613 W. Vermont Ave, The Dovring House
Project Overview
Architect: Unknown Year Built: 1941 Architectural Style: Art Moderne
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Architectural Description |
| 613 W. Vermont exemplifies the Art Moderne style of architecture. Art Moderne was the modern architectural style that emerged around the same time as Art Deco. Art Deco was commonly used in public buildings and rarely for domestic architecture, as opposed to Art Moderne which was almost always used in domestic architecture. Art Moderne became popular after 1930 when streamlined industrial design for ships, airplanes, and automobiles was introduced. Streamlining became popular due to the poor economic climate of the 1930's and the dismissal of unnecessary ornament drastically reduced the costs of design. Art Moderne drew influences from Art Deco, but the styles differ slightly. Some common features of Art Moderne are smooth surfaces, curved corners, emphasis of the horizontal with grooving and balustrades, flat roofs, asymmetrical facades, glass-block windows, round windows, and windows turning corners. | |
| 613 W. Vermont was built in 1935 as the Robert Kirkwood Residence. Some characteristics of Art Moderne as seen on the Kirkwood Residence are a flat, parapet roof with coping, or a ledge, around the roof line, an asymmetrical façade, a modular form, windows continuous around corners, and glass blocks used for windows. The house has a rectilinear geometry. The walls are constructed of cut tan stone with no organized coursing. The walls have prominent horizontal lines, or grooves, which give emphasis to the horizontal plane, a characteristic of modern architecture. The house has a complex roof line of varying roof levels. Several of the windows are comprised of glass blocks. One of the window sections consists of one vertical row (one block by ten blocks) and a large three-row section (three blocks by thirteen blocks). There are several windows that wrap around the corner of the house. The corner support of the windows is a rounded piece of steel. All the windows are articulated with white trim. Several windows are made up of large individual panes of glass. A tall chimney can be seen near the rear of the house. The garage’s roof line has a rounded corner. The main entrance is not obvious, as it is not on the center axis of the house. Instead of being parallel to the street, the main entrance is perpendicular to the street. | |
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Historical Description |
| Built in 1941 for UIUC Professor and head of the campus ROTC program, Robert G. Kirkwood, 613 W. Vermont is perhaps best known as the Dovring House, named for its long-time residents Folke and Karin Dovring. | |
| Folke Dovring was a well known professor of Agricultural Economics and Agrarian History at the University of Illinois. According to his biographer, Janken Myrdal, Dovring was both entirely typical of mid-century academics in the United States as well as atypical. Dovring was part of a group of post-War European academics whose migration to the United States helped establish the dominance of the American university in the intellectual world system. However, as a historian and agricultural economist, Dovring was an atypical figure for his time. He was an early practitioner of “agrarian” history. His alienation from the Swedish academy stemmed from his advocacy of examining history through the lives of everyday people, as opposed to elites. He was also a strong advocate for using statistical information in his agrarian histories. Both these positions were highly unpopular in Sweden. Moreover, Dovring was a vocal in his criticism of prominent Swedish historians, a position that quickly led to him being ostracized. When it became clear to Dovring that he would never be able to secure a full professorship in Sweden, he accepted an offer from the University of Illinois in the Department of Agricultural Economics. An intellectual iconoclast through and through, his work at UIUC was no less conformist. He was an early, vocal advocate of “appropriate technology” in development, contrary to the mainstream, Green Revolution-based technology transfer paradigm that characterized international agricultural development during the second half of the 20th Century. Not to be limited to his native field, he was a strong advocate for alternative fuels and was one of the first academics who openly argued that American dependence on oil would lead to prolonged military involvement in Mid-East politics. Perhaps not surprising given that neither he nor Karin ever owned a car, he argued for a reduction in the number of urban parking spaces years before this became a popular progressive planning position. Folke passed away in 1998 and Karin passed away in 2011. | |
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Map Locations:
The Dovring House
613 W. Vermont Ave
Urbana, IL 