The Republic Newspaper Office is a modernist building at 333 Second Street in Columbus, Indiana, United States. Designed by Myron Goldsmith of the firm Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (SOM), it was built for the local newspaper The Republic between 1969 and 1971. The Republic building, one of several modernist corporate buildings developed in Columbus during the late 20th century, has been owned by Indiana University (IU) since 2018. The building has received awards and praise for its architecture over the years, and it is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
The one-story structure has a thin curtain wall made of steel and glass, topped by a flat roof. Aluminum mullions divide the facade both vertically and horizontally, and they correspond to a grid around which the entire interior is arranged. The first floor's original layout accommodated the different stages of the newspaper production process from west to east. The interiors included offices, two work rooms, meeting space, and a printing plant, along with storage space in the basement. Unusually for its smaller buildings, SOM handled the interior design; The Republic also displayed pieces from its art collection there. The landscaping around the building includes rows of honey locust trees and clusters of crabapple trees.
The Republic owner Robert N. Brown selected Goldsmith to design a new building for the paper in 1959, though construction was postponed. The building was constructed in conjunction with a 1960s master plan for downtown Columbus, opening on July 19, 1971. After completion, the Republic building underwent relatively few changes; the printing press was removed from the building in 1997. After the rest of the newspaper's offices relocated in 2016, Southeastern Indiana Medical Holdings acquired the building. It was resold in April 2018 to IU, which relocated its Master of Architecture program there that August.
Site The Republic Newspaper Office building is located at 333 Second Street in Columbus, Indiana, United States. It is the only building on an approximately city block bounded by Second Street (Indiana State Road 46 eastbound) to the north, Washington Street to the east, First Street to the south, and Jackson Street to the west. There are sidewalks on all four streets. The sidewalk on Second Street is flanked by evenly-spaced rows of honey locust trees on both sides, while the sidewalks on Jackson and Washington streets have rows of honey locust trees only on the side facing the curb. The building is set back from its primary frontage on Second Street, where there are two flagpoles. The rear or south end of the block contains a parking lot, which stretches between Jackson and Washington streets and contains 108, 112, or 115 spaces. There are also crabapple trees at the building's west and east ends, as well as randomly arranged honey locusts at the south end.
The building is located at the south end of Columbus's downtown, which mostly consists of low-rise commercial buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To the north, the building faces the Bartholomew County Courthouse across Second Street. It is also close to other structures such as the Irwin Bank Building and Columbus City Hall. The sidewalk on Second Street is part of a longer pathway leading to the Flatrock River, built in the late 20th century as part of an urban renewal project for Columbus.
Architecture The Republic building was designed by Myron Goldsmith, an architect at the firm Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (SOM), as the headquarters of local newspaper The Republic. It is one of seven buildings in Columbus designated as National Historic Landmarks. The others are the Irwin Bank Building, the Mabel McDowell Adult Education Center, the Miller House, the North Christian Church, the First Christian Church, and the First Baptist Church. The Republic building was also one of several modernist corporate buildings developed in Columbus during the late 20th century. These structures followed an earlier wave of modernist development in the mid-20th century, influenced by local businessman J. Irwin Miller, whose Cummins Foundation had paid the design fees for modernist government buildings in the city.
It has one story and a basement. The building has a rectangular floor plan measuring . The floor plan is arranged in a 3×8 grid of square modules measuring across; the modules at the building's perimeter are further subdivided into three equal sections measuring wide. Vertically, the building is divided into modules measuring high; the flat roof is , or two modules, above ground. These modules influenced both the exterior and interior design. The building's low-rise design was also intended to avoid overshadowing the nearby Bartholomew County Courthouse.
Facade The facade is made mostly of steel and glass. Aluminum mullions divide the facade both vertically into bays and horizontally into registers, which correspond to the interior modules. The vertical mullions double as load-bearing columns that support the roof. The northern and southern elevations are divided vertically into 24 bays, while the western and eastern elevations are divided vertically into 9 bays, corresponding to the sections at the building's perimeter. The facade has painted steel panels at the bottom—concealing the first story's concrete floor slab, which is raised slightly above ground—and at the top. The roof slab is a metal deck measuring thick. The roof functions as a diaphragm, distributing structural forces laterally to the building's perimeter; this eliminated the need for thick structural reinforcement at the parapet and allowed the facade to be designed as a thin curtain wall.
