Eugene/Architecture/Alphabet: K

 

The Kennell Ellis Building (my photo)

This is the next in my Eugene/Architecture/Alphabet series of blog posts, the focus of each being a landmark building here in Eugene. Many of these will be familiar to most who live here but there are likely to be a few buildings that are less so. My selection criteria for each will be threefold:  

1. The building must be of architectural interest, local importance, or historically significant.
2. The building must be extant so you or I can visit it in person.
3. Each building’s name will begin with a particular letter of the alphabet, and I must select one (and only one) for each of the twenty-six letters. This is easier said than done for some letters, whereas for other characters there is a surfeit of worthy candidates (so I’ll be discriminating and explain my choice in those instances).

This entry’s selection begins with the letter K, for which my choice is the Kennell Ellis Building.
 
Kennell Ellis Building
Completed in 1947, the Kennell Ellis Building stands today as Eugene’s best example of the Streamline Moderne style of architecture. Eugene architect Robert Wilmsen designed the Kennell Ellis Building during his early years of independent practice (1946-1948), before he later developed a considerable legacy of mid-century modern architecture throughout Oregon in partnership first with Charles Endicott and then additionally DeNorval Unthank.
 
The Streamline Moderne style emerged during the 1930s. Influenced by machine age advances and an aerodynamic aesthetic, proponents of the style emphasized horizontality, smooth flowing lines, curved forms, and the use of unadorned and polished materials in their work. Details such as aluminum guardrails and ribbon window often called to mind ocean liners of the day. Indeed, the Kennel Ellis Building gives the impression of a great vessel floating across the streetscape, albeit frozen in its motion.
 
The heyday of Streamline Moderne was remarkably short-lived, perhaps no more than a decade long. The Kennell Ellis Building is thus a late example, and stylistically perhaps as much an early instance in America of the post-war International Style that would quickly dominate commercial architecture during the years that followed its completion. Regardless of its precise taxonomy, the Kennell Ellis Building is noteworthy because it is such a representative and mature example of its type and time, a testimony to Wilmsen’s understanding and proficiency in the style.
 
Like the building itself, the two vintage neon signs (one diagonally facing the intersection of 13th Avenue and Willamette Street, and the other set on the building’s west elevation) are rare surviving examples of their type. “Kennell Ellis Photography” may no longer exist, but the business’ name lives on through the glowing neon script that embellishes the eponymous structure.

 

According to anecdotal accounts from those who were around at the time of its construction, the curving, sidewalk-sheltering canopy of the Kennell Ellis Building was so daring that it spooked the contractor. He was reluctant to remove the formwork after casting the concrete, leaving the task instead to Wilmsen, the architect.
 
Upon the building’s completion the Kennell Ellis Artistic Photography Studio shared the upper floor with the Gredvig Beauty Studio, while Morse’s Women’s Wear fully exploited the continuous expanse of windows at the street level with the store’s displays of stylish women’s attire. Today, Big City Gamin’ and Funagain Games occupy the ground floor, while Jamaica Joel’s (a marijuana dispensary), Ritual Tattoo, and Freestyle Superette (a vintage clothing store) are among the second floor tenants. The Lane County property account information lists Divine & Hammer, LCC as the building’s owner.
 

I took the photo at the head of this blog post back in 2011. Today, as the recent Google Street View image immediately above shows, much of the sidewalk sheltered beneath the broad expanse of the swooping canopy is now an enclosed drinking/dining patio. While an understandable response to pandemic-induced indoor dining restrictions, the wood enclosure detracts from our ability to fully appreciate the building’s Streamline Moderne design. My hope is Big City Gamin’ will eventually remove the enclosure once we are fortunate enough to return more fully to life as “normal.”
 
The Kennell Ellis Building is a favorite of mine, so regardless of other noteworthy local landmarks whose names begin with “K” (among them the University of Oregon’s Knight Library and Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact) my choice for this entry in my Eugene/Architecture/Alphabet series was an easy one. Eugene suffers a lack of distinguishing architecture from all periods of its history. The Kennell Ellis Building is a rare and outstanding example in Eugene of an underrepresented and distinctive architectural idiom, very much worthy of preservation.