Events & Meetings | Past Tours | Past Lectures
January 26, 2010
Report on Oberlin College Tour
Participants in the Oberlin tour last September will present their impressions and analyses to Cass Gilbert Society members and friends at the University Club, 420 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, on January 26, 2010, at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served following the presentation.
Cass Gilbert had a relationship with Oberlin College that stretched from the opening of Finney Chapel in 1908 to the completion of the Quadrangle for the Graduate School of Theology in 1931. As consulting architect to the college, Gilbert also designed the Cox Administration Building (1915), the Allen Memorial Art Museum (1917), and the Allen Memorial Hospital (1925). Working in collaboration with Oberlin President Henry Churchill King and the Olmsted Brothers, he devised a long-range campus plan that would have arranged the college buildings around Tappan Square, the Oberlin town green. While his plan was never executed, it is interesting to compare to Gilbert's plans for the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas.
Tom Blanck and Marjorie Pearson will discuss Gilbert's architecture in Oberlin, as well as the Welzheimer/Johnson House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1948-1949, and now owned by Oberlin College. Vincent Platt, Carolyn Nayematsu, Jim Law, Jean Velleu and Wendy Weimer, other tour participants, will also offer their impressions.
November 22, 2009
150th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION FOR CASS GILBERT
The Cass Gilbert Society will host a celebration to honor this nationally recognized architect whose buildings are an important part of Minnesota history.
The 150th birthday celebration will be held on Saturday, November 21, 2009, and feature a free tour of the Minnesota State Capitol. Guides from the Minnesota State Historical Society will focus on the Cass Gilbert story and the architectural details of the capitol. The free tours, which begin at 2pm, require reservations by calling 651-296-2881. A LEGO™ model of the capitol will be on display to delight visitors young and old.
An exhibit highlighting buildings designed by Cass Gilbert over 50 years will be on display in the North Corridor of the capitol building and will continue to be available for public view for two weeks following the celebration.
Festivities will include a birthday cake that will be served in the capitol’s Rathskeller at 3:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
The celebration will continue on Sunday, November 22, 2009, with a champagne reception at the Gilbert Building, 413 Wacouta Street, St. Paul, Minnesota, between 4 and 6 p.m. Welcoming remarks and a birthday toast will be made at 4:30 p.m. Tours will be given of the building at 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. This event, which is also free, is being sponsored by Charlie Neimeyer, Edina Realty, and the McCullough Companies.
For more information contact Cindy Stephani at 612-719-8419.
May 10, 2009
A CASS GILBERT TOUR FOR MOTHER’S DAY, May 10, 2009
Celebrate Mother’s Day by joining the Cass Gilbert Society in a tour of Cass Gilbert’s work on Summit Hill and Ramsey Hill. Gilbert and his family had long associations with the neighborhood, from his first independent commission, the house he designed in 1882 for his mother Elizabeth Gilbert on Ashland Avenue, to the house he designed for himself on Heather Place, to a wide variety of residences for prosperous clients in fashionable architectural styles. In addition, the tour will view the work of Gilbert’s early partner, James Knox Taylor, and his chief draftsman and protégé, Thomas Holyoke.
The tour will be offered at two times. The first tour will begin at 2:00 p.m.; the second tour will begin at 3:30 p.m. The tours will follow the same route in both time slots. Architects Thomas Blanck and Sonja Mason and architectural historian Marjorie Pearson will be the tour guides. All tours will begin at Lookout Park, at the junction of Summit Avenue and Ramsey Street, east of the University Club, 420 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul. The cost will be $10 for members and $15 for non-members, payable at the beginning of the tour. Each tour participant will receive a tour book that combines information from two previous Cass Gilbert Society tours in the area. For further information, call Marjorie Pearson, 612-338-1987 (days).