February 2024 | Advocacy Opinion
Landmarks Commission misses the mark when it decides Law, Law & Potter’s Art Deco style Union Bus Station has “no known historic value”
By Kurt Stege, Advocacy Committee Co-Chair
Photo by Kurt Stege (click to view images full screen)
In early December, the Landmarks Commission exercised its responsibility to assess the historic value[1] of six Downtown buildings northeast of the intersection of North Fairchild Street and West Mifflin Street that were the subject of a notice of demolition application. The Landmarks Commission’s evaluation serves as a recommendation to the Plan Commission which then applies the provisions of Sec. 28.185, Madison General Ordinances, and decides whether or not to approve the demolition application. This article focuses on property with a street address identified by the applicant as 15 N. Fairchild St. although it is a wing of a building facing West Washington Avenue. Hovde Properties owns the buildings with these six addresses and seeks their demolition. Photos and additional background information are available in a November 18, 2023, piece by Dean Mosiman in the Wisconsin State Journal.
I believe that easily obtainable information was either not provided to the Commission or was ignored by the Commissioners resulting in their erroneous conclusion to ”green light” the demolition.
The Commission’s practice in terms of conducting a review of historic value for purposes of possible demolition includes the preparation of a “Demolition Report” by City Planning staff in advance of the Commission meeting. In this instance, the staff report was prepared on November 29 for a December 4 meeting of the Commission. City staff concluded that its preservation office had no records regarding 15 N. Fairchild St., and that the building had no historic value. In other words, this characterization at the lowest level of historic value would give the Plan Commission a “green light” for granting demolition.
“I believe that easily obtainable information was either not provided to the Commission or was ignored by the Commissioners resulting in their erroneous conclusion to ”green light” the demolition.”
But at the December 4 meeting, Planning staff made a slide presentation that included revised information and a different recommendation. According to the presentation, preservation records existed and showed that the North Fairchild Street wing was part of the original 1928 construction of the Wisconsin Power & Light (WP&L) Building facing West Washington Avenue, that the entire structure was designed by Law, Law and Potter, and that the wing served as a mailroom. Based on this new information, staff recommended a “yellow light” finding that the wing had “historic value related to the vernacular context of Madison’s built environment, as the work/product of an architect of note (Law, Law and Potter), but the building itself is not historically, architecturally or culturally significant.”
After the slide presentation, one of the Landmark Commissioners stated that removing the wing would not “diminish” the WP&L Building which was the “real value” of the building complex, and that the façade facing North Fairchild Street was “just blank walls.” The Commissioner said he didn’t think the wing carried any historic significance.
Based on this information, the Commissioners voted to ignore the staff recommendation and make a “green light” recommendation of “no known historic value” to the Plan Commission.
Image from preservation file on the WP&L Building
Unfortunately, the Planning staff slide presentation misrepresented the content of the preservation office’s file on the WP&L Building. That file clearly supported a “red light” recommendation to the Plan Commission. For one thing, the preservation file makes no mention of the wing ever serving as a “mailroom.” In several locations the file states it served as the Union Bus Station: "The rear section of this building was constructed as the Union Bus Station. It is the only building left in Madison connected with this form of transportation." The file also quotes a Capital Times story of December 31, 1928, as stating: "The Union Bus Station being built in the rear of the office building will be one of best equipped & most convenient in Wis. 12 Buses can be loaded at one time." The preservation file includes the image to the right that, again, references the unitary design and construction of the WP&L Building and the Union Bus Station:
Equally important, there are multiple references in the preservation file that the WP&L complex was designed by one architectural firm (Law, Law & Potter) in the Art Deco style. That style is clearly reflected on the West Washington Avenue façade as well as the entire North Fairchild façade. It is quite evident in the carved lintels above the second-floor windows of the transportation wing. The lintels include spoked wheels, a direct reference to the bus station function of the wing.
The ”red light” level of historic value aptly describes the Wisconsin Power & Light Building which continues to include the bus station wing of the 1928 complex. It is the work of “an architect of note” and the complex is an intact example of the stunning Art Deco style that is underrepresented in Madison. Its stature as the “only building left in Madison” associated with bus travel also provides it with cultural significance that warrants a “red light” designation.
A brief search of images available online from the State Historical Society generates two vintage photos of the Union Bus Station, including the following.
The Union Bus Station fronting North Fairchild Street could accommodate twelve buses at a time. Image ID 121195
A mistake was made. Now what?
The Plan Commission meeting agenda for February 26, 2024, will include consideration of the entire demolition request submitted by Hovde Properties, including the Union Bus Station. The recommendation from the Landmarks Commission on December 4 relating to the North Fairchild wing of the Wisconsin Power & Light Building is that it has “no historic value” despite the fact that this wing was designed in the late 1920s by Law, Law & Potter, which certainly qualifies as an architectural firm “of note.” The WP&L complex is intact and in the Art Deco style, a style that has relatively few remaining examples in Madison. The Union Bus Station also qualifies as a “culturally significant” structure because, according to the preservation file not made available to the Landmarks Commission, it is “the only building left in Madison connected with this form of transportation.” While modified since its use as a bus station, the building still clearly “reads” as a bus station.[2] Its façade facing North Fairchild Street bears Art Deco style motifs with spoked wheels above its second story windows, a reference obviously tied to its function as a bus station. That façade includes other architectural elements that carefully incorporate the wing into the overall design of the WP&L complex.
While the Landmarks Commission assigned a “green light” recommendation to the Union Bus Station demolition question, it made “red light” recommendations for all five buildings that line West Mifflin Street and constitute the remainder of Hovde’s demolition request.[3] It is unclear whether the Plan Commission will consider granting demolition to only one of the six segments of the demolition proposal. I believe the Madison Trust should do whatever it can to prevent the demolition of the bus station. The Union Bus Station should also bask in a red light that reflects its known historic value.
Looking at these events from a broader perspective, whenever there are actions by the Landmarks Commission that lack the necessary factual foundation, it should not go unnoticed and unreported by the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation.
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Footnotes
[1] The Landmarks Commission must choose between three levels of historic significance:
a. The Commission finds that the building(s) has no known historic value.
b. The Commission finds that the building(s) has historic value related to the vernacular context of Madison’s built environment, or as the work/product of an architect of note, but the building itself is not historically, architecturally or culturally significant.
c. The Commission finds that the building(s) has historic value based on architectural significance, cultural significance, historic significance, as the work/product of an architect of note, its status as a contributing structure in a National Register Historic District, and/or as an intact or rare example of a certain architectural style or method of construction.
These three levels have acquired the shorthand expressions of “green light,” “yellow light,” or “red light” guidance to the Plan Commission in its determination whether to authorize the requested demolition(s).
[2] The bays of the bus station have been filled in with concrete placed in the same location as the original folding garage doors. The concrete is set back by several feet from the façade that meets the edge of the sidewalk, and the other decorative stonework remains, so the façade has not become a blank wall.
[3] The procedural rules that apply to the Landmarks Commission only permit it to reconsider a matter during the same meeting as the matter being reconsidered or during the “next succeeding regular meeting.” Sec. 33.01(9)(b), Madison General Ordinances, and Sec. 2.21, MGO. After December 4, 2023, the next regular meeting of the Commission was held on January 8, 2024, and reconsideration did not occur.