Consulting architect says C.R. building not an example of Bauhaus architecture

CEDAR RAPIDS - The City Council says it isn't destroying an architectural wonder after all.

In December, the council voted unanimously to demolish the city's Public Works Facility at 1201 Sixth St. SW to make way for a new $36-million replacement, even though the city's Historic Preservation Commission had asked the council to keep the building in place. The commission had put the building on its list of 11 most endangered historic buildings in the city, saying that the former crane manufacturing plant and office building was the only example in the Cedar Rapids area of the Bauhaus architectural style.

This week, though, the City Council noted that the city's consulting architect for the new Public Works building, Neumann Monson Architects of Iowa City, has concluded that the building is not an example of Bauhaus architecture.

In a letter to City Hall, architect Roy C. Neumann, a founder of the Iowa City firm, notes that he studied at the Harvard School of Design and, while there, studied under Walter Gropius, a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School. The design of the Cedar Rapids Public Works Facility is “very atypical” of Gropius' teachings, Newmann states.

In particular, he states that the curved corner element of the facility is applied to the building as an “ornament.”

“Ornamentation in itself is not typical of Bauhaus styling, where simplicity and clean lines are key structural elements,” Newmann says. He says pilasters on either side of the building's entry are “frivolous ornaments,” more consistent with classical architecture and an art deco style, not Bauhaus design. The building's use of dissimilar exterior materials is not in keeping with Bauhaus design, he says.

“I make no claim to be an expert in “Bauhaus Design,” Neumann concludes. “I am merely expressing my opinion based on my personal experiences with Walter Gropius. In my humble opinion, I would say without a shadow of a doubt that this building is not a kin to the teaching of Gropius, and as such, most likely should not be considered a Bauhaus influenced design.”

Dave Zahradnik, a principal at Neumann Monson and the architect on the Cedar Rapids project, said on Thursday that his firm made its comments to the city after repeatedly seeing “the claim” that the existing Public Works Facility was “a rare example of Bauhaus design.”

The nine-member City Council now has an architect, Scott Olson, as one of its members. And Olson this week said he agreed that the one-time Link-Belt Speeder plant is not Bauhaus design.

Nonetheless, council member Monica Vernon said she was still interested in trying to save the defining, curved front corner of the office part of the building to incorporate into the new building or in some other way to use for display on the site.

She called the building's corner an “industrial icon” for the city and its industrial heritage no matter what its historic architectural value might or might not be.

On Thursday, Maura Pilcher, chairwoman of the city's Historic Preservation Commission, said two Cedar Rapids architects on the commission, Todd McNall and Brad Fritz, thought the Public Works Building was representative of Bauhaus design. In the end, Bauhaus is more a philosophy than a style, and the Public Works Building may be better described as deco or moderne, she said.

“Either way, deco and art moderne are probably the two rarest building types in the United States,” Pilcher said. “ … Even if it isn't Bauhaus, it's still a very significantly different looking building. And it's an industrial building that was architecturally designed and is very distinct in our community.

“You can put labels on it. But the fact is that people know it without knowing anything about architecture. They know that building as distinctive.”

The city enacted a policy after the flood of 2008 that requires the Historical Preservation Commission to review any structure slated for demolition that is 50 years or older. Council member Justin Shields, though, this week wondered if there would be a similar effort 50 years from to save buildings built today. Shields didn't sound that sentimental about Link-Belt Speeder.

“I thought Link-Belt Speeder pulled up and went to (Kentucky),” he said.

The council this week approved a preliminary site development plan for the new Public Works Facility, which will face south toward 15th Avenue SW, not north like the current building.

Sandy Pumphrey, an engineer in the city's Public Works Department, noted that the city will have to take two steps to mitigate the history lost in the existing building as part of an agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The agreement calls for the city to create a pamphlet about the Link-Belt Speeder's time in Cedar Rapids and for the city to conduct a survey of industrial buildings in the area of the former crane manufacturing plant.

Pumphrey noted that there is no requirement to save any portion of the existing Public Works Facility's front.

Construction on the new Public Works building is slated to start this summer and be complete in two years.