Prescott School a valuble modernist building - See column titled "Preserve modernist buildings at UM "

Preserve modernist buildings at UM

Rafael Chacon wrote a guest column on April 4, 2008 for the MIssoulian regarding the modernist buildings on the University of Montana campus (Link above). Chacon explains the value these 1950's buildings have for our society and why they need to be preserved.

Chacon also mentions several architects that contributed to the modernist buildings on the campus.

One of the architects mentioned is H.E. Kirkemo. Kirkemo was the architect for Prescott School. Thus Prescott School needs to be well maintained so that it can serve a lasting legacy to Kirkemo far into the future. Kirkemo also designed Jefferson and Washington, as all three schools are the same design except for the size. He may have designed other school buildings in the district as well.

Missoula International School is now in the process of remodeling some upstairs classrooms. The notion that Missooula International School, a private school leasing Prescott School, can have such leeway in remodeling our public school is utterly absurd and reveals corruption within our school district. What history is being lost in this process? What damage is being done to the school building? The public is being left out of the process and are left in the dark about what changes are taking place in our valuable Prescott School building. (Again - no building permit on the outside of the Prescott School building)


Some quotes from the guest column follow in addition to the above link for more information:

"The International style triumphed in America during the euphoric, post-World War II building boom, a time when a renewed nation demonstrated its industrial and economic might in all types of commercial, civic and domestic buildings. Modern aesthetics called for sleek, Cubist-inspired designs as well as new, more utilitarian applications of industrial materials, including brick, glass, concrete, cut stone and polished metal. The streamlined, pared-down look of intersecting planes and asymmetrical boxes, flat roofs and glass curtain walls came primarily from French architect Le Corbusier but also from the German Bauhaus. The Nazis closed down that progressive Berlin school in 1933 and its leading architects Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe came to America as exiles. Leading American architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson embraced the movement."

However, some of these "50-somethings" are worth including in an expanded nomination that does justice to this chapter in our history. They are the works of important architects such as Missoula modernists Fox, Ballas and Barrow and Kalispell's Brinkman and Lenon; as well as our best modern architect, H.E Kirkemo.