LA CROSSE, Wis. – The Wisconsin Historical Society announces the listing of the City Hall in the city of La Crosse (La Crosse County) on the State Register of Historic Places. The building was constructed in 1970 at 400 La Crosse Street to serve as the city’s third courthouse.
La Crosse City Hall stands as a distinguished local example of Brutalist architecture with a designed landscape plan. The planning process for its construction took several years in order to accommodate a functional design for individual city departments.
Brutalism is a style that emerged in Wisconsin between the 1950s and was popularized through the 1970s. The style coincided with federally-funded initiatives that were implemented across the state, such as urban renewal legislation and redevelopment as well as post-war education construction fueled by the Baby Boom and the GI Bill. It is often recognizable by the extensive use of exposed concrete with a smooth or rough texture and an intentionally unfinished appearance with minimal fenestration or fenestration placed in groupings. Brutalist buildings may appear unstructured with a bulky or blocked appearance, incorporating simplistic geometric forms and bold structural framing.
The 56-year old building retains good integrity as a dramatic structural expression of monumental quality with the extensive use of heavily-textured concrete planes. The building displays a bold structural form at six-stories with many rectangular forms creating setbacks that expand vertically and across the block, extending from the tall central form. Extensive use of cast-in-place, exposed aggregate concrete is replicated into the landscape design, and a horizontal expansion joint connects each exterior elevation as a datum line. Dark-colored anodized aluminum frame windows separated by bands of synthetic slate panels create cohesive window blocks that accentuate the rectangular forms. The glass-wall primary entrance vestibule brings the poured-in-place concrete into the interior primary spaces along with concrete waffle ceilings, and original wood wall cladding. The La Crosse City Hall represents an outstanding municipal example of a highly functional plan executed in the Brutalist style.
Additional information for La Crosse City Hall is available here.
Click here to learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin.
About the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.