The facade itself is made primarily of glass measuring thick, with aluminum panels installed in some bays for insulation. The glass is polished and was manufactured by PPG Industries. The glass exterior originally allowed the newspaper's bright yellow printing press to be viewed from the nearby street. The Architectural Record wrote that "considerable thought" was given to the decision to use glass, since newspaper offices were frequently targeted by threats, but that The Republic owner Robert N. Brown ultimately decided to use glass because he trusted the local population. Goldsmith used single-layered windows because he thought that thicker glass sheets would be less transparent. The curtain wall is similar to that of the earlier Irwin Bank Building. aside from the aluminum panels.
All of the bays on the northern elevation of the facade are identical, except for the fifth-westernmost bay, which contains a set of double doors. On the southern elevation, the fifth-westernmost bay has another door accessed by limestone steps, while three of the eastern bays contain a loading dock covered by a canopy. On both the eastern and western elevations, as well as the seven easternmost bays of the southern elevation, the upper register of the facade has aluminum panels. The lower register on all four elevations, and the rest of the upper register on the northern and southern elevations, are made of glass. The gray panels were intended to complement the color scheme of storefronts in downtown Columbus designed by Alexander Girard. Just east of the building is a white-brick enclosure measuring about high, which includes a cooling tower and garbage disposal.
Interior When the building was completed, SOM cited the first floor as spanning approximately and the basement as covering . The American Press and a 1971 article in The Republic both described the building as spanning in total. According to The Republic, this was split across on the first floor and in the basement.
Rooms The first floor's original layout accommodated the different stages of the newspaper production process, proceeding roughly linearly from west to east. The first-floor spaces are divided by full-height glass walls. The walls are held in place by columns with "H"-shaped cross sections, placed every , which correspond to the modules at the perimeter of the building. These columns support a corrugated steel ceiling deck with fluorescent lights, pipes, and sprinklers. All four elevations of the building, except the central 16 bays on the northern elevation, have miniature metal blinds. The concrete floor slab was covered with a dark brown carpet. A gas boiler provided hot air, while a gas engine powered two compressors that provided cool air. Grilles and diffusers along the perimeter walls distributed air through the building.
The administrative offices, cafeteria, and accounting department were at the western end of the building, where the entrances on the north and south walls lead into enclosed glass vestibules. These lead to reception areas originally furnished with Barcelona chairs and tables. The reception desk was made of metal and had an oak desktop. Abutting the reception areas, in the center-west portions of the building, were a pair of work areas facing north and south, which respectively housed newsrooms for The Republic advertising and editorial sections. A low, wide hallway leads between the work areas, with full-height doors on either side leading to various offices, bathrooms, and other spaces. The northern work area had cubicles with wooden partitions and oak-topped metal drawers. The partitions contained storage spaces, and the drawers could be rearranged. The southern work area, originally had wood-top desks, which were replaced while The Republic still occupied the building.
Proceeding east from the two work areas, advertising and editorial copy were reviewed by separate departments on opposite sides of the building. The center-east section had additional offices and conference rooms, while the eastern end of the building contained the actual printing plant. The publisher's office had teak floors with Moroccan carpet; a travertine shelf; and a wall with desk, cabinets, and lighting. The general manager's office had teak-framed chairs, a teak desk, and a travertine credenza. The printing press was painted yellow, to draw passersby's attention, and could print up to forty thousand 28-page issues per hour. To reduce noise and vibrations from the printing press, it was placed behind a soundproof glass wall and rested on footings that were disconnected from the rest of the building's foundation. When the printing press was removed in 1997, the wall was relocated, and the former printing press space became offices. After Indiana University (IU) acquired the building in 2016, the interior was converted into studios, classrooms, offices, conference rooms, an auditorium, and metalwork and woodwork shops.
The basement, occupying the building's eastern half, has utilitarian concrete walls and columns. It was originally used for mechanical functions and storage, a function it retained in the 21st century. The entire building sits on a concrete foundation.
Art SOM designed the interior decorations and furnishings, a deviation from its custom of overseeing interior designs only for their larger buildings. The interiors were mostly decorated in neutral colors, with accents in bright hues of primary colors. When The Republic occupied the building, it also maintained a small art collection there. The spaces were decorated with a Herbert Bayer oil painting, prints by various artists, and a section of cornice from the newspaper's previous headquarters. A woodcut by Carol Summers and a silk print by Victor Vasarely were also displayed in the building. In addition, the northern reception area had a custom-made artwork by Norman Ives, composed of six sculptural panels depicting typefaces in various sizes. The southern reception area had a lithograph depicting Columbus in 1886, and a sign from the newspaper's previous building was displayed in the employee lounge.
History