Areas of Significance (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property Property is associated with events that have made a Community Planning and Development Landscape Architecture Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high Period of Significance artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. 1969, 1970 (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply) Significant Person (Complete only if Criterion B is marked above) owed by a religious institution or used for religious removed from its original location. C a birthplace or grave. D a cemetery. E a reconstructed building, object, or structure.
Harrison and Abramovitz F a commemorative property. Richards, Bauer, and Moorhead less than 50 years old or achieving significance within the past 50 years. The period of significance begins with the initial construction of the Tower, garage, and Levis Square. It ends in 1977, with the completion of a new master plan for the downtown that represented the final abandonment of the Riverview Urban 1969-1977 Architecture Commerce history. purposes. individual distinction. Criteria Considerations Significant Dates Architect/Builder Property is: Property embodies the distinctive characteristics Applicable National Register Criteria Period of Significance (justification) Cultural Affiliation National Park Service for National Register listing) Renewal Plan.
(Enter categories from instructions) significant contribution to the broad patterns of our United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio Criteria Consideratons (explanation, if necessary) See statement of significance. applicable criteria) level in Toledo, Ohio as the centerpiece and most fully realized portion of the highest profile downtown urban renewal project in Toledo (Criterion A).
Although, like most urban renewal projects of the 1950s and 1960s, Riverview never lived up to its early promise, the construction of the tower, plaza, and garage were viewed as the "focal point" of an urban renewal project that would change the destiny of Toledo's downtown core, and they were the only elements of that plan that were completed much as they had been planned by architect I. M. Pei in the early 1960s (Criteria Consideration G). company, one of the three large glass manufacturers that gave Toledo its nickname as the "Glass Capital of the World" (Criterion A). The company utilized the Tower and part of the garage as its corporate offices for some of the most pivotal years of the company's architect, Harrison and Abramovitz (Criterion C).
Even though its status as the tallest tower in Toledo was eclipsed by One Seagate Center in 1982, it remains the most significant Modernist architectural landmark in the city. Urban Renewal in Toledo economic boom, suburbanization increasingly emptied the central cities of their middle-class populations, resulting in declining property values and the loss of business in the central business districts. As the middle classes moved out of the cities, many of the central city neighborhoods they left behind descended into decay and blight, with the remaining residents unable to arrest the decline. In response, the first large-scale post war legislation was the Housing Act of 1949, under which the federal government provided two thirds of the cost of acquiring so-called "slum" areas, with local governments covering the remaining cost.
Typically, the local government would then clear the land and turn around and sell it to developers for redevelopment, although in practice many cities footed at least some of the cost of redevelopment themselves. The term "urban renewal" was popularized when the 1954 Housing Act passed, which provided easier access to Federal assistance in exchange for more vigorous pursuit of "slum" clearance. Proponents of urban renewal argued that large-scale clearance was necessary to both combat urban blight and to repackage larger parcels of land that would be more attractive to developers. Cities typically used their powers of eminent domain to acquire the land, often displacing large populations of residents, frequently the poor and minorities. Toledo, while not an early leader in urban renewal, nonetheless did not lag behind in plans for urban redevelopment.
The city's first urban renewal project, Chase Park, was proposed in 1956, although demolition did not get underway until 1961. Toledo's second urban renewal project, in the Gunckel neighborhood, was the first completed, in 1964. Other neighborhood urban renewal projects during the 1960s included Ironville, a development in east Toledo that demolished 222 homes, businesses, churches, and schools to create a 72 acre industrial park, and several neighborhood conservation districts. All of these projects were located in the outlying neighborhoods of Toledo and focused primarily on the redevelopment of residential areas with new housing and residential services, or the creation of industrial parks. The downtown, however, also became a focus of urban renewal efforts in the late 1950s. Plans were made in 1959 to clear out the old "skid row" at Summit and Cherry Streets to create 1980s.
Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph (provide a summary paragraph that includes level of signficance and Riverview, including the Fiberglas Tower, Levis Square and the Riverview Parking Garage, is exceptionally significant at the local The complex also holds considerable significance as the headquarters, for more than 20 years, of the Owens-Corning Fiberglas Finally, the Fiberglas Tower is exceptionally significant as an International Style office tower, designed by a nationally known The beautification and social reform of cities has a long history in America, but it was not until after World War Il that the federal history, including both a period of significant expansion and some of its most difficult years during a bitter takeover battle in the mid government put significant resources behind the redevelopment of urban commercial and residential districts.
