Men's Building (Wilder Hall) for Oberlin College

There are some buildings that have been changed so much since their initial construction that it is often hard to fully appreciate their quality of design.  The Men's Building, known as Wilder Hall, at Oberlin College is such a building.  While the exterior of the building retains almost all of its remarkable Romanesque features, the interior bears almost no resemblance to what it once was. 

   

Near the end of his career, Joseph Silsbee was experiencing a storm of activity as he was working on various homes for friends and new clients, the earliest structures in Gary Indiana and planning for grounds and buildings for Oberlin College.  Though he had schemes for several buildings, Wilder Hall was the second and final structure that the college built to his plans.

The structure was designed as a dormitory, meeting and assembly space for men on campus.  In its early incarnations, it was called a "Y.M.C.A. building" and it is interesting to compare this with the Gary Y.M.C.A., built about a year later, to see how Silsbee adapted this type to another context.  The design that Silsbee presented to college trustees changed at least four times before a final one was chosen and  constructed.  An initial design was considered out of step with the look of the immediate college campus.  In order to compliment Warner Gymnasium by Chicago architect, Norman Patton (pictured below), a Romanesque style was chosen.  The primary design debate centered around the building's entrance.  Initially planned with a shallow portico with three arches above, a covered veranda was desired by the building committee.  Silsbee resisted the covering of the open piazza in the front of the building, noting that it would shut out light from the great hall on the first floor.  Another scheme included a modified covered entry with a large single recessed arch articulated above (pictured above).  The final scheme omitted the arch in favor of an austere squared cut-stone configuration above the main entry.

The building is detailed with massive stone walls, Romanesque arches and fine detailing like ornately carved column capitals and a bracketed eave.

Custom lighting that flanks the entry was designed for the building and was likely constructed by Winslow Brothers of Chicago. 

 

A woven checkerboard motif is used on the inside and outside of the buildings to accent engaged piers and stair raining balusters. 

Initially planed as a single large open room with fireplaces at each end, the current main hall is now subdivided into a series of small meeting spaces.  Off the main room, small alcoves were designed for more intimate gatherings.  Only one of these alcoves still exists.  Natural light would color the room in a gold hue as it passed through delicately detailed art glass transoms above each window. 

The main hall was once detailed with ornate columns and composite capitals and a beamed ceiling with egg and dart molding.  The ceiling is now completely covered and the columns stripped of all of their detail.  The intent of the space was to provide a large room that could accommodate several small informal groupings of students.  It had a stated social aim to foster camaraderie amongst the students much like Silsbee-designed club spaces did for their members.      

Silsbee donated a college seal that was made by close friend and college treasurer, James Severance's daughter, Julia.   This is located in a tympanum over the door to a main assembly hall, directly opposite the main entry.  The grand staircase that occupies this area has several remarkable features including a slow gradual rise of the railing from the first landing to the second and a gracefully curved balcony at the second floor that opens to this space.  Silsbee's son, Ralph, oversaw construction of the building and it was because of his work on it that he was able to get additional local work, eventually moving to nearby Elyria and setting up his own practice. 

Y. M. C. A. Building for Gary Indiana

In 1909, Elbert Gary donated funds so that the City of Gary could build a Young Men's Christian Association Building.  The building was to serve as a sports and recreation center, library, temporary dormitory, and dining facility for men in the city.  Joseph Silsbee had already set up a satellite office in the Gary Land Company Building and had much work at hand in the new city.  Construction was under way for a similar building designed by Silsbee for the Oberlin College Campus.  He seemed the perfect candidate for the new project in Gary.    

The Gary Y.M.C.A. Building was a massive cut stone structure that once stood on an entire city block, facing north on Fifth Avenue.  With it's lack of ornament, strict symmetry and wide hipped roof, the structure is austere and monumental.  It is also vaguely classical in it's appearance with modest carved stone work in the brackets at the balcony over the doorway and at the entry.  Besides this detail and some brackets at the eave, the structure is defined primarily by flat planar surfaces, piers and bands, all in the buff smooth stone material.  Photos better articulating this detail can be found at the U. S. Steel Gary Works Photo Archive.

At the time of construction, the building was considered "state of the art".  It was constructed of concrete, had accommodations for all modern functions with electricity and mechanical heating.  While the community seemed proud of the new structure, it was particularly proud of the handsome interiors.  The ground floor was dominated by a single open room with wide spans of carved beams supported by marble columns.  This main hall was arranged as a club-like setting and was lit with a series of elaborate chandeliers.  At the east and west ends of the main entry hall were large fireplaces with murals above.  Throughout, there were small grouping of furniture to create intimate gathering areas.  Directly opposite the entry was a wide grand staircase to the upper floors.  A bronze plaque, memorializing the building's patron was located at the top of the first stair landing, facing the hall.  The walls were articulated with paneling and wainscoting throughout.  It took approximately three years for the structure to be completed and once completed, were considered some of the finest interiors in the city.  I am unsure when the structure was demolished but a modern building, approximately forty years old, currently occupies the site.

The Frederick Baylies Residence

This is one of four known homes that Silsbee was designing in 1909 in Highland Park, Illinois.  During this period he seemed to have an interest, like many of his fellow Midwestern architects, in buildings that were designed by English Arts & Crafts architects like Charles Voysey.  The home has a brick first-story with brick buttresses at the corners.  The second story is stucco.  The porches on the first and second floors, once open on the east side of the home, have been filled in with windows.  The original wood shingle roof has also recently been replaced with a modern asphalt one.