16 However, to ignore the period of Wright’s life from

1909 till his death would be to ignore an incredibly inter-

esting shift in his career as well as a considerable amount of

projects including the warehouse.

The warehouse is described by architectural historian

Anthony Alofsin as a “… development of primary forms

within the context of his established design methods and

his use of a universal symbolic language”.17 In other

words Wright was attempting to synthesize the various influ-

ences he had at this point in his life into something that he

believed to be truly reflective of American architecture. He

was also looking to the roots of other cultures to inform his

designs. However unlike many others he was not looking

to Roman or Greek or Medieval European architecture;

instead he looked to the cultures that actually occupied the

American continent. For Wright, Pre-Columbian Mayan

architecture such as the pyramids at Chichén Itzá in the

Yucatan Peninsula, Palenque in Chiapas and the intricate

friezes of Mitla, Oaxaca, were “greater elemental architec-

ture than anything remaining on record anywhere else.”18

The structure most often cited as a direct influence

over the design of the warehouse is the Temple of three

lintels at Chichén Itzá in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. For

the warehouse, and quite out of the cultural context for the

town in which it sits, he uses what he had been exposed

Mayan Ruins - Photos by Teobert Mahler

Frieze at Ruins of Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico

Temple of Three Lintels, Chichen Itza,

Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

9to in Europe in regards to ornament. The Viennese

Secessionists were searching for a new way to express form

in a meaningful and “pure” way, and for them this meant

looking beyond the western world and into Egypt, Japan, the

Middle East and Pre-Columbian cultures. The A.D. German

Warehouse is Wright’s reinterpretation of monumental

Mayan architecture built in brick and concrete.

When German’s business rebounded he was able to

commission Wright to design a reuse plan for the warehouse

in 1934. Around ninety sheets still exist of drawings that

depict a German’s original programmatic desire and a shift

from warehouse space to offices, apartments, a restaurant

and shop.19 However, these plans were never to be realized.

Shortly after these drawings were completed German’s

business took its final blow when he lost the building after

failure to pay back taxes.20 After losing his business and

building, German left Richland Center for Florida and finally

Maryland where he passed away in 1945.21 Between 1945

and 1960 the warehouse went through a series of owners

and uses. Local business owners rented space to store

goods, even Wright used the warehouse to store freight

at times. Some of the more unique uses include a fallout

shelter in the wake of World War II and the Korean War

and a rifle range in the basement. The most recent chapter

of the Warehouse began in 1969 when Chicago architect

Robert Blust moved to Richland Center and purchased the

warehouse.22

10Robert Blust was the first to treat the building as

a historic landmark after buying it in 1969. He took an

important step in raising awareness of the warehouse by

working for its addition to the National Register of Historic

Places. Not only was the public being reintroduced to

the warehouse but they were also donating their money

to support it. The Johnson Wax Company gave $11,000

to secure an area in the warehouse to serve as a museum

focused on Wright and $9000, along with free labor from a

local carpenter, constructed a 45 seat theater on the north

side of the building. Local enthusiasm for and engagement

with the warehouse was at an all time high.

Local historian Margaret Scott describes in great

length and detail community events held on the roof terrace,

and an increase in tours through the building. Unfortunately,

like most events in the life of the warehouse, the success

was short lived. In 1978 the Wisconsin State Historical

Society allocated $27,898 for the restoration, stabilization

and modernization of systems for the warehouse. The

caveat which ultimately ended work on the warehouse again

was that matching funds had to be raised before the money

could be released. The money was never raised and the

warehouse fell back into uncertain territory.23

In 1980 the building was purchased by Harvey

Glanzer and Beth Caulkins. The two still own the building.

Prior to owning the warehouse Glanzer owned the Malcolm

Willey House in Minneapolis and was not a stranger to the

11work of Wright. Beth Caulkins was also working and living

in Minneapolis at the time that they bought the warehouse.