Spurred by the post-war United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio "Vistula Meadows," the city's first downtown urban renewal project. The ambitious plans for Vistula Meadows encompassed 29 city blocks and 100 acres bordering on and extending into the east side of the Central Business District and were designed to provide a in park like settings with garages, office buildings with surface parking, and small retail stores, as well as the creation of a pedestrian mall (flanked by parking garages) between Adams and Cherry Streets that would lead to an open plaza on Jackson Street. It quickly became apparent, however, that it would be too difficult to raise the entire cost of the project from the city in one chunk.
By 1962, the plan had been scaled back (although the overall cost had increased) and the city intended to complete it in segments. Actual 1967. In 1970, the Vistula Meadows Community Services building was dedicated, but the grand plans for Vistula Meadows never came to fruition. Many areas remained vacant or contained surface parking throughout most of the 1970s. By the early 1980s, the original plan was dead, and new developments moved into the area, including the new Owens-Illinois headquarters at One Seagate and the government center at the corner of Jackson and Erie Streets. Large swaths of the area today remain as surface parking.
While the large redevelopment at Vistula Meadows was seen as a bridge between the downtown and the residential neighborhoods (as well as an opportunity to clear out a notorious skid row), the city also had plans to revitalize the heart of its central business district. Throughout the immediate post World War II period, suburbanization and the construction of suburban shopping malls had drawn business away from the central business district. The Downtown Toledo Association estimated that while the total dollar volumes for retail trade in the Toledo area had increased considerably, the total dollar volumes for the central business district had declined over 22 1950s and early 1960s, but the population and businesses of the downtown core continued to decline. The city' s answer to this decline was Riverview.
First announced in May of 1963, it was reportedly the result of a midnight walk by Mayor Potter and local architect Orville Bauer. It was Owens-Corning Fiberglas chairman Harold Boeschenstein, however, who brought together the business leaders of Toledo with Columbus developer John Galbreath to make Riverview a reality. Although based in Columbus, Galbreath was a nationally known building contractor and developer who was also famous as the franchise owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates for forty years. He was also involved in Thoroughbred racing, particularly in New York, and supervised the construction of the new Aqueduct Racetrack and the rebuilding of Belmont Park in that state. More relevant for Riverview, however, was Galbreath's earlier project, Erieview, in Cleveland.
Initiated by Cleveland Mayor Anthony Celebrezze in 1960, Erieview was a 163 acre urban renewal project in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Galbreath hired up-and- coming architect I. M. Pei of New York City to develop a master plan for a new urban center within the city. In Pei's plan, geometrically shaped low rise structures wrapped around and protected central green spaces, creating outdoor "rooms" which were equally important to the architecture of the plan. The low rise spaces were punctuated by high rise office towers, while all parking was planned for underground. Another key feature of the plan was the reconnection of the downtown with the Lake Erie waterfront. The fashionable restaurant on the top floor. By early 1963, ground had been broken on the central tower, a Modernist skyscraper designed by New York architects Harrison and Abramovitz.
Galbreath brought together the same team for Toledo's Riverview, which bore many similarities to Erieview. Encompassing only 13 acres, the plan nonetheless represented over $25 million worth of development. The six blocks bounded by St. Clair, Madison, Monroe and the Maumee River would be cleared of all structures except for the Toledo Trust building and the newly completed Federal Building. Under the plan, Jefferson would dead end at Summit, and Water Street would be vacated between Monroe and Madison streets. The two blocks between Summit, Monroe, Jefferson, and the River would become a city park, with 11 story apartment buildings in the next block west. The two blocks north of the park would contain, in addition to the Federal building, a riverfront motel, plaza, and restaurant overlooking a marina and heliport. Finally, the block bounded by Jefferson, St.
Clair, Madison, and Summit would contain the existing Toledo Trust building, a four story offfice structure along Summit, a park on the site of the old Post At the time, the development of Riverview was seen as the driver of economic redevelopment of the central business district. I. M. Pei construction did not begin until 1965 when work began on the Vistula Manor apartments for the elderly and handicapped, completed in percent from 1958 to 1963. The city had made attempts to halt this decline, including experimenting with pedestrian malls in the late centerpiece of Erieview was a 40 story office tower and adjacent plaza, complete with an underground parking garage and a himself presented the plans to the city, remarking that "Toledo is simply not attractive enough...(t)his is a step to make Toledo more attractive.
