Architectural Critic Will Morgan: Superman Building
Sunday, June 02, 2019
The Industrial Trust is the most recognizable and most iconic building in downtown Providence.
There are good reasons for this, beyond just the so-called Superman Building being the city's tallest at 420 feet.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTOpened in 1928, it has dominated the city's skyline for almost a century as one of the grandest pre-Depression era skyscrapers in the country.
No new building in downtown Providence since has approached the wannabe-dirigible-docking station in terms of architectural excellence and design quality.
Walker & Gillette, the New York architectural firm, was one of the most significant commercial firms in the boom years before the stock market crash of 1929 put an end to such magnificent expressions of America's economic might.
Alexander Stewart Walker studied at Harvard and Leon Gillette studied at both the University of Pennsylvania and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the premier classical architectural school.
From the founding of their firm in 1906 until the early 1950s, Walker & Gillette was in demand as designers of country estates, manors, and mansions for the mega-rich in places like Long Island, Florida, and the Berkshires, as well as New York City.
The firm's big impact, however, was in substantial and dignified classical, Art Deco, and Modern banks, post offices, churches, and office buildings.
Noted New York works include the Fuller Building, the New York Trust, and the Electrical Products Building at the New York World's Fair.
Yet the Industrial Trust in Providence is arguably their masterpiece. Edith Crouch's recently published monograph, Walker & Gillette: American Architects, From, Classicism Through Modernism, 1900-1950s rightly has the Rhode Island tower on the cover.
The Indiana Limestone Company supplied stone facades for most of the major buildings of the era, and would sheath the grandfather of all Deco skyscrapers, the Empire State Building.
So, it is not surprising that when the limestone quarries took out a full-page advertisement in the April 1929 issue of Architecture Magazine, they chose the Providence bank for their illustration.
The limestone advertisement illustrates a point about how solidly and beautifully built commercial structures were in the 1920s.
Architecturally, the Industrial Trust unapologetically expressed the wealth, confidence, and exuberance of the time.
The Great Depression put an end to skyscrapers completely covered in marble, granite, or limestone. Large downtown buildings after World War II would, thanks to modernism and new technology, forgo traditional materials in favor of aluminum, steel, and glass. Decorative carvings, murals, bas-reliefs, and triumphant eagles were dispensed with. It really is true that they just do not build them like they used to.
More recent commercial blocks, such as the Hospital Trust Tower of 1973 or the Textron World Headquarters (1969), unwittingly demonstrate why the 1928 Walker & Gillette tower is so far superior. Efforts to amass rentable square footage won out over the intangible benefits of commissioning a work of art that would enrich the commonweal.
The real difference between later buildings here and the Industrial Trust is that the 1928 bank is not just a box or a single shaft, but a series of massing that decreases as the structure increases in height. As the bank soars skyward, its several levels, from a stable base (a perfect metaphor for financial probity) to the beacon-like lantern, offer a graceful natural progression–an aspirational statement that no one can miss.
Ninety-one years after it was opened, this bank is still the strongest eye-catching element on the city skyline. It is no wonder that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has designated this bank as one of America's most endangered historic places.
That somewhat mixed honor confirms what we know about the Industrial Trust: that it is a national treasure. It reminds us that the Superman Building is worthy of our respect. Its renovation is not only desired, but a necessity.
So, how do we make the beacon shine again?
There have been many other successful downtown renovations.
It is fair to say that we do know how to revitalize the heart of our city, making the Industrial Trust a vital contributor to urban life.
The Rhode Island School of Design brilliantly rehabilitated the Rhode Island Trust Company Building as student dorms and a magnificent library.
Not long ago it seemed we were going to lose the Arcade. Just consider how many imaginative loft and renovation projects have transformed so many buildings in this city.
We have the know-how to make over the Industrial Trust. And we have developers who could successfully transform the now empty building into Providence’s premier hotel or office space (you know who you are: Union Studio, Cornish, Truth Box, Paolino, Studio Meja, among others).
Perhaps several developers could form a coalition to restore this structurally sound and potentially profitable piece of prime real estate.
Renovating the Superman Building will pay handsome dividends, as this landmark could become our most desirable and fashionable address.
It can be a permanent advertisement that Providence cares about its past while taking innovative steps to keep its downtown livable and lively.
Will Morgan has a degree in the restoration and preservation of historic architecture from the School of Architecture at Columbia. He is the author of The Cape Cod Cottage.
Related Slideshow: Photos Captured from Drone Footage of the Condition of the Superman Building - Feb, 2019
Related Articles
- New Round of Superman Building Tour Dates Announced
- High Wire Act: Women Investigate Superman Building
- Will 3 Towers on 195 Land Kill Superman Building’s Future for Residential?
- What is the Status of Superman Building? Bill Fischer Updates GoLocal LIVE
- EXCLUSIVE: Hasbro Looking at Superman Building to Create Providence Campus
- If PayPal Comes to RI, Superman Building Not Likely
- Take a Tour of the Superman Building
- EXCLUSIVE: Citizens Bank Looking at Superman Building for Corporate Headquarters
- GoLocalTV: RI Leaders Make Case for Saving Superman Building
- Bob Whitcomb’s Digital Diary: Superman Building, Mike Pence and Hillary
- UPDATED: Plan to Build Hasbro Headquarters in Providence—Demo Superman Building
- RI Leaders and Experts React To Hasbro Tower Proposal and Demolition of Superman Building
- EXCLUSIVE: Drone Footage Shows Superman Building’s Exterior Decay — Is It Safe?
- See Photos of Superman Building: Drone Footage and Interior & Exterior Inspections
- Police Respond to Late-Night Breaking and Entering at Superman Building
- Commerce Secretary Pryor LIVE — Superman Building, Infosys and Need to Improve Education in RI
- EDITORIAL: Superman Building — Now Dark for 6 Years. Will Anyone Lead?
- VIDEO: Commerce Secretary Talks Hasbro and Superman Building
- Senate Republicans Oppose Rehab of Superman Building Using Taxpayer Funds
- Rickman’s Big View - Call for Immediate Action on the Superman Building
- Could the Superman Building Be Imploded to Make Way for Hasbro HQ?
- Superman Building — Where Are We 5 Years After It Went Dark
- UPDATED: Virgin Group’s Richard Branson Voices Interest in Superman Building for Hotel
- Potential Superman Building Anchor — Samsonite HQ — Has Fallen Through
- NEW: Superman Building Named One of “11 Most Endangered Historic Places” in U.S.
