January 2012 Update:
Too Late… It’s Gone! Gone gone gone … forever.
10/4/11 Madison City Council voted to “put on file” Landmarks Commission report regarding Marshall Erdman Office & Shop. After, alders unanimously approved new development that would demolish MEOS. The building is not down yet. A city review committee considers allocating TIF money for the new development at 5 pm on Tues., October 18 in Room LL110 of Municipal Building in downtown Madison, Wis.
The historic Marshall Erdman Office & Shop (MEOS) at 5117 University Avenue in Madison, Wis. should be saved from demolition. It should be preserved so future generations can discover its lessons and ponder its stories.
View Solar Photos.
PRESERVATION EFFORTS
On July 13, 2011, a Madison resident nominated the building for Local Landmark status under all four ordinance criteria: history, architecture, important person, and master builder. In 2010, state historical preservationists signaled the property’s importance when they deemed it eligible for the National Register of Historic Places for important person.
BUILDING HISTORY
Marshall Erdman built this, his commercial headquarters, in 1949-50 and ran his design/build firm from the front second floor office until his death in 1995. During that time, he built Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Unitarian Meeting House nearby; developed an artisan approach to prefab housing that left its imprint all over Madison and beyond; and masterminded the national independent medical building revolution called Doctors Parks.
The Office & Shop complex was designed by William Kaeser – Madison’s first city planner, renowned Wrightian architect, and Erdman friend and neighbor. For 60 exciting years the building remained Erdman corporate headquarters.
Marshall Erdman practiced thrift along with deep commitment to place. Through the years he expanded the building to meet his growing firm’s needs. This conservation of matter illustrates wonderfully how Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture principles were carried on post-WWII by Mid-Century Modernists.
The building is a testament to Erdman’s enduring legacy – to his life, his art, and his business acumen; to his supportive personal, social, and professional networks; and to myriad complexities faced post-WWII by Madisonians, Wisconsinites, and all Americans.