We bring life back to the waterfront and we suggest things to bring people back downtown." Designed to complement, not United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio destiny of downtown will be determined by what we do with these 13 acres," and "this 13.7 acres will make a renaissance that will benefit every business, every enterprise in Toledo." The initial local reaction, as measured in the local press, appeared to be positive. Like Erieview, the initial development of Riverview would focus on the centerpiece tower. The first step was to acquire title to the existing buildings on the block with the exception of the Toledo Trust building, which was to remain.
These included chiefly the Old nineteenth century two- and three-story commercial buildings on the west side of Summit between Jefferson and Madison (site of the future parking garage). The only serious resistence the City appears to have encountered was with the Fort Meigs Hotel. The hotel was structurally sound and, it was argued, could be rehabilitated. In addition, the Toledo Blade reported that the Federal Housing and Home Finance agency had tightened its requirements for razing otherwise sound buildings in its 1964 Housing Act, reportedly stemming in part from questions raised about the earlier demolition of buildings for Erieview. The City and Riverview developers believed that urban renewal of the area could only be accomplished by creating larger parcels for development, and that the hotel was until May of 1966. but three were gone.
The city began offering its newly vacated land for sale in January of 1966. On March 22 of 1966, the same day that bids were opened for the Riverview parcel (Riverview One was the sole bidder at a purchase price of $860,000), the Owens-Corning company announced its plans to move its world headquarters to the proposed central tower. Although Boeschenstein's role as the "matchmaker" for the Riverview project was not revealed until the following month, he had the renewal of Toledo's downtown, the planned central tower was considered the "focal point" of Riverview. Securing Owens- Corning's 500-plus employees, not to mention its status as world headquarters, was a crucial element of success for the tower and the commissioners.
Governor James Rhodes called the move an "expression of confidence in our state by one of the nation's leading manufacturers" and "one of the most significant developments ever to take place in northwest Ohio." U. S. Representative Thomas been our city's great dream for many years, will now become a reality." Boeschenstein explained that the company had decided to the central business district. The new office building will give the city a new focal point for the downtown area." At the same time as plans for the central tower were coming together, other elements of the project were in development, including at least one significant alteration to the plan. By September of 1966, the original intent to utilize only underground parking had been altered, and the four story office building fronting Summit Street was replaced by a proposed five-story parking garage.
Other elements open city park. Located just north of the tower, the site was originally the location of a US Post Office Building. When the new federal building was constructed across the street, the federal government offered right of first refusal to the city, which at the time did not have the funds to purchase the land. Instead, the Charities Foundation, founded by the family of former Owens-Illinois chair William Levis, purchased the land and donated it to the city with the stipulation that it become a park dedicated to Levis' memory. The park is still owned and maintained by the city. As well as the open space represented by Levis Square, the riverfront was seen as another significant element of the Riverview project, which, it was felt, had been underutilized.
The creation of a riverfront park as part of Riverview would reorient the downtown area toward one of Toledo's natural assets. Ground was broken for the tower,now being called the Fiberglas Tower, on May 1, 1967, considered the official launch of the Riverview project. The Toledo Blade hailed it as "the start of a new Toledo era" and as "a significant step toward Toledo's future." In Post Office Building (site of the future Levis Square) and the Fort Meigs Hotel (site of the future tower), as well as a strip of incompatible with Pei's design for Riverview. Eventually, the city found an architectural firm willing to certify that the rehabilitation likely intended to relocate the company's headquarters to the tower from the beginning.
Just as Riverview was seen as the impetus for Ashley saw Owens-Corning's commitment as "the beginning of a new era for the city" and the impetus for Toledo's entire urban renewal program, while Mayor Potter said it gave the city "great confidence that the revitalization of our downtown district, which has relocate "to enable Toledo's downtown renewal program to have a beginning. We believe this may be the start of the reawakening of plan in Cleveland, in front of the Erieview Tower, although that space contained a reflecting pool. In Toledo, the plaza would be an development in the downtown area, a sign to the local community that private business was beginning to invest in the downtown.