She was the owner of two gift shops, one on the east bank

and one on the west bank near the University of Minnesota

campus. Glanzer and Caulkins took over the operations

of the building in 1980 and re-opened it to visitors while

Caulkins operated a gift shop on the main floor.24 Not

unlike German himself, Glanzer also commissioned a reuse

plan for the building, this time by a former apprentice of

Wright’s, named John Howe. The two became acquainted

when Mr.. Howe showed up at the Willey House that

Glanzer had just recently purchased. He explained that, “he

came with the house” and the two began a working rela-

tionship that developed, like Wright and German’s, in more

plans for the warehouse.25

Until his death, Howe was an architect in Burnsville,

Minnesota and began his career as an apprentice with Wright

at Taliesin. Based upon archived correspondence Howe

remembers “Mr. German well; he frequently visited the

office at Taliesin in the 1930s.”26 He also was involved with

developing the working drawings for the never completed

1930s renovation. As a part of the renovation for Glanzer

Howe developed drawings that reflected the way the

warehouse was finished in 1921 along with a new design

proposal for the building. The drawings were completed

for Harvey Glanzer over a period of time in the early

1980s.27 Only a small portion of the plans were carried

12out, the ground floor was renovated for a gift shop and the

second floor of the annex was turned into a small café for

visitors.28 The warehouse stopped being open to the public

sometime in the early 90s and was only opened to the public

on Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday, which Richland Center

celebrated each year during the 1990s. Richland Center

is a different place than it was when the warehouse was

finished, economically and socially, but it still hangs onto and

cherishes its historic architecture.

At 5,018 people Richland Center is still the largest

town in the county and remains the county seat. The two

major highways that run through the town were recently

re-routed from directly through the central business district

to the former South Main Street two blocks west of where

the highways used to run. However, in no way has access

been cut off from the central business district because of

this rerouting. The warehouse is located at the north east

corner on the 300 block of Church Street at its intersection

with Haseltine Street. Directly to the south and east are

single and multi family residences. To the north and west

the central business district spreads out across 10 blocks.

Currently local businesses in the area include several banks,

post office, public library, book store, art gallery, gift and

coffee shop, record store, grocery store, gas stations, retire-

ment housing, theater, antique store and various offices

and apartment housing. Since 1967 the town has also been

home to a branch of the University of Wisconsin. The

13town and surrounding area also maintains and promotes

its natural context and carefully maintains and promotes

local bike trails, camp grounds and class I trout streams.29

There are also active theater groups and dance companies

that call Richland Center home. The warehouse that stands

today is a combination of the original storage space and a

partially renovated ground floor and annex. In order for

the warehouse to serve any purpose in the future its present

spaces need to be matched to, or able to be adapted, to the

needs of a potential user. The open floor plan within the

warehouse is typical of the building type, but Wright experi-

mented with the structural elements and materials in order

to maximize its load bearing capacity as well as its architec-

tural character.

Wright combines exotic influences with his previous

interests like the use of simple shapes, in this case the

square, to create the decorative elements on the warehouse.

The thick walls and narrow openings in the building give

it a massing that also recalls Mayan temples. Architectural

historian Vincent Scully writes that the warehouse is an

expression of Wright’s desire for “maximum mass, sculptural

weight, monumentality even more dense and earth-pressing

than he had achieved before – and one more primitive,

separate from his earlier culture, exotic to his eyes and deep

in time.”30

14

Structure This exercise in monumental architecture gave

German a warehouse that was not only unique for the

town, but for the whole warehouse building type. Most

warehouses of the day had the maximum amount of glass

possible in order to light the interior spaces. The German

warehouse has only three small strips of glazing on each

façade on the interstitial floors and fifty-four thin windows

punched into the frieze. Another unique characteristic of

this structure is the foundation system Wright used. A cork

pad stabilizes the building against shock. This same type

of foundation was used by Wright at his Imperial Hotel in

earthquake prone Tokyo.

15

A rail line was to run adjacent to the warehouse, and presumably

this would have absorbed vibrations that could have damaged

the structure along with the loads associated with storing large

amounts of goods. The concrete frieze in a pattern of repeating

squares surrounding the fourth floor is the most distinctive

and unusual part of Wright’s warehouse. The fact that Wright

created a highly articulated pattern in concrete is indicative of

his desire to work with the material in ways that he had not been

successful with before.

