Woollen, Molzan and Partners (WMP) is a U.S.-based second-generation architecture, interior design, and planning firm that Evans Woollen III founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1955. The firm was previously known as Evans Woollen and Associates and Woollen Associates. It remained in business for more than fifty-five years before closing its doors in 2011. Woollen began by designing mid-century modern residences, but the firm's design projects expanded to include a diverse portfolio of designs for libraries, worship facilities, museums, performing arts centers, private residences, public housing, and correctional facilities, among other projects.
Notable examples of the firm's work in Indianapolis that are among the city's most significant modern-style buildings include Clowes Memorial Hall, the Minton-Capehart Federal Building, the White River Gardens Conservatory, the west entrance and atrium addition to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and the Indianapolis Public Library's Central Library addition. Notable project elsewhere in Indiana include the Cushwa-Leighton Library at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame; Indiana University's Musical Arts Center in Bloomington; and Saint Menrad Archabbey's monastery and library in Spencer County. The firm also designed urban renewal projects outside of Indiana such as the Over-the-Rhine Pilot Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, in addition to academic libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Central Michigan University, and Asbury University, among other projects. The firm's work has been featured in numerous books, periodicals, and online resources. Its projects have also received at least twenty awards from the American Institute of Architects.
History
The architectural firm was founded in 1955 and was known as Evans Woollen and Associates and Woollen Associates before it incorporated as Woollen Molzan and Partners in 1982. The firm was small in size, but it designed a wide range of projects that included commercial, religious, and government buildings, as well as academic buildings and correctional facilities, among other works. It ceased operations in 2011. See also: "Biographical Sketch" in
Founding in Indianapolis Twenty-seven-year-old Evans Woollen III (1927–2016), who received a B.A. and an M.Arch. degree from Yale School of Architecture in 1952, founded the architectural firm in his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1955. At Yale, Woollen studied under modern architects Philip Johnson, Louis Kahn, Paul Schweikher, and John M. Johansen."Biographical Sketch" in Woollen also apprenticed at Johnson's firm in New Canaan, Connecticut, and worked on his own for two years before returning to Indianapolis.Mary Ellen Gadski, "Woollen, Molzan and Partners" in
Partners In 1968 Woollen formed a partnership with Lynn Molzan, a Tacoma, Washington, native who joined the Indianapolis-based firm in 1965. Evans Woollen and Associates incorporated as Woollen Associates in 1968; after the addition of more partners, it was incorporated and renamed Woollen, Molzan and Partners in 1982. In addition to Woollen and Molzan, the principals of the firm included, among others, Laurence R. O'Connor; William Brady, who joined the firm in 1980; and Kevin Huse, who joined the firm in 1985 and later served as its president. The firm remained in operation for more than five decades. Woollen sold his interest in the firm and retired from the practice around 2001. Woollen Molzan employed as many as nine licensed architects during the 1990s; by 2006 it had only four. The architectural firm was dissolved and closed in April 2011; architects Molzan, Huse, and Mike Brannan joined Ratio Architects Inc., a local competitor."Biographical Sketch" in Woollen, Molzan and Partners, Inc. Architectural Records, ca. 1912–2011; and Gadski, "Woollen, Molzan and Partners" in The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, pp. 1453–54. See also: Also:
Woollen initially maintained an office on Indianapolis's Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. In 1980 the firm's leaders acquired the historic Majestic Building, restored it, and maintained its offices there for several years. When Woollen Molzan closed in 2011, its headquarters were located on South Kentucky Avenue in Indianapolis.
Design projects The firm's wide range of modern building designs included banking facilities, libraries, office buildings, and churches, as well as academic buildings, performing-arts facilities, and correctional facilities. It was also involved in numerous historic preservation and urban-redevelopment projects.
1960s residential designs Initially, Woollen specialized in designs for private homes, but the firm's work soon expanded to include commercial and urban-design projects. Woollen's early commissions were primarily mid-century modern residences, such as the International-style home (ca. 1960–63) he designed for the Perlov family in Indianapolis. The project was featured in House and Garden magazine. For the Leibman residence (ca. 1962–64), another of Woollen's early residential commissions that was featured in House Beautiful and House and Garden magazines, he created a modern interpretation of an old peasant farmhouse in southern Italy. The cluster house had two circular structures with conical roofs. Also:
1960s commercial projects Woollen's notable early commercial projects that were built in Indianapolis included Fesler Hall (1962), an addition to the John Herron Art Institute, and Clowes Memorial Hall (1963), which he co-designed John M. Johansen. Clowes Hall was built on the campus of Butler University.Johansen, a modernist architect with a national reputation, was one of Woollen's professor at Yale. See Fernandez, p. 68.Mary Ellen Gadski, "Clowes Memorial Hall" in These two buildings are notable for their exposed concrete slabs, which are typical of the Brutalism architecture style. The $3.5 million Clowes Hall project, which included a 2,200-seat concert hall for the university and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, was the firm's first major work. Since its opening in 1963, the architectural community has praised its bold design,"Biographical Sketch" in Woollen, Molzan and Partners, Inc. Architectural Records, ca. 1912–2011; Gadski, "Woollen, Molzan and Partners" in The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, pp. 1453–54; and Trounstine, p. 23. and its success led to other major commissions, including the design of other performing-arts facilities. Another of the firm's early projects was the modern design for the Marian University library (1966) in Indianapolis. It was the firm's first academic library, which also became a specialty of the firm.
