If The Austere Walls on Eastern Parkway Could Talk
Inset A by JOHN DAVID KOLTER , MD
One evening last fall , I found myself walking in the long shadow of the 800 Building south of Broadway in Louisville , with a group of friends after a show at the Brown Theater . Closest to me was the wife of a friend , a university professor and recent transplant to Louisville , whom I couldn ’ t resist asking about her thoughts on the 800 Building . Arguably the largest and most visible mid-century modern building in Louisville , I have only known it to generate polarizing opinions on its aluminum clad mid-century design . I asked my sidewalk companion her thoughts , admitting the question was rigged with only two acceptable answers for any Louisvillian : adoration or abhorrence . She demurred , sensing , I suspect , the chance she might have to endure an architectural “ mansplaining ,” and gave a noncommittal reply . I pushed back , letting on to my humor , for a more definitive answer , accepting the risks of demanding an answer .
Every city exists with architecture that generates strong opinions , but mid-century modern ( MCM ) architecture seems to have a proclivity to be reviled by more than the minority and passionately adored by the few . The eventual answer delivered to my inquiry of the 800 Building was inconsequential , as my sidewalk companion , truthfully , missed the point . The inquiry was merely a good-humored conversation starter . The point , though , was borne of years arguing the beauty of austere form in mid-century structures , but experiencing the frequent dismissal of a style of architecture very much ahead of its time .
The Louisville medical community has a true mid-century modern gem of its own to ponder , the Eastern Parkway Medical Arts Building ( EPMAB ), originally known as the East End Medical Center ( inset A ). In this author ’ s experience , the EPMAB has the ability to generate binary opinions just as effectively as the 800 Building downtown . Originally built in 1958 by the stylistically polarizing Al J . Schneider ( with a subsequent phase II in 1960 and a vertical addition of a fourth floor thereafter ), the EPMAB was the first medical center to be built outside of the downtown core , the traditional location of medical care in the Louisville community . Mr . Schneider , of Galt House and Executive Inn fame , built and zoned the building , understanding the risks in his choice of location , so it could easily be retrofitted to accommodate apartments ( with all doors opening onto interior hallways ) should the medical office
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