Wright’s fascination with concrete was on par with

many other architects at the turn of the century. His first use

of the material as a structural system came in 1904 at Unity

Temple in Chicago.31 At this point in his career he wanted

Section depicting proposed rail line

Cork pad laid underneath basement floor slab

16to achieve articulation in concrete, which he found to be

extremely difficult at the beginning of his experimenta-

tions with it. The structural system of the warehouse is an

early patented two-way reinforced concrete slab and column

system called the “Barton Spider Web System.”32 Wright

wrote, retrospectively, in 1929 “Aesthetically concrete has

no song nor any story …because in itself it is an amalgam,

aggregate, compound. And cement, the binding medium

is characterless.”33 Early reinforced concrete systems had

floor slabs were not smooth but looked more like a post

and beam system of timber or masonry. Claude A. Turner,

of Minneapolis, was the first to eliminate the beams which

dropped out of the floor slabs to create a completely

smooth slab held up with “mushroom” capped columns.34

Turner’s system was the first in a series of patented concrete

structures which included the one that Wright chose for the

warehouse – the Barton Spider Web System.

While Turner’s system was developed in Minneapolis,

Chicago also had its fair share of concrete construction and

innovation occurring at the turn of the 20th century. It is

probably more important to note the systems coming out of

Chicago, considering Wright’s connections to the city. When

the commission for the warehouse came about, Wright was

forced to consider the structural loads that the building

would need to withstand. Reinforced concrete was the ideal

system to accommodate these heavy loads. At the time four

specific systems had emerged as being at the forefront of

17building technology. Being as astute as he was about new

structural systems, Wright probably chose this system not

just based upon its load capacity, but also because of its

place as a cutting edge technology as well as the “organic

nature” of its reinforcing.35

Called the “Barton Spider-Web” the main structure

of the building is an early example of a two-way reinforced

flat slab and column system.36 The original patent for

this system was filed by Francis M Barton in 1915. Barton

was originally an architect in Chicago but dedicated the last

decade of his career to the manufacture of his reinforced

concrete structures.37 Barton writes in the patent descrip-

tion that he was attempting to create a far more economical

reinforced concrete slab. He achieved this by eliminating

beams and supporting the entire slab on mushroom cap

columns. This not only decreased the depth of the floor

slab and saved material, but also created new architectural

implications. For instance, instead of a ceiling with a maze

of crisscrossing beams there could now be a smooth unin-

terrupted surface along the ceiling plane. This floor slab

is completely supported by the “spider-web” of reinforced

steel bars as well as a system of columns running from the

foundation to the top floor.38

18

Above: Connection of Floor Slab to Walls Below: Detail of reinforcing running through columnsF.M. Burton Patent Drawings, 1915

19John Howe, a former apprentice at Taliesin during

the construction of the warehouse, compares this system

to a tree; “there is structural continuity of cantilevering

action from the roots, through the trunk and branches to the

outermost twigs.”39 Wright not only set out to rethink uses

for concrete as far as structure, but also with regards to the

purely decorative portions of the structure overlaying the

concrete column and slab system.

Concrete was Wright’s material of choice for the

most dramatic as well as functional, parts of the building,

the frieze and the structural system. The make up of the

concrete is thought to be of the cement that German

himself sold, which was the same as the standard estab-

lished for Portland Cement in 1917. The rest of the

mixture is river sand and gravel from a supplier in Janesville,

Wisconsin.40 The frieze was site cast in three separate

pieces, and the frieze measures approximately fourteen feet

tall, covering the full extent of the fourth floor and creating

the roof parapet. Wright’s treatment of concrete here is

seen as a precursor to his textile block, like those found at

the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles. The square patterns

Wright designed for the frieze combined with the mass and

shape of the rest of the building are a case study in Wright’s

desire to cast concrete into geometric as well as structural

form while experimenting with forms derived from his

fascination with Mayan architecture. These elements come

20together to form a unique building which symbolizes a very

distinct and interesting portion of Wright’s long career.

Anthony Alofsin wrote that “The A.D. German

Warehouse demonstrates the nature of the technology of its

materials as much as it displays exoticism.”41 The “nature

of the technology of its materials” is manifest in a limited

palette of concrete, brick and glass. Wright’s fascination with

ancient Mayan architecture certainly informed the exterior

formal elements of the warehouse but the underlying

structure was a very modern system. The exotic forms

that Wright molded the brick, glass and concrete into are

showing their age at nearly 90 years and need to be assessed

in order for the building to remain standing for years to

come.