In addition to these works, the firm designed the twenty-floor John J. Barton Tower (1967) in Indianapolis. The estimated $3.5 million project was the first high-rise apartment building in the city that provided low-cost housing for senior citizens. Some of its critics described the tower as "ungainly" and "awkward," but it received international coverage in architecture journals for its "inventive take on public housing."Fernandez, p. 72. The firm also designed several banking facilities for the American Fletcher National Bank (a predecessor to the present-day Chase Bank in Indianapolis) and became known for designing religious buildings. One of its notable early churches was Saint Thomas Aquinas Church (1968) in Indianapolis. It received an Indiana Society of Architects award for its bold, geometric design."Section 2: Manuscript Materials, Historic Projects" in Woollen, Molzan and Partners, Inc. Architectural Records, ca. 1912–2011.
1970s commissions
The firm's major commissions in the 1970s included the Indiana University's Musical Arts Center (1972) in Bloomington and the Minton-Capehart Federal Building (1976) in Indianapolis. The IU project, another example of Woollen's interpretation of the Brutalist style, includes work and storage spaces arranged around a cylindrical, 1,500-seat opera house. The $20 million Minton-Capehart Federal Building, which fills in the east side of the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, was also designed in the "Brutalist architecture style. The federal building includes a rainbow-colored mural by graphic artist Milton Glaser that wraps around the exterior's base. Some have called the block-long, six-story building a "pigeon coop" and "the ugliest building in Indianapolis."Trounstine, p. 20. However, architects consider the massive building as one of the city's few "cutting-edge designs from the 1970s."Fernandez, p. 72, and "Recent Work of Evans Woollen" in Architectural Record, pp. 142–43. In addition to these projects, the firm designed the 45-room New Harmony Inn (1975) at historic New Harmony, Indiana. See also: and the renovation of a community auditorium.
Urban-redevelopment projects Community redevelopment became a major area of focus for the firm in the 1970s. The firm's design for the $2.5 million Pilot Center (1972–84) in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, was a milestone in its professional development. It was here that Woollen and O'Connor first initiated the firm's "live-in" approach to its design process that encouraged client and community stakeholder participation.The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provided funding to build the Pilot Center, which was a grouping of four, mixed-use buildings (a recreational center, a senior citizens center, a Montessori school and daycare center, and a meeting and event space) within a two-block area.Trounstine, p. 23
The firm was also involved in several major renovations that repurposed older buildings in Indianapolis into inner-city housing. Its adaptive reuse projects turned the former Saint Agnes Academy, a former headquarters of the Carpenter's Union, and the former Saint Vincent's Hospital on North Illinois Street into apartment buildings and saved the aging structures from demolition. The hospital renovation, whose construction cost was $3.5 million, was the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's largest rehabilitation project in Indiana. Renamed the Weyerbacher Terrace, the project's 296 units opened for rental in 1975. See also: Also: (The hospital building was later remodeled and became part of the present-day Ivy Tech Community College campus.)
1980s projects Churches, libraries, museums, historic renovations, and performing-arts facilities continued to be hallmarks of the firm's work in the 1980s, which included several major projects. In 1979 the firm began design work at St. Meinrad Archabbey, a Benedictine monastery in Spencer County, Indiana. The archabbey is one of only two s in the United States. The firm's architectural designs included a new monastery and academic library, in addition to renovation of the historic archabbey church. See also: Saint Andrew's Abbey Church (1985–86) in Cleveland, Ohio, another of the firm's major works in the 1980s, has an asymmetrical exterior and striking modern sanctuary of exposed steel, concrete walls, and an upward-sloping ceiling.Fernandez, p. 72, and Margaret Gaskie, "Climbing Jacob’s Ladder," in Architectural Record, pp. 134–35. The firm also designed churches in Indianapolis, including Saint Phillip's Church (1986) and a modern addition (1983–89) to Christ Church Cathedral, an Indianapolis landmark on Monument Circle.
The award-winning Cushwa-Leighton Library (1981–82) at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana was another notable project in the firm's academic library portfolio. The library was one of the five winners of the AIA/ALA Library Building Award for 1983. See also: The Grainger Engineering Library (1984) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign was also a notable project for the firm. University officials believed that its design would serve as a "model for future academic libraries."