“Going to Mecca”
April 26, 2011
by Anna Lemberger
When first glancing at Associate Professor Anna Vemer Andrzejewski’s lecture title, Midwestern Modernism: “Wrightification” and Domestic Architecture in Madison, Wisconsin 1930-1970, I felt a little unenthused. Besides Frank Lloyd Wright, what could one possibly say about Wisconsin architecture? But Andrzejewski, from UW-Madison’s Department of Art History, during her lecture on Friday in the Architecture and Urban Planning building, wove a colorful narrative on how place-based Midwestern architecture came to be.
Andrzejewski’s specific interest is in Marshall Erdman, a “merchant builder” who had a close personal and professional relationship with Wright. Erdman was an entrepreneur and builder with a respect for artists and design. Andrzejewski places him within a movement of “Wrightification” that saw architects and builders borrowing and transforming aspects of Wright’s buildings for the masses. Andrzejewski provided some background information on Erdman, which included his enlistment in the Army during World War II and his post-war building projects. Recognizing a post-war housing shortage, Erdman took up constructing low-cost veterans’ housing. Soon after he was asked by Wright to work on the Unitarian meeting house—an experience he said “was like going to Mecca.” I really enjoyed the anecdotal moments of the lecture that showed the wonderful relationship between Erdman and Wright. When Erdman first met Wright, Wright asked, “Baby, how would you like to be famous?” Erdman seemed to take this question quite seriously because he continued to create business for himself by advertising his relationship with Wright. Erdman and Wright also worked together on creating low cost, high quality prefab houses that Erdman could market to a wider audience. Erdman’s emphasis on mass-produced housing for the middle class seems to define his career.
Andrzejewski certainly covered a lot in her lecture so I encourage people to check out her web page and books for more information. What interested me most was seeing the way the architecture and building methods really fit into the broader historical atmosphere of the time. Erdman focused on mass production and creating prefab building parts in his Madison factory. His largest projects were the doctor’s parks, of which he built over 3,000. The doctors’ offices were built on the idea that people prefer to go to offices where they can park. Today this seems like an obvious feature, to include a parking space. But I suppose at that time, the car-based society we have today was just starting to boom. It is interesting to see how architecture reflects social changes or at least, in this case, the way Erdman was so in tune with the places he built on and people he built for, much like Wright.
