Landmarks Commission will not endorse Erdman nomination

The Landmarks Commission on Tuesday held a public hearing before taking action on the Landmark nomination submitted for the Marshall Erdman office and shop complex at 5117 University Avenue. They voted unanimously to not recommend adoption of the nomination by the Common Council. The nomination will still be considered by the Common Council, but without a recommendation of the Landmarks Commission.  Technically, the motion that the Commission passed resulted in no recommendation to the Council, as opposed to a recommendation to not designate the property.

The number of registrants for the agenda item was low relative to other controversial issues the Commission has heard, and supporters of the nomination were outnumbered by registrants in opposition. Discussion among the commissioners was brief and centered on the the question of whether the property meets the Landmarks criteria and if so, which ones.  The nomination argues that the property meets all four criteria, but commissioners concluded that the property meets only criteria 2 for its association with the historic personage of Marshall Erdman. There was also discussion about whether this is the property that best conveys the legacy of the Erdman company and its contributions to the Madison’s urban landscape. The company built the First Unitarian Society Meeting House (a National Historic Landmark),  the prototype of the innovative Doctors’ Park concept that became a national model for suburban medical clinics, the area’s first neighborhood designed on New Urbanist principles, and hundreds of prefabricated houses in Madison’s post-war subdivisions, including two designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and several by prominent local Modernist architects William Kaeser and Herb Fritz.

The eligibility of the Erdman office and shop complex was earnestly debated in the weeks prior to the hearing. I visited the complex for an interior tour along with Alder Mark Clear, city Preservation Planner Amy Scanlon, the representatives of the property owner, Erdman Holdings. As a Modern looking little building that was on the leading edge of Madison’s post-war westward suburban expansion, it’s a neat artifact. It’s main entrance clearly shows the influence of Wrightian Modernism on William Kaeser, Erdman’s neighbor, and the architect of the original office and shop section of the complex. And it’s the place where much of Erdman’s work was conducted for nearly fifty years, including episodes of collaboration with Wright himself.  The original office and shop section of the complex was conjoined in the 1970s to an adjacent building that was built in 1950 as a furniture showroom. The connecting segment and another section built in 1977 are architecturally insignificant, but do show the evolution of the complex as the company grew.

Ultimately, Scanlon concluded that while the property could meet at least one of Landmark criteria, it is the not the property that best exemplifies the legacy of the Erdman company in Madison. She outlined her conclusions in a staff report to the Landmarks commissioners. After extensive consideration and many conversations, we came to the same conclusion.

Whether it passes the Council or not, this nomination catalyzed an important discussion about Marshall Erdman’s importance to Madison’s post-war development history that will result in the nomination and designation of other properties built by the company. Erdman Holdings has already shown sincere interest in helping to make that happen.

Below are my comments to the Landmarks Commission.

We disagree that this complex meets all four criteria of the Landmarks Ordinance. We believe that it meets criterion 1 for association with the Erdman Company and its role in patterns of post-war development in Madison, and criterion 2 for its association with Marshall Erdman himself, significant for his role as a successful Madison builder, and for his collaboration linking prominent architects with prefabricated housing design and construction.

However, regarding criterion 3, the complex does not exemplify the principles of organic architecture or passive solar design in ways that inform the study of those design principles. It is actually a conglomeration of building segments, one of which was designed and built as a furniture showroom – wholly separate from the Erdman company’s development. The complex  illustrates Erdman’s thrift more so than his expertise as a builder or the company’s success in prefabrication, medical  facilities, modular furniture, or New Urbanist neighborhoods.

Regarding criterion 4, this complex is not a design that exemplifies the work of William Kaeser. There are Kaeser-designed buildings in Madison that are more clearly indicative of his work as influenced by Wright. We question whether Erdman himself can be considered a master builder. He mastered established methods of prefabrication as a system of building delivery, but he did not innovate building technologies or invent methods of prefabrication. He recognized the local need for housing and employed established prefabrication technology to meet the need. He then successfully applied his expertise in prefabrication to the rapidly expanding suburban market by developing a model for suburban prefabricated medical office buildings. As a young man and newly established building contractor he did build the FUS Meeting House designed byWright, but the unique design and its innovations were exclusively Wright’s.

A Landmark nomination should be held to a high standard when it comes to presenting the history and significance of a historic place. Much like a National Register nomination, it becomes the official history of the Landmark, or at least a key component of the official history. It becomes an important source for subsequent research on that property. We are not comfortable with this nomination becoming part of the official history of this building or the Erdman company.

Despite meeting two of the criteria, the conglomeration of building segments at 5117 University Ave. is not the place that best conveys the contributions of the Erdman Company to the urban landscape of Madison. Erdman built hundreds of homes in the Madison area, two in collaboration with Frank Lloyd Wright, and several others with William Kaeser, and Herb Fritz. He built a church, designed by Wright, that has significance to postwar ecclesiastical design nationwide. The prototype for his  suburban medical clinic model still stands at 3414 Monroe St. The office and shop complex is the place where much of the work took place, but the accomplishments of the Erdman company are better exemplified by those buildings the company designed, fabricated, and built.

We’ve compared this building to other historic places: the Rennebohm Building on University Ave., the Woman’s Building on Gilman St., and Aldo Leopold’s converted chicken shack where he wrote A Sand County Almanac. The key difference between these examples and the Erdman office building is that these were the only physical places directly connected to the respective histories of the Rennebohm Drug Company, the Woman’s Club of Madison, and Leopold’s seminal work of ecological ethics and philosophy. It was important to retain these unique places because no other buildings existed to illuminate these aspects of Madison’s history. The Erdman company, while operating in this complex, was producing other buildings in collaboration with prominent architects. They were constructing buildings that, of themselves, express the company’s design and prefabrication achievements, and showcase Erdman’s collaboration with Wright, Kaeser, Fritz and others. They were contributing to the evolution of Madison’s urban landscape, and meeting demands for suburban housing as the city grew in the post-war decades. If the Erdman office and shop complex was an important example of Erdman’s work, Kaeser’s work, or Wright’s influence then we would be more enthusiastic about this designation. We feel that there are other places in Madison that better exemplify the significance and influence of Marshall Erdman.

Category: Executive Director's Blog, Madison Landmarks Commission