Four pilasters run along the north and south exterior

walls and five pilasters run along the east and west walls and

add strength to the brick wall. The fact that there are so few

windows can either be attributed to a design decision (not

likely) or to the fact that more brick wall and fewer windows

allowed for a more controllable storage environment. The

fourth floor is surrounded by an ornamental concrete frieze

with 54 small windows separating the sections of concrete.

The decorative concrete was cast in different three sections

of wooden form work. From bottom to top each piece of

the frieze is placed slightly farther away from the wall so

the building appears to be flared out at the top. In terms of

usable space the warehouse contains approximately 14,990

21square feet of usable space. The basement level is not

contained in that calculation. The first through fourth floors

of the warehouse section are approximately 3600 square

feet each and the annex contains around 450 square feet of

space.42

The original drawings for the warehouse show

each of the four floor slabs supported by twenty four

reinforced concrete columns which in turn rest on 4’x4’

square footings. At this date there are no known structural

concerns with the concrete structure.43 No original

structural drawings exist for the warehouse, but the patent

drawings are most likely a close match to what was actually

built as the system is named specifically on one sheet of the

remaining architectural drawings. A layer of cork lies under

the basement floor slab that was presumably to absorb the

shock of a train line that would have run along the west

side of the building but was never built. The interior of

the building has been closed the general public for nearly a

decade and therefore any damage to the interior structure

is difficult to determine. However, simply viewing the

frieze from the exterior of the building may hold clues as to

possible damage on the interior.

22The frieze, probably the most recognizable element

of the warehouse, has easily identifiable white and black

stains running down the concrete. The most extensive

staining occurs on the northeast side of the frieze. These

white stains are evidence of efflorescence, and the amount

of lime that has leeched out of the concrete has completely

obscured the original material in a thick coating. Typically

efflorescence is not a threatening occurrence in concrete;

however the extent to which this has coated the surface

along with the extensive cracking present suggests water is

seriously accelerating the deterioration of the concrete. The

frieze is also suffering from many cracks in varying sizes.

These could have formed by any number of reasons, from

the building settling unevenly, freeze thaw cycles or poor

original craftsmanship. However, water damage is a primary

concern simply based on photographic evidence that shows

the large amount of efflorescence occurring at the northeast

corner.

23

The highlighted portions of the original section and

north elevation drawings below show the location of the

efflorescence in relation to the roof line and the photo on

the right demonstrates that water may very well be entering

where the concrete and the roof slab intersect.

Water moving through the frieze could raise

concerns about the stability of the connections used to

24fasten the concrete pieces to the interior brick wall. They

are most likely similar to the metal connections used to

attach architectural terra cotta and could be corroded at this

point.44

The photograph on the left was taken in 1981

by Randolph Henning, who completed his Master of

Architecture thesis on the warehouse in the early 1980s,

while the photo on the right was taken in the fall of 2007.

The storefront on the warehouse also has prominent

concrete features which are experiencing deterioration.

Columns with decorated capitals and extensions of the

second floor slab create the formal elements of this portion

of the warehouse. Some of the most striking deterioration

is occurring on the columns where the concrete has eroded

significantly in the past twenty years. Spalling is present in

several locations along the concrete that rings the base of

the building. Both exposed ends of the second floor slab,

the store front canopy in the front and the loading dock

at the rear are both showing signs of deterioration from

25spalling. This spalling could be caused by the regular freeze

thaw cycles that the building experiences each year where

the water that is absorbed into the concrete freezes, expands

and subsequently causes pieces of the concrete to break off.

If the spalling is indeed being caused by this then repairs

can be made by removing the weak deteriorated concrete

and installing a matching patch of new concrete.45 The

loading roof of the loading dock is also experiencing heavy

efflorescence. The other main exterior material besides

concrete is brick.

