Wirt C. Rowland

Wirt Clinton Rowland (December 1, 1878 – November 30, 1946) was an American architect best known for his work in Detroit, Michigan.

Biography

Rowland was born December 1, 1878, in Clinton, Michigan, to Clinton Charles and Melissa Ruth Rowland. In 1901, he landed a job as an office boy for the Detroit firm of Rogers and MacFarlane, quickly moving on to the prestigious George D. Mason firm. In 1909, he joined the office of Albert Kahn Associates, who had also apprenticed under Mason. In 1910, with the encouragement of both Mason and Kahn, Rowland attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, for a year. Of the Guardian building Rowland said, We no longer live in a leisurely age. . What we see we must see quickly in passing, and the impression must be immediate, strong, and complete. Color has this vital power. For the Guardian Building, he had assembled a multitude of artisans, mosaicists, sculptors, painters, and tile manufacturers including sculptor Corrado Parducci, muralist Ezra Winter, and tile from the Rookwood and Pewabic pottery companies.

The Guardian Building opened in 1929. With the onset of the Great Depression, most of the employees of Smith Hinchman & Grylls were laid off, including Rowland. In January 1931, he joined in a partnership with his long-time friend, Augustus (Gus) O'Dell. The firm secured a small number of important commissions, including the Victor Vaughan House dormitory at the University of Michigan, Maire Elementary School in Grosse Pointe, and the Mark Twain Branch Library in Detroit, supplemented with reconstruction necessitated by the widening of Woodward Avenue, and by insurance re-valuations of existing buildings.

Beginning in 1935, Rowland was hired by Edwin S. George to design a Gothic cathedral, later known as Kirk in the Hills. The church was to have been constructed on land owned by George adjoining his suburban home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, however, the funds available were insufficient to proceed with construction. In 1946, George realized that by incorporating his existing suburban home into the church to house administrative activities, the cost of construction would be greatly reduced. Rowland approved of this revision, but died before he could redraw the plans. The firm of George D. Mason & Co. was hired in 1947 to draw new plans for the church and oversee construction and the church was completed in 1958.

Rowland was a member of the Chandler Park Partnership, a group of nineteen architects and engineers that designed Parkside housing project (1935–1938) in Detroit. During World War II, Rowland was employed by the firm Giffels & Valet in their office at Naval Station Norfolk. Among the structures he designed during that period was the David Adams Memorial Chapel and Our Lady of Victory Chapel in the base chapel building.

Rowland Designed Structures

T. B. Rayl Company Building (1915) Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan; designed by Rowland for Baxter and O'Dell, featured an early use of colored terra-cotta. Northeastern High School (1916), Detroit, Michigan Anna M. Joyce School (1916), Detroit, Michigan Nordstrum School (1916), Detroit, Michigan Langley Field Hangars and Executive Buildings, including the current Air Combat Command Headquarters Building (1917), Point Comfort, Virginia Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church (1926), Detroit, Michigan Bankers Trust Building (1925), Detroit, Michigan Buhl Building (1925), Detroit, Michigan Second National Bank Building (1925), Saginaw, Michigan George H. Phelps Advertising Building (1925), 2761 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit, Michigan Pershing High School (1930), Detroit, Michigan "Ideal Home" for Detroit Builders' Show of 1933, Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan Lewis A. Maire Elementary School (1936), Grosse Pointe, Michigan Stevens Memorial Chapel - chancel section, including altar, reredos, and organ screen (1938), St. John's Episcopal Church, Detroit, Michigan Victor C. Vaughn House dormitory, University of Michigan (1938), Ann Arbor, Michigan