The Plummer Building in
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
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United Kingdom
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** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
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,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, is one of the many architecturally significant buildings on the
Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staff, ...
campus. This new "Mayo Clinic" building, opened in 1928, added much needed space to the ever-expanding Mayo practice. The
architect of record
Architect of record is the architect or architecture firm whose name appears on a building permit issued for a specific project on which that architect or firm performed services. Building permits are issued by a government agency with the authorit ...
is Ellerbe & Co., now
Ellerbe Becket
Ellerbe Becket was an independent Minneapolis, Minnesota-based architectural, engineering, interior design and construction firm until 2009, when it was acquired by AECOM. AECOM is ranked as one of the world's largest architectural firms, with of ...
. It was the third building designed by the firm for the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic Buildings were listed on the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1969, and the Plummer Building was further designated as U.S.
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
a week later, designated as Mayo Clinic Building.
[
]
History
The early design collaboration between Henry Stanley Plummer
Henry Stanley Plummer ( – ) was an American internist and endocrinologist who, along with William Mayo, Charles Mayo, Augustus Stinchfield, E. Starr Judd, Christopher Graham, and Donald Balfour founded Mayo Clinic. Plummer is also immortali ...
and Franklin Ellerbe established the model for future generations of new clinic and hospital buildings. The new 1928 Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
Mayo Clinic building was the physical manifestation of the early Mayo partners (Drs. Will and Charlie Mayo, Dr. Stinchfield, Dr. Graham, Dr. Judd, Dr. Henry Plummer, Dr. Millet, and Dr. Balfour) desire to create the first integrated private group practice.
When the building was complete it was the tallest building in Rochester until 2001 when the nearby Gonda Building
The Gonda Building is a medical building owned by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and designed by Ellerbe Becket Architects and Engineers.
It rises 305 feet (93 m) in 21 floors, and was completed in 2001. At the time it was the tallest ...
was completed.
It is topped by a distinctive terra-cotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta i ...
trimmed tower which contains a 56-bell carillon
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...
. The carillon is played daily, and its music can be heard throughout downtown. The tower is lit by floodlights every night and is a centerpiece of the city's skyline. Ray Corwin, of Ellerbe and Round, designed the building's decorative elements. Corwin also was responsible for the design of the decorative elements found in the Chateau Theatre
The Chateau Theatre originally opened as a Vaudeville house in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1927 with an interior decorated as a medieval village. The theater was converted to a movie theater, movie house eventually remodeled and reopened as a Barnes & ...
and Oakwood Cemetery gate.
The Plummer Building is among the more than 200 structures designed by the Ellerbe firm in Rochester. They are also the architect of record for other Mayo buildings including the 1914 "Red" Clinic building, the 1922 Mayo Institute for Experimental Medicine building, the 1954 Clinic building, and the 2002 Gonda Building, as well as the Rochester Methodist Hospital
The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staf ...
.
Its ornamental bronze doors nearly always stand open, symbolizing eternal willingness to accept those in medical need. They have been closed only to commemorate notable events in Mayo or national history.
See also
*Art Deco in the United States
The Art Deco style, which originated in France just before World War I, had an important impact on architecture and design in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The most famous examples are the skyscrapers of New York City including the Em ...
*List of tallest buildings in Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester has some of the tallest buildings for a city of its size, including the Broadway Plaza, which upon completion was the tallest residential building in a U.S. city with a metro area of less than 200,000.
Tallest buildings
Buildings w ...
*List of National Historic Landmarks in Minnesota
This is a complete List of National Historic Landmarks in Minnesota. The United States National Historic Landmark program is operated under the auspices of the National Park Service, and recognizes structures, districts, objects, and similar resou ...
*
References
External links
National Historic Landmarks Program - Plummer Building
{{Protected areas of Minnesota
Bell towers in the United States
Carillons
Hospital buildings completed in 1926
Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
Mayo Clinic buildings
National Historic Landmarks in Minnesota
Towers completed in 1926
National Register of Historic Places in Olmsted County, Minnesota
Skyscrapers in Rochester, Minnesota