Although it may appear to be load bearing, the

exterior wall of brick does not carry the main structural

loads of the building. It is essentially a decorative element

wrapped around the reinforced concrete structure. This was

common for architects of the day who were still attempting

to sort out the design implications of this new structural

system.46 Wright designed a twelve inch wall of Flemish

bond brick that uses two colors of brick: red on the exterior

and yellow on the inside. Every fourth red brick header

is visible on the inside creating a pattern in the interior

walls. A small airspace occurs between the two wythes

of brick that adds insulation value to the wall. From the

outside the warehouse appears to be a masonry load bearing

structure though, as noted earlier, all the structural work

is done by the reinforced concrete system and the brick

façade most likely supports its own weight and that of the

frieze.47 Condition wise, there is evidence that many of

Deterioration around opening in

loading dock roof

26the mortar joints have deteriorated; this is most likely due

to poor original workmanship where mortar was only put

on one end of the brick instead of both during construc-

tion.48 This has lead to holes in the mortar at the head of

the bricks; repointing can solve this problem.49 There is also

minor efflorescence occurring approximately where the third

floor slab meets the brick. Repointing the mortar joints will

prevent more moisture from entering the wall cavity as well

as restore the aesthetic quality of the wall.

How to go about repairing the building and what

standards need to be followed are two important decisions

that need to be made. Because of its place on the National

Register of Historic Places, it is important that the standards

used to make repairs and restorations follow the Secretary

of the Interior’s standards. At the present time the owners

have plans to reopen the building to the public by the end

of May 2008. They have also expressed concerns about the

lack of a functioning elevator to service the upper floors and

will be replacing it before the building is reopened.50 Based

on observations of problems on the exterior of the building

caused by water, there could be a possibility that water is

causing problems on the interior as well.

Since the open floor plan on the interior has been

preserved the warehouse could certainly return to being

used as storage space. The ground level, with its large

windows that bring in a large amount of natural light could

easily return to some sort of commercial use. Although

Brick showing deteriorated

mortar joints

27the building does not have a large amount of glazing on

the second and third floors the fourth floor is ringed by

fifty four windows which let in a considerable amount of

light. The present problem at hand for the current owners

is the lack of accessibility to the upper floors; the elevator

that serviced them is no longer working and in order for

the owners to open the building to all sectors of the public

it will need to be replaced.51 At this time the owners are

planning to re open the building to the public, by appoint-

ment, by summer 2008. Still, because it will not be open on

a regular day to day basis the warehouse could be a candidate

for mothballing until a more permanent reuse is found. This

would at least stabilize the building against further deteriora-

tion and ensure that it could remain in a usable condition for

the future.52

Buildings need to be kept up. Whether they are five

years old or ninety years old like the warehouse, issues with

the material deterioration, upgrading of building systems,

and compliance with codes need to be addressed. In the

case of the warehouse, I believe that a combination of

preservation and rehabilitation is needed in order to make

the building viable for the community again. These terms

carry specific definitions from the Secretary of the Interior

and address two of the most pressing issues facing the

warehouse: maintaining the historic character and details of

the building while making it useful for the community of

Richland Center. Rehabilitation is defined as “The process

28of returning a property to a state of utility, through repair

or alteration, which makes possible an efficient contempo-

rary use while preserving those portions and features of

the property which are significant to its historic, architec-

tural, and cultural values.”53 Rehabilitation is important to

the future of the warehouse because it will revive its most

important architectural features for years to come. It is

also absolutely vital that this building be reused in a way

that takes into account the needs of the community but is

not damaging to the architectural character of the structure

itself.

The future challenges that await this building are

many, but the decision of whether or not it should be saved

needs to be answered. It is certainly important to Richland

Center because of the storied and integral part Frank Lloyd

Wright has played in the town’s history. When the warehouse

was added to the National Register of Historic Places in

1974 certain things were assumed and predetermined for

the future of the warehouse. The first, and probably most

obvious, is that by being placed on the register the public

knows instantly that this building is significant. No addi-

tional research is needed to understand that there is a certain

amount of historical clout and prestige associated with being

placed on the register. Although public recognition through

the register itself is important it also presents a set of issues

to be grappled with if the building is in need of any sort of

alterations or repair.

29 Every element, from the reinforcing system which

flows throughout all the floors and columns to the recessed,

raised and rotated geometric forms in the frieze compose a

building that seems to be an anomaly yet is highly indicative of

Wright’s career and personal influences during the late teens and

early 1920s. For these reasons, the building has been placed on

the National Register of Historic Places. Its place on the list

assures that it will maintain some level respect and attention.