Stephen Stranahan, local Toledo businessman and president of Riverview One, the development corporation, called the tower the would cost only slightly less than razing and building a new hotel in a different location, but the suit was not settled in the city's favor After a public hearing in early 1965 and the approval of federal grants and loans totalling nearly S4 million, the city began acquiring property in August of 1965. Demolition began in November of 1965 on the 26 buildings earmarked for demolition; by May of 1967 all Riverview project as a whole.
The announcement was statewide news, drawing praise from the Governor down to the local county contrast to Toledo's previous government-funded urban renewal projects, this was cited as the first major private urban renewal United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio "figurative hub" around which Toledo's growth, development, and opportunity would revolve. In September of 1968, vice-presidential candidate Spiro Agnew held a campaign rally on the future site of Levis Square, with the partially completed Fiberglas Tower as his In June of 1969, as construction of the Tower was nearing completion, the five story parking garage opened for business.
The parking been broken for work on Levis Square the previous month, with completion scheduled for December, although in reality it would not be dedicated until July of 1970.In July and August of1969, workers at Owens-Corning and Ohio Citizen's Trust Company, the Tower's other major tenant, began moving in. During the last few years of the 1960s and first few years of the 1970s, it looked as if the promise of Riverview would be borne out.
A 1970 progress report by the City's Urban Renewal Agency claimed that the construction of the Fiberglas Tower and the parking garage the new headquarters of Toledo Edison), Levis Square, the Holiday Inn of Toledo (1971, now the Hotel Seagate), the First National Bank of Toledo, Riverview Branch (also circa 1971), and the Ohio Citizen Trust Operations Center (which was not part of Riverview when Holiday Inn announced in 1967 it would construct a 17 story "Motor Lodge" at the northeast corner of Summit and Jefferson, a new office tower was instead proposed for its originally planned location. In 1971, the "Top of the Tower" restaurant finally opened on the 28th floor of the Fiberglas Tower, and would become one of the city's hottest spots to dine.
buildings, were never constructed, and the planned closures of Water and Jefferson Streets never occurred, although Madison Avenue was closed off between Summit and St. Clair, creating a stronger pedestrian connection to Edison Plaza. The end of the 1960s urban renewal plans in Toledo came in 1977, with the creation of a new master plan for the downtown. Just as Fiberglas Tower, including its architect (the sucessor firm to Harrison and Abramovitz), and the presence of a signature restaurant on of One Seagate also signaled the end of the other major 1960s downtown urban renewal project, Vistula Meadows, as it was on land originally designated as part of Vistula Meadows. Although, like its predecessors, the 1977 master plan did little to create the world- class Toledo it envisioned, it did represent an abandonment of the Riverview plan.
was never a successful urban space, in part because the protective buildings around it were never constructed, rendering it too exposed to the elements (particularly a fierce wind) to be usable. In 1987, the Galleria at Erieview, an enclosed shopping mall, was constructed on the plaza, destroying its integrity as an element of the urban plan. Much of the landscape surrounding the Erieview Tower, The adjacent plaza remains a significant urban space and retains its visual connection and design link to the Tower. The development backdrop. garage contained an arcade and retail space on the first floor with space for planned retail shops and restaurants. Nearby, ground had were directly responsible for at least five other major downtown development projects. These included Edison Plaza (completed 1971, proper but located several blocks away).
A hotel had originally been planned as part of the block east of the tower/parking garage, but retail/restaurant space in the parking garage was ever successful as a commercial space, and by 1976 Owens-Corning was moving adjacent plaza was followed by a few other developments, very little of Pei's original vision for the project ever came to fruition. In originally envisioned office block,its general shape, height, and relationship to the Tower is very similar to the planned office block. surrounding the Fiberglas Tower block is also much more compatible with Pei's original plan than at Erieview, including the Hotel By the mid 1970s, however, progress at Riverview appeared to have ground to a halt. About 1975, a "Multi-Use Center" with adjacent pulled out of its commitment to participate in 1976, however, it appeared to kill that project.
There is little evidence that the Toledo's major glass manufacturers, Owens-Illinois. Begun in1979 and completed in 1982, One Seagate bore many similiarities to the Riverview's sister project, Erieview in Cleveland, also never lived up to its promise. Although construction of the Erieview Tower and fact, Riverview is the more fully realized plan, and retains more integrity than Erieview. At Erieview, the plaza adjacent to the tower originally envisioned as a series of geometrically shaped buildings protecting interior courtyards, remains surface parking, and the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio through Promenade Park east of the Fiberglas Tower block.
