Columbus, Indiana, is perhaps the most unlikely city in America. In the mid-20th century, when the small Midwestern town began its expansion, conventional wisdom—which remains all too prevalent today—had it that Modernism was a harsh and unfriendly style foisted on the public by egomaniacal architects and ruthless urban planners. Most municipal governments would take the path of least resistance, opting for the cheapest solutions when building. Developers and corporations cared only about return on investment, aesthetics be damned. And locals often considered modern architecture to be an affront to their traditional values.
Columbus proved all those assumptions wrong. More than 80 years after it unveiled its first Modernist building, this “Athens on the Prairie” remains a thriving community with a legacy of more than 90 innovative and beautiful structures that enrich the day-to-day life of its inhabitants while attracting thousands of architecture fans each year.
The office and printing plant of The Republic newspaper, designed by Myron Goldsmith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was part of the master plan the firm developed for the town in the 1960s
EZRA STOLLER/ESTOThe town’s unique status is largely due to one man, J. Irwin Miller. Born in Columbus in 1909, Miller was in his mid-20s when he took over his struggling family business, Cummins Engine Company; following a stint in the Navy during World War II, he returned home to see his company flourish, becoming one of the country’s leading diesel engine manufacturers. But Miller wasn’t simply an astute businessman: He was also a civil rights leader, an active member of his church (at his suggestion, Elliel Saarinen was commissioned to design the town’s First Christian Church in 1942), and an ardent lover of modern architecture. In 1953, he and his wife, Xenia, commissioned rising star Eero Saarinen to design their house. Now considered one of the most iconic Modernist residences in America, the Miller House was renowned for its sleek glass walls and innovative sunken living room, Dan Kiley’s strikingly minimal garden design, and an interior that Alexander Girard filled with his own witty and colorful textiles and an array of furnishings and art from around the globe.
A loggia at the Miller House, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1953.
COURTESY OF INDIANAPOLIS MUSEUM OF ARTThe town, too, began to thrive in the postwar boom. But Miller was disenchanted by the way local leaders were handling its growth, which included the construction of two uninspired prefab school buildings. The businessman believed that his fellow townspeople deserved better, and that if Columbus took a more enlightened attitude to design, the town (and, by association, Cummins) could attract and retain the best people. So in 1957, he made a proposal: If the town would select the architect for any new public building from a list he provided, then the Cummins Foundation, which he had founded three years before, would pay the architect’s fees.
The First Baptist Church, 1965, by Harry Weese.
COURTESY OF THE GRAHAM FOUNDATIONThe Lillian C. Schmitt Elementary School, designed by Harry Weese, became the first of many projects underwritten by the Cummins Foundation. As Miller had hoped, other civic organizations and business leaders were inspired to follow suit: Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, top-tier architects were hired not only for schools, libraries, and fire stations, but also for banks, churches, offices, factories, and health care facilities. The list of renowned architects who worked in the town grew to include Saarinen and his father Eliel, Kevin Roche, Richard Meier, Robert Venturi, Harry Weese, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, James Stewart Polshek, and Deborah Berke, among numerous others.
The interior of the North Christian Church, commissioned from Eero Saarinen in 1959.
BALTHAZAR KORABOf course, no town is completely shaped by a single man. And the reverence for forward-thinking design that Miller helped to instill has continued even after his death in 2004. Community engagement, enlightened local government, and a willingness to invest in preservation and promotion have endowed the town of 51,000 with an unmatched array of architecturally significant buildings. Now, at a time when it is difficult to get even the most basic affordable housing built in many of our towns and cities, Columbus stands as an inspiration—and a challenge to the status quo.
The nave of the First Christian Church, designed in 1942 by Eliel Saarinen, and considered one of the first Modernist churches in the U.S.
TRAVIS STANSELTHIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 13 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
