With the recent news of the Graebel/Prange building going down for some luxury condos, we should take time to highlight few things about it.
This building is not a landmark and not within the historic downtown district, but it does have a rich local history and interesting architecture. It also borders two historic districts, the Andew Warren District and the Historic Downtown District.
The Prange building was built in 1968, making it 58 years old, which does hit the age mark for landmarking which is 50.
Here’s some quick history about the building.
It was built in 1968 for the Prange Department store. They stayed at this location until 1983 when they moved to the mall. Originally Prange’s plans called for multiple stories to be included. But these plans were scrapped before final approval. Prange’s also had considered this building to be the first phase, with plans to double its size. The store included clothing for the whole family and housewares, among other needs. Its special Teen’s Department was fashioned after a trendy shop in London
The building was purchased by developers and the space converted to office space. There were visions of adding an 11-story office building and a 12-story hotel which never came to be.
The building has since been home to a variety of businesses, including Graebel and Wisconsin Department of Revenue.
The architectural style of the building is Contemporary. It’s made of cement slabs and brick. It is one story and has a flat roof line. Its most recognizable feature is the decorative mixed stone slabs (kind of reminiscent of Terrazzo). Although the some of the front facade has been altered to add more windows, the other three sides retain more of this feature. The main entrances are denoted by an expanse of glass and a canopy style roof
We can agree to disagree if this history and architecture fits the criterion for landmarking this building. However, we believe there should be a push for new constuction to be designed to fit in with the two historic districts next to it and not stick out like a modern sore thumb overlooking the districts. Much like the YMCA and the Foundry on 3rd.