Ultimately, neither Erieview nor Riverview ever succeeded in revitalizing their respective downtowns as I. M. Pei and city leaders had predicted. When Owens-Corning vacated the Fiberglas Tower in 1996, the dream of Riverview appeared to be dead. Owens-Corning and the Glass Industry in Toledo From its beginnings as an inhospitable swamp in the early 1800s, Toledo grew to become one of Ohio's major industrial centers by the twentieth centuries. Ohio was America's leading oil-producing state from 1895 to 1903, with production centered around nearby other manufacturers to the city. In the early twentieth century, Toledo was home to the Willys-Overland Motor Company, which in the 1910s was the second largest automaker behind Ford Motor Company. During World War II, Willys-Overland developed and supplied Jeeps to the US military, and later dominated post-war civilian Jeep production.
The automobile industry remained one of the city's largest into the 1950s and 1960s. dominant industries by the post World War Il period, and earning the city its reputation as "Glass City" or the "Glass Capital of the from New England to Toledo. Ten years later, Edward Ford established the Edward Ford Plate Glass Factory in a Toledo suburb. By the early 1900s, both companies had grown significantly and were introducing technological improvements, such as automated production facilities. Libbey's first superintendent of production, Michael Owens, founded the Owens Bottle Machine Company to form Owens-Illinois, which then purchased Libbey Glass Company in 1935.
Michael Owens also formed a second company, the Owens-Illinois formed a second company with Corning Glass Works of Corning, New York, after the latter company experimented with the use of glass fiber technology to create new products. This company, launched in 1938 as Owens-Corning Fiberglas and the glass industry played a vital role in war production during both World War II and the Korean War. As a result of this and the Owens-Corning, meanwhile, was headquartered in the Toledo Trust building until the construction of the Fiberglas Tower in 1969. refining industries, kept unemployment low within the city, and the presence of so many workers in their headquarters buildings kept new building, was, as quoted above, considered an important vote of confidence in the city that would help assure its prosperity in the coming years.
mostly in the construction of new plants and the modernization of existing plants. Two years later, annual sales at Owens-Corning were Toledo employees working in the Fiberglas Tower in the early 1990s. However, this may also have been a factor in the company's decision eventually to move out of the tower, as even occupying 95% of the building, there were still a large number of employees located elsewhere. Seagate, adjacent bank and the Seagate Convention Center. Riverview also succeeded in establishing a connection to the waterfront take advantage of the area's abundant natural resources. Natural gas and oil fueled Toledo's manufacturing boom in the nineteenth and Findlay, where Marathon Oil was founded.
Oil and natural gas refining became one of the Toledo area's largest industries, attracting In addition to natural gas and oil, another natural resource, quartzite, drew glass manufacturing to the city, making it one of Toledo's Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company, which eventually merged with Ford's Plate Glass company to form Libbey-Owens-Ford. Finally, headquarters building downtown in 1958-60, while Owens-Illinois took over the Ohio Savings and Trust Bank building in 1955. over half a billion; by the end of the 1970s sales had topped $2 billion and by the end of the 1980s, $3 billion.
With employment worldwide soaring to 18,000 by the early 1990s, corporate staff likewise increased, with 900 of the company's 1200 World." Toledo's dominance in glass production began in 1888, when Edward Drummond Libbey moved his Libbey Glass Company post-war economic boom, the glass companies were expanding throughout the post war decades. Libbey-Owens-Ford built a 15 story Although the city was losing its residential and retail population, the presence of the glass industry, along with the automobile and Owens Corning arguably had its most significant period of expansion and sales during the years that it occupied the Fiberglas Tower.
1969 saw a record high of S110 million in first quarter sales, and the company announced that it was embarking on its largest capital United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio Architectural Background and Significance significant and one locally significant architectural firms. As has already been discussed, the overall design of the Riverview urban renewal project was by New York-based Modernist architect I. M. Pei. A native of China, Pei had moved to the US in 1935 and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his major influences were Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, building in Atlanta (1950) and L'Enfant Plaza in Washington DC. In 1955, Pei formed I. M. Pei & Associates, later I. M. Pei and Partners.