However, this is not a given. Active participation and inter-

vention by the owners is necessary for the building to last into

the next ninety years and beyond. It would be prudent to pay

attention to the standards set by the Secretary of the Interior

when considering any sort of intervention as far as this building

is concerned. But is it enough to say this building should be

reused simply because it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright?

Or, is it more important to consider the needs of the town even

if that means they have no use for the building? Regardless of

the designer or its future, this building represents a not-often

studied, yet very important formative time in Wright’s career

as well as a visual reminder of a bygone era in the history of

Richland Center.

30NOTES

1 Anthony Alofsin. Frank Lloyd Wright--the lost years, 1910-1922 : a study of influence (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1993),

2 Ibid, 29.

3 Randolph Henning. The A.D. German Warehouse a Rehabilitation & Adaptive Reuse Design. (Univ. of Wisconsin Milwaukee Department of Architecture 1980). 17.

4 J. Rausch. Architectural Survey of Richland Center

5 Henning, 31.

6 J. Rausch. Architectural Survey of Richland Center

7 Henning, The AD German Warehouse, 31.

8 Margaret H. Scott. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Warehouse in Richland Center Wisconsin, (Richland Center, WI: Richland County Publishers, 1984), 99.

9 Ibid., 108.

10 Ibid., 138.

11 Jack Quinan. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin building : myth and fact (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987) MA 66.

12 Alofsin, The Lost Years, 56

13 Ibid., 56.

14 Vincent Scully. Frank Lloyd Wright. (New York City: R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, 1960), 13.

15 Alofsin, 223.

3116 Neil Levine, The architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright (Princeton University Press, 1997). 17 Alofsin, 231.

18 Frank Lloyd Wright, The Future of Architecture. (New American Library, Horizon Press, 1953) 52-53.

19 Frank Lloyd Wright [Alterations to the AD German Warehouse.] 1934. Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Taliesin West. Scottsdale, Arizona.

20 Henning, The A.D. German Warehouse, 8.

21 Scott, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Warehouse, 151.

22 Ibid., 161

23 Ibid., 169.

24 Ibid., 190.

25 Ibid., 190

26 Howe, John. Letter to Randolph Henning. 12 Apr. 1980. John Howe Papers. Northwest Architectural Archives University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

27 Howe, John. [Drawings for a Renovation of the AD German Warehouse.] 1980. North West Architectural Archives. University of Minnesota. 6 Sept. 2007.

28 Scott, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Warehouse, 197.

29 Richland Area Chamber/Main Street. 2007. City of Richland Center. 16 Dec. 2007 <http://www.richlandchamber.com/index.html>.

30 Vincent Scully. Frank Lloyd Wright. (New York City: R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, 1960)

3231 Eaton, Leonard K. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Concrete Slab and Column. Journal of Architecture 3 (1998): 315-346. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. 30 Mar. 2008.

32 Frank Lloyd Wright, Original 1917 Plans For the AD German Warehouse. Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona.

33 Kenneth Frampton. Studies in tectonic culture: the poetics of construction in nineteenth and twentieth century architecture (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 1995)

34 Eaton, FLW and the Concrete Slab and Column, 8.

35 Ibid, 12.

36Frank Lloyd Wright, Original 1917 Plans For the AD German Warehouse. Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona.

37Harold T Wolff, Unusual Craftsman House Seeks Sunlight, Ridge Historical Society, Chicago, IL.

38 Barton, Francis M. United States. United States Patent Office. Francis M. Barton, of Chicago, Illinois, Reinforced Concrete Building Construction. 5 Oct. 1915. 10 Mar. 2008.

39 John Howe, Building History and Description, 1980. John Howe Collection, Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota.

40Scott, 107.

41 Alofsin, The Lost Years

42 John Howe, Net and Gross Area Calculations, 1980. John Howe Collection, Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota.

43 Beth Caulkins, Personal Interview, 25 March 2008.

44 Stephen J. Weeks. Personal interview. 8 Nov. 2007.

45 William B. Coney, AIA, National Park Service Preservation Briefs, Preservation of Historic Concrete

33Problems and General Approaches, http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief15.htm.

