“Board members and friends of the new Docomomo chapter in Wisconsin welcome members of the national Docomomo board from New York at a kick-off celebration in Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1948 Adelman house in Fox Point.” (Photo by Kim Robinson)
“The Board of Directors of the new Docomomo Wisconsin Chapter and friends from the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, the City of Milwaukee’s Historic Preservation Commission and the Historic Preservation Institute of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UWM celebrate with members of the national Docomomo board from New York at the Adelman house in Fox Point on Friday evening, April 8th, 2022.”
We sincerely thank Craig Adelman, son of the original owners Albert and Edith, for hosting Docomomo at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed home. In 2012, Craig commissioned the full restoration of the 1948 Usonian style home, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“Docomomo US Board President Robert Meckfessel joins Docomomo WI Secretary Kelsey Kuehn, Senior Planner Tim Askin of Milwaukee’s Historic Preservation Commission and friends from the Docomomo US board in a toast to the creation of a new Docomomo chapter in Wisconsin.” (Photo Credit Kim Robinson)
Wisconsin is the 19th state in the nation to find a new Docomomo chapter where directors and members support a nonprofit mission dedicated to the “documentation and conservation of the modern movement, “thus Do-Co-Mo-Mo, which includes the preservation of modern buildings and applied arts as well as mid-century residential neighborhoods and historic sites.
After the demolition of the iconic Forest Home Branch Library in 2021, local architects, historians, curators and architectural preservationists organized the new chapter to prevent further destruction of local mid-century masterpieces. The group will focus on Milwaukee, Madison and Racine for the first few years but plans to expand to other cities and towns throughout the state as the organization grows.
Upcoming programming includes an exhibition of architectural photographs documenting the former Forest Home Branch Library, a retrospective exhibition about the mid-century architectural work of Alonzo Robinson, Wisconsin’s first licensed Black architect, and an upcoming article in ‘Wisconsin People and Ideas’ about the monumental mosaics of Madison artist Marjorie Kreilick and her mid-century colleagues in Milwaukee, Edmund Lewandowski and Merritt Yearsley.”
