James Van Nuys: Beautiful architecture becomes art for the city

By James Van Nuys, Journal columnist | Thursday, August 30, 2007

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Having spent most of my working life as an artist and musician, I've had very little to do with banks or other financial institutions over the years -- their interiors, anyway.

I can appreciate their exterior architecture, though, and have been doing so for the past 10 years or so, especially in downtown Rapid City. Banks have been cropping up like dandelions lately, but they're really quite attractive, as dandelions go, and in my opinion have improved the overall aesthetic impact of our town.

We do a phenomenal amount of building, demolition and rebuilding in our culture, changing our cityscapes as readily, and seemingly as easily, as children in Lego-land.

This has, perhaps, made us somewhat immune to the impressiveness of our own achievements as designers and builders. The average guy will notice that a new building is being constructed and will hope that it's going to be a restaurant -- and is always disappointed when it turns out to be another tanning salon -- but other than that, he won't pay a lot of attention to it.

We tend to take buildings for granted (unless we happen to live or work in them) partly, as I say, because their construction appears (deceptively) to be quick and easy, and partly because of their ubiquity.

Nevertheless, architecture has always been considered to be one of the arts (despite its considerable engineering component), and it is in fact the most widespread manifestation of visual art in most cultures.

Our buildings create a much larger portion of our visual environment than do paintings or sculpture. Not just buildings, actually, but all aspects of urban design -- it all adds up to a huge collaborative work of art, and like all art it may be done well or poorly, depending on the amount of reason, imagination, care, and of course money, that go into it.

I don't have space to go into a history of architecture here; suffice it to say I'm glad that the "modern" era is over (we're still in the "post-modern" era, as far as I know) and am always happy to see the ugly boxes of the mid-20th century being torn down and replaced.

Not everyone agrees with me, I realize; there are nonprofit groups working to "safeguard and document imperiled modern architecture." If you can't think of any more worthwhile charities, you might want to donate a few thousand dollars to them. In case you want to know what you're preserving, here are a few of the principles of modern architecture:

1. Rejection of historical styles.

2. Rejection of ornament and elimination of detail.

3. Adoption of the machine aesthetic.

4. Form follows function.

The last listed principle was the most rational sounding one, but in practice, modern architecture wasn't any more functional than its stylistic predecessors and was in some ways less so. (For details, read Tom Wolfe's "From Bauhaus to Our House.")

To me, the most aesthetically offensive characteristic of the modern architects was their arrogance -- their disregard for context. They'd put up buildings with no attempt to visually integrate them into

existing cityscapes. You can see this in small South Dakota towns, as well as in big cities around the world.

I think architecture is recovering nicely, though, from the dogmatism of modernism; we're allowed to be human again, and to indulge our natural love of decoration, detail and complexity. Architects aren't trying to replicate buildings of the past, but they're working (and playing) with some of the motifs from earlier styles and erecting structures that have a sense of belonging to the neighborhoods in which they're located.

Which brings us back to our Rapid City banks, which are putting up some of our most handsome and interesting buildings (presumably because they're the businesses most able to afford it).

You might want to take a walking tour sometime. I know, it's not exactly Venice, but still, why not take some time to appreciate what our local architects and builders are creating?

Start with the Great Western Bank at St. Joseph and First streets. I like the earth tones of the brick, the "retro" clock and its decorative pediment, and the cast-stone medallions.

The Dacotah Bank, a block north at First and Main, is a pleasing combination of old and new ideas. There's the very contemporary main entrance composed of large simple shapes in glass, concrete and green marble, and then there are the side elevations, which look more traditional with arched windows and horizontal stone friezes.

Even the drive-through is classy looking.

The First Security Bank at Fifth and Quincy is noteworthy for its landscaped island with Dale Lamphere's stainless steel prairie-grass sculpture.

They've also got smaller versions of the Lamphere sculpture at their Sheridan Lake Road branch.

Other stops on your walking tour should include the new First Western building on West Boulevard, Wells Fargo on St. Joseph Street, and Premier Properties at Seventh and Main (which used to be a bank -- check out the intricate brick work).

Black Hills Federal Credit Union gets extra credit for filling their new corporate office (not on the walking tour) with local art. It's as close as we artists will ever get to the big money.

James Van Nuys is an oil and watercolor painter and musician living and working in Rapid City. He writes monthly for the Journal's Life & Style and Weekend sections. You may contact him at Sdartcolumn@aol.com