46 Eaton, FLW and the Concrete Slab and Column, 10.

47Stephen J. Weeks. Personal interview. 8 Nov. 2007.

48Ibid.

49Robert Mack FAIA, John P. Speweik, National Park Service Preservation Briefs, Repointing Mortar Joints in Historic Masonry Buildings, http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief02.htm#Identifying%20the%20Problem%20Before%20Repointing.

50 Beth Caulkins, Personal Interview, 25 March 2008

51Beth Caulkins, Personal Interview, 25 March 2008.

52 Sharon C. Park, AIA, National Park Service Preservation Briefs, Mothballing Historic Buildings, http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief31.htm

53United States. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places. US Department of the Interior. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards Codified in 36 CFR 67 for Use in the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program. 17 Dec. 2007.

34BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alofsin, Anthony. Frank Lloyd Wright--the Lost Years, 1910-1922 : a Study of Influence. University of Chicago P, 1999.

Barton, Francis M. United States. United States Patent Office. Francis M. Barton, of Chicago, Illinois,

Reinforced Concrete Building Construction. 5 Oct. 1915. 10 Mar. 2008.

Beth Caulkins, Personal Interview, 25 March 2008.

Coney, William B. AIA, National Park Service Preservation Briefs, Preservation of Historic Concrete

Problems and General Approaches, http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief15.htm.

Eaton, Leonard K. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Concrete Slab and Column. Journal of Architecture 3 (1998): 315-346. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. 30 Mar. 2008

Frampton, Kenneth. Studies in tectonic culture: the poetics of construction in nineteenth and twentieth century architecture (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 1995)

Henning, Randolph. The a.D. German Warehouse a Rehabilitation & Adaptive Reuse Design. Diss. Univ. of Wisconsin Milwaukee, 1980.

Howe, John. Letter to Randolph Henning. 12 Apr. 1980. John Howe Papers. Northwest Architectural Archives University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Howe, John, Building History and Description, 1980. John Howe Collection, Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota.

Howe, John. [Drawings for a Renovation of the AD German Warehouse.] 1980. North West Architectural Archives. University of Minnesota. 6 Sept. 2007.

John Howe, Net and Gross Area Calculations, 1980. John Howe Collection, Northwest Architectural Achives, University of Minnesota.

35Levine, Neil. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Princeton UP, 1997.

Mack, Robert FAIA, Speweik, John P., National Park Service Preservation Briefs, Repointing Mortar Joints in Historic Masonry Buildings, http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/ brief02.htm#Identifying%20the%20Problem%20Before%20Repointing.

Park, Sharon C. AIA, National Park Service Preservation Briefs, Mothballing Historic Buildings, http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief31.htm.

Quinan, Jack. Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Building : Myth and Fact. Cambridge: The MIT PCam, 1987.

Rausch, J. Architectural Survey of Richland Center. Richland County History Room, Brewer Public Library. Richland Center, WI.

Richland Area Chamber/Main Street. 2007. City of Richland Center. 16 Dec. 2007 <http://www. richlandchamber.com/index.html>.

Scott, Margaret. Frank Lloyd Wright’S Warehouse in Richland Center Wisconsin. Richland Center: Richland County, 1984.

Scully, Vincent. Frank Lloyd Wright. New York City: R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, 1960.

United States. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places. US Department of the Interior. Secretary of the Interior's Standards Codified in 36 CFR 67 for Use in the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program. 17 Dec. 2007.

Wolff, Harold T. Unusual Craftsman House Seeks Sunlight, Ridge Historical Society, Chicago, IL.

Stephen J. Weeks. Personal interview. 8 Nov. 2007.

Wright, Frank Lloyd. The Future of Architecture. New American Library Horizon P, 1953.

Wright, Frank Lloyd, Original 1917 Plans For the AD German Warehouse. Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West,

Wright, Frank Lloyd [Alterations to the AD German Warehouse.] 1934. Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Taliesin West. Scottsdale, Arizona.

36Original Drawings - 1917 Provided by Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

37

38

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41

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46Selected Sheets from Proposed 1934 Renovation

47

48

49