Columbus rediscovered
Columbus exhibit explores connection between city's buildings and its residents

by Nicole Kauffman
Hoosier Times
December 4, 2005
COLUMBUS - Buildings are alive as long as people observe them. They die only if they become invisible to us.

Those are the words of Bret Waller, director emeritus of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In a new exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art & Design, "Reflecting on Architecture: Columbus, Indiana," Waller challenges people to "think afresh" about architecture in Columbus, a city known for its unique structures. But they aren't just well-designed buildings; they are places where people live, learn, grow, play and pray.

"One of the things that is often said about art - any art - is that it shapes our lives. First we shape our buildings, (then) our buildings shape us," Waller said, paraphrasing Winston Churchill.

Waller decided to test that theory "in an unscientific way," by asking Columbus residents what they thought of the buildings in their city.



A solid foundation
The small Indiana city of Columbus became known as an architectural gem in the 1940s, when architect Eliel Saarinen of Finland, who was teaching in the United States at the time, agreed to design the First Christian Church in the city.

The 1942 structure resembles the top of a podium with a slanted ceiling. A tall, narrow column stands alongside it. Saarinen designed it with the notion that it should reflect the religion: one based upon the fundamental principles of Christianity. So the building would be based upon the fundamental principles of architecture.

Credit for expanding such architectural vision across Columbus goes to J. Irwin Miller, president of Cummins Engine Co., which is headquartered there. He strongly believed that buildings we experience as children can influence us in the same ways our teachers and families can.

That philosophy, as well as Miller's growing friendship with Saarinen, led to formation of the Cummins Engine Foundation, which under an agreement would pay architect's fees for public schools - a significant part of the cost of construction - provided the school board selected an architect from a list of the dozen or so best architects in America, Waller said.

The people of Columbus began to realize they had something special, and the Cummins Foundation soon extended the program to include public buildings. The program is still in existence.



Building history
The decades following the building of Saarinen's church witnessed the construction of the North Christian Church, City Hall, the homes of The Republic newspaper and Irwin Union Bank, The Commons, schools and other spots Columbus area residents see every day were designed by top architects. (Saarinen's son and business partner, Eero Saarinen, designed North Christian Church in the 1960s, as well as Irwin Union Bank and other Columbus buildings.)

Waller guest curated the Columbus Museum of Art & Design exhibit, which runs through Jan. 15. It includes images by Michigan photographer and architect Balthazar Korab, and small-scale models.

Three computers with streaming interviews with high-school students and community workers, and drawings by elementary-school children, show reflections on Columbus that people have today.

Susan Mercer, reference librarian at Cleo Rogers Memorial Library in Columbus, and Lanny Lawler, senior minister at North Christian Church, are two participants whose feelings about their work places are included.

"This is strength. ... This is where learning takes place," is what Mercer thinks the library's look says. Lawler feels his church suggests transcendence with its layout; visitors are asked to cross a threshold of sorts when entering, by having to step down into the church, then up again once inside.

Waller said that he ultimately wants to make exhibit guests "look again" at the structures that are old and familiar.

"The underlying text is that architecture is as much a process as it is a product, and that process doesn't stop with the physical, the ribbon-cutting," he said. "It continues to develop in our minds and change over time."