By the early 1960s, Pei was making a name for himself as the designer of significant structures like the Green Building at MIT and the Mesa Laboratory for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Pei was also creating a reputation for his abilities as an urban planner. Erieview in Cleveland appears to have been Pei's most ambitious project along those lines and came early in his independent career, in 1960. Riverview in Toledo was a scaled-down, but Building (completed 1978), and what Pei himself considered his most important commission, the design of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (completed 1979). Just as developer John Galbreath had used Pei for both the Erieview and Riverview's master plans, he also commissioned the same architectural firm, Harrison and Abramovitz, to design the high rise office towers at the center of each plan.
Harrison and Abramovitz, the partnership of Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz, was at the time one of the country's leading architectural firms, having already designed such high profile projects as the United Nations Headquarters (1947-1953), the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (1955-1969), and the Time-Life Building (1958), all in New York City. Although Wallace Harrison was the senior partner, it was Abramovitz who was responsible for the design of both the Erieview Tower and the Fiberglas Tower. A native of Chicago, Abramovitz had studied at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before beginning his career in the office of Harrison and Fouilhoux in 1935, which became Harrison and Abramovitz in 1945. Abramovitz was adept in the popular styles of the day and was a leader in incorporating innovative building technology into his designs.
His work ranged across corporate commissions, religious and educational institutions, and government work. The successor firm to Harrison and Abramovitz (Abramovitz, Harris and Kingsland) would later design One SeaGate, the Fiberglas Tower's successor as Toledo's tallest building. office skyscrapers. Erieview was the taller building, at 40 stories, while the Fiberglas Tower had 28 occupied floors in addition to Erieview is glass curtain wall on all sides. float off the ground. national periodicals such as the Architectural Record, and the sole article in Progressive Architecture focused on the use of Fiberglas the time of its construction, it was the tallest building in Toledo, and while there were other Modern buildings in the city, none by Mills, Rhines, Bellman, and Nordhoff.
The Riverview project, including the Fiberglas Tower, Levis Square, and parking garage, were the result of input from two nationally and the Bauhaus architects Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. During his early career at Webb and Knapp in New York, his work very similar in concept, version in 1963. However, Pei's most well-known planning and architectural work came after the Riverview several mechanical floors. Both buildings are simple, rectangular volumes constructed of glass and aluminum curtain walls. The glass with grills for the building ventilation system.
The Fiberglas Tower has a brick service core on its south elevation, however, while Architecturally, the Fiberglas Tower is a late example of the International-style glass box, and exhibits the classic characteristics of the clear glass first floor, however, is a more specifically Miesian inspired International Style characteristic, making the building appear to approached the Fiberglas for size or prestige.
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, for example, had constructed an International-style included commissions for apartment buildings funded by the 1949 Housing Act, as well as more high profile projects like the Gulf Oil commission, and included the "Pei Plan" for Oklahoma City (1964-66, another urban renewal project), the National Gallery East As exemplified in both the Erieview and Fiberglas Towers, Abramovitz was particularly versed in the design of glass curtain-wall curtain is broken on both buildings about one third of the way up by a mechanical floor faced partially (Fiberglas) or fully (Erieview) As a late example, there is nothing particularly innovative about the building from a national standpoint. Its design was not featured in suggests he employed any technological breakthroughs in the structure. For Toledo, however, there was nothing to compare with it.
At headquarters for Libbey Owens Ford about four blocks away in 1960, but it was only 15 stories, half the size of the Fiberglas Tower. United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio As the headquarters of Owens-Corning Fiberglas, the building could be expected to prominently feature these materials in its construction and furnishing. Interestingly, though, the use of Fiberglas in the building's construction and finishes appears to have been relatively standard for the time, including Fiberglas insulation, molded housing for mechanical equipment, and Fiberglas ceiling tiles.
The exterior was finished in glass panels, covered with bronze-tinted film, and aluminum framing, while the interior finishes were matched the drywall and carpeted finishes of the office spaces. Intensive and sometimes innovative use of Fiberglas was instead balance between the open office "bullpen" and the traditional enclosed office plan, providing some degree of privacy at a seated level while retaining an open feeling when standing. In the Fiberglas Tower, the concept utilized Fiberglas furnishings, such as screens, planters, bookcases and file cabinets, to achieve the effect. The company also designed an innovative molded Fiberglas desk without drawers, with storage space being accessed through panels in the desktop, that was meant to replace the standard desks in the office.
However, articles in the company newsletter suggest that the prototypes were continually undergoing revision, and there's no evidence that they were ever mass produced for use in the building. There is also no indication, aside from the Top of the Tower restaurant, that intensive use of Fiberglas products occurred in the non-Owens-Corning tenant spaces in the building (the Ohio Citizens Trust Due to the ephemeral nature of furnishings and the periodic remodeling that the interiors underwent, most of the Fiberglas furnishings new office products so furnishings on those floors were rotated out on a regular basis. Architectural drawings show that after the Top of the Tower restaurant closed in 1982, the 28t floor was completely remodeled as executive offfices for the top officers at Owens- floors during Owens-Corning's tenure.
The first floor elevator lobby does retain its historic finishes, including travertine marble and brushed aluminum walls. Like the Fiberglas Tower, the parking garage was also of Modern design. The garage was the design of local architectural firm Richards, Bauer, and Moorhead in association with Tully and Hobbs of Columbus. Established in 1892 as the partnership of George Strafford Mills & Harry Wilcox Wachter-and reorganized five times between 1898 and 1999 - the firm designed many of Toledo's most prominent buildings and became one of the largest architectural and engineering firms in northwest Ohio. Initially, small houses and additions constituted most of the firm's work, but commissions soon expanded to include factory buildings, commercial structures, churches, country clubs, casinos and schools.
The initial partnership dissolved in 1898 and the firm continued under the name of George S. Mills, Architect for over a decade. During this period, the firm developed plans for several apartments, offices, commercial buildings, and factories in Toledo, along with several large residences and four railroad stations for the Toledo, St. Louis & Western additions for Willys-Overland, as well as several residences for officers of the firm. The activity generated by Willys-Overland gave the architectural firm a solid boost and in May 1912 the partnership of Mills, Rhines, Bellman & Nordhoff (MRBN) was formed.
Over the next thirty years the company's reputation for factory design continued to grow with other long-standing clients such as Bunting downtown Toledo were also executed by MRBN during that time, including the Toledo Club (NRHP), Commodore Perry Hotel (NRHP), Lion Store (demolished), Bostwick-Braun Building (demolished), Edison Building (NRHP), Secor Hotel (NRHP), YMCA (NRHP), and National City Bank Building. Following George Mills' death in 1939 and Charles Nordhoff's retirement in 1944, the firm assumed the name of Bellman, Gillett & Richards (BGR) and added schools and institutional systems as clients. The firm designed four low-cost housing projects for the designed several large defense projects. After the war, they designed a new library-law school building at the University of Toledo, as well as the Student Union, Carter Hall and Ritter Observatory.
BGR supervised construction of educational facilities on nine different state campuses in the 1960s, and their files show a large number of elementary and high school projects in the area, due to the large floors). Knoll Associates to design the interiors around the"office landscape"concept pioneered in Germany about a decade previously and increase in population at that time. standard drywall and carpet. The first floor lobby walls were finished with marble, metal, and terrazzo, while the upper floor lobbies Company bank originally occupied the first 5 floors and most of the basement, while a variety of other tenants leased the 6" through 8h were gradually removed from the building. Internal newsletter articles indicate that Owens-Corning used some floors as showplaces for Railroad. From 1910 to 1920 George S.
Mills and its successors designed 157 factories, distribution centers, service buildings and Toledo Metropolitan Housing Authority, as well as housing projects elsewhere in Ohio and Michigan. During World War II, BGR confined mostly to the furnishings. Fiberglas curtains provided light and heat control for the building. Owens Corning also engaged used for the first time in the United States on a wide scale in the Fiberglas Tower. Instead of walls dividing offices, employees were Brass, Libbey Glass, Haughton Elevator, Champion Spark Plug, and the Continental Baking Company. Several signature buildings in United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio With a reorganization in 1962, BGR became Richards, Bauer and Moorhead.
Senior partner John Richards was an outspoken advocate for downtown redevelopment and he helped lay the groundwork for Toledo's Riverview project. As national president of the American Institute of Architects, Richards addressed a meeting of the Toledo Rotary Club in May of 1959, accusing civic leaders of being overcautious in their approach to urban decay and emphasizing the interconnection of downtown to the spirit of the city. Richards helped build public support for urban renewal in Toledo through his involvement in the early 1960s as general chairman of the Toledo Pedestrian Malls committee, president of the Chamber of Commerce, and president of the Downtown Toledo Associates.
Richards believed that urban renewal was crucial to Toledo's stability, an opinion shared by John Potter, Toledo's mayor, and Potter's completed by RBM in Ohio were the Masonic Complex in Toledo, Ohio Bell Telephone Company in Akron, Medical College of Ohio, the Chevrolet plant, and Columbia Gas of Ohio, most of which are situated in suburban Toledo locations. In 1978 the firm was religious facilities, and senior/assisted living. Tower. The garage itself was a substitution in Pei's original plan for underground parking throughout the Riverview project area. One subservient role. Pei's initial plan, with its truncated streets, underground parking and pedestrian plazas, reflected this aesthetic. The represented a compromise of the original plan. original plan for Riverview, and represents a crucial piece of the plan.
This element was a standard component of many of the urban dwellers and the workers in the office tower could move through or relax in. Considered an urban oasis, the pedestrian plaza was and used small scale plantings and trees within contained, frequently rectilinear beds. Levis Square fit all these criteria. It also was consciously designed to tie together the three structures on the block. The plaza's wide north-south axis was centered on the Fiberglas Tower's main entry on the north, while the east side of the plaza flowed into the covered arcade on the parking garage's west elevation. Even the Toledo Trust building's west entry was redesigned to provide for better entry onto the plaza. Levis Square retains a very high degree of integrity.
The Riverview One corporation owned both the Fiberglas Tower and the parking garage until 1985, when Cleveland-based Mid America Management Company purchased them. By the early 1990s, the Owens-Corning company appeared to occupy nearly all of the Tower, with the exception of the bank lobby on the first floor. It was at this time that Owens-Corning began looking to leave the tower. Some attributed this to the now "dated" tall office tower, when many office buildings were opting for a lower, longer footprint that allowed more workers to occupy one floor. Another factor may have been financial: Owens Corning entered into several decades of financial difficulty in the mid 1980s.
The company had to downsize significantly after it was the target of an unsuccessful hostile takeover bid in 1985-1986, and the 1990s saw the first of the the asbestos lawsuits that would eventually lead to the company entering bankruptcy in 2000 (it emerged from bankruptcy in 2006 after a trust was established to resolve all asbestos liability claims). The building itself was now over 20 years old, and began to need significant upgrades for accessibility and asbestos abatement; the cost of utilities were also a factor. In 1992, Owens-Corning and building owner Mid America Management had appeared to reach an following year, the deal had not yet been signed. Negotiations dragged on through early 1993, and by the end of February, Owens Corning was openly seeking bids for a new headquarters location.
Finally, the decision was made, and in October of 1993, Owens Conclusion hoped would stimulate public interest. I.M. Pei later acknowledged the project as the conception of Bauer and Potter. RBM's design for the parking garage, although not particularly innovative, was intended to complement the Modern design of the usually arranged in relation to the tower it served and provided for both circulation and seating. The plazas often had water features of the characteristics of the International Style of Planning was the creation of pedestrian environments that put the automobile into a substitution of the aboveground garage for underground parking represented a departure from this plan, as well as an intrusion into the Modernist office tower designs during this period.
Plazas were designed to provide clearly defined spaces at a human scale which agreement that would renew their lease (due at the end of 1994) and shelve Owens-Cornings' plans to move elsewhere, but by the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio Corning chose to construct a new facility and move all of its downtown employees to a new campus at the Middlegrounds, which, fortunately for Toledo's tax base, was still within the city limits. By the fall of 1996, Owens-Corning had completed construction of its new headquarters, and moved the last of its workers out of the Fiberglas Tower.
The following year, local developer Basem Mufleh purchase the tower from Mid America Management company for $3.5 million dollars, briefly renaming it "HyTower." Only a year later, the Eyde Company bought the tower from Mufleh for $4.5 million, a price which included the Toledo Trust building, and renovated the Fiberglas Tower lobby to encourage redevelopment. Despite these efforts, the local economy and the building's layout did not attract tenants, and the building remained empty. In January of 2003, a number of water pipes broke in the building, sending water cascading through the building and damaging many of the existing finishes. The tower remains vacant as of 2012. The retail spaces on the first floor of the parking garage are also vacant, while structural concerns have closed the upper floors of the parking deck.
Levis Square, however, is still owned and maintained by the city, and remains a park accessible to downtown Toledo pedestrians. The current owner of the Tower and parking structure is working on a redevelopment plan for the buildings, prompting this assessment of Riverview's historic significance and contribution. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of Property Riverview County and State Lucas County, Ohio 9.
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