Prudden Wheel Company - Motor Wheel Corporation, Lansing Michigan
Lansing was an early leader in the development and production of automobiles at the turn of the twentieth century. By 1910 there were several different auto manufacturers in the city, and the automobile and its support businesses had become Lansing's leading industry. Local companies produced everything from engines to wheels to bodies, all feeding into the various automobile and truck manufacturing operations. Among the leaders in the field of second-tier suppliers was the Prudden Wheel Company, originally W. K. Prudden & Company. W.K. Prudden & Company was founded in 1903 for the manufacture of rubber-tired carriage, racing sulky and automobile wheels. Prudden revolutionized the wheel-making industry with the introduction of the first artillery-type wheels, and by 1904 was producing wheels for sixty percent of all the automobiles manufactured in the country. The company was reorganized in 1916 as the Prudden Wheel Company, and a new building was constructed for administrative offices and machine shops. Four years later, Prudden merged with two other local suppliers; Gier Pressed Steel, and Auto Wheel; to become the Motor Wheel Corporation, the world's largest wheel manufacturer. The building on East Saginaw served as the corporate office for Motor Wheel until 1961, when the company headquarters were moved to the Gier facility on North Larch Street.
The City of Lansing (known as the Village of Michigan until 1849) was established as Michigan's state capital in 1847. The city is located at the confluence of the Grand River and Red Cedar River, which was the site of numerous early industries. Foundries and machine shops were among the leading first industries in Lansing, with plows, wagons, and stoves some of the earliest products manufactured there. By 1905, Lansing was home to a number of nationally renowned businesses: E. Bement & Sons was the largest producer of bobsleighs in the world; Olds Motor Works produced the most automobiles nationally; and Lansing Wheelbarrow produced the second-highest number of wheelbarrows in the United States. The Olds Gasoline Engine Works was the largest producer of engines that ran exclusively on gas; Hugh Lyons & Company manufactured the largest number of store fixtures and show cases; Maud S Windmill Company was the country's largest manufacturer of windmills, tank heaters, pumps and tanks; and W.K. Prudden & Company emerged as the largest producer of automobile wheels in the nation. These industries formed the environment from which the automobile industry in Lansing developed.
The expanding railroad network provided access to larger regional and national markets, and supplied the raw materials that were used to manufacture finished products. The first railroad to reach the city was the Amboy, Lansing & Traverse City (AL&TC) Railroad in 1863. The Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw Railroad reached Lansing in 1866 and, merged with the AL&TC, was incorporated into the Michigan Central Railroad. Other railroads linked the city more closely into the national economy, including the Detroit, Lansing & Lake Michigan Railroad and the Peninsular Railroad to Battle Creek in 1869, followed by the Grand Valley Railroad in 1870, and the Chicago & Northeastern Railroad to Flint in 1877. By the mid-1870s Lansing was thus firmly anchored into the national railroad grid, laying the framework for industry and commerce in the coming decades. Largely spurred by the emergence of the automobile industry, Lansing's growth accelerated at the turn of the century.
The development of the automobile in America essentially grew from two existing industries: the horse-drawn carriage or wagon industry, and the stationary engine industry. The influence of those earlier industries was apparent in the first experimental automobiles produced in the late nineteenth century. As America entered the automobile age, products already in commercial production were adapted to the new concept of a self-propelled vehicle. Some nineteenth-century companies became suppliers to the new automobile manufacturers, others would change their product line to suit the new era, and a few even attempted to manufacture automobiles themselves. The transition from the horse-drawn era and industries of that period to the automobile age was evident throughout the country and specific examples can be found in Lansing's industrial past.
The most direct industrial transition was in the carriage or wagon trade. The new self-propelled vehicles were commonly referred to as "horseless carriages" and the lineage was obvious. Using terminology borrowed from the carriage trade, the earliest automobile models were alternately called stanhopes, surreys, cabriolets, broughams and landaulets. The gasoline-powered vehicle first produced by the Duryea brothers was called a "motor wagon" and even as late as 1902 Charles Duryea advertised that his product was "A Carriage - not a Machine." In terms of design, the earliest automobiles were constructed to resemble horse-drawn vehicles, without the shafts and horse. The engines typically were out of sight, placed beneath the seats and towards the rear of the vehicle. Early bodies were made in carriage factories and "the carriage tradition persisted so strongly that many automobile bodies came complete with whip sockets."
Along with the bodies, other components easily made the transition from the carriage trade to automobile manufacture, including wheels. The earliest cars were relatively lightweight, some very close to a horse-drawn vehicle, with only the added weight of a small engine, so the wheels designed for carriages were also suitable for use in automobiles. As auto designs later evolved, some wheel manufacturers made the logical transition from carriage wheels to automobile wheels, adapting their factories and product line to become part of the new industry. Developments in the stationary engine field also impacted the development of the automobile. As that industry moved from large coal- or wood-fired steam engines, to smaller, more powerful engines that used oil, kerosene or gasoline as the fuel to raise steam, and then to a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine, the early auto pioneers adapted the advancing technology into their own work. Although the bodies may have been constructed by carriage makers and were a holdover from a previous era, the new automobile manufacturers took a fundamental step forward by replacing the horse with a new-found source of power.
These trends played a significant role in Lansing's early dominance in the automobile industry. Lansing was a major engine manufacturing center in the late 1800s, and the companies located here; such as Cady & Hildreth, Olds Engine Works, and Lansing Iron & Engine Works; were among the leading innovators within the engine industry. The city also had a fully-developed carriage manufacturing trade, with the well-established machine shops of Clark & Company and Lansing Wagon Works in operation. Adjunct component suppliers like the Lansing Wheel Company, W.K. Prudden & Company, and Lansing Spoke Company were very much a part of the national carriage industry, as well as the general manufacturing base of the city. The concentration of these industries in Lansing played a pivotal role in the city's move into the automobile age, and largely explains why Lansing rose to early prominence in the auto industry.
Ransom E. Olds is considered to be Lansing's most successful pioneer automobile manufacturer. In 1896, R.E. Olds produced the first gasoline automobile in Lansing. Olds Motor Works opened in 1897 and produced the first popular affordable automobile in the U.S. R.E. Olds left Olds Motor Works after a dispute with company executives and founded the Reo Motor Car Company in 1906. There were several smaller auto manufacturers in the city, including the Lansing Automobile Works, Greenleaf, Bates Automobile Company, and Clarkmobile Company. Nearly all of them traced their industrial ancestry to Lansing's pre-automobile manufacturing economy and the influence of Oldsmobile. As the industry continued to develop, these smaller companies were eclipsed and the industry began to be dominated by a decidedly more select group of major manufacturers. In Lansing, these included Buick Motor Company (1904) and General Motors (1908).
By 1910 the automobile and its support businesses had become Lansing's leading industry. The development that had the greatest single impact on the shift of industry in Lansing was that of the gasoline engine. The Cady & Hildreth Company is credited with making one of the first successful gasoline engines in 1891. A year later, P.F. Olds & Son developed a gasoline engine that was intended for stationary applications as well as marine use. After several failed experiments with steam-powered vehicles, R.E. Olds conceived of a different application for the stationary gas engine, and in 1896 produced his first gas-powered automobile. To serve the burgeoning auto industry, other gasoline engine manufacturers were established in Lansing and the city soon became a major center of production. By 1910 there were nine gas engine manufacturers in Lansing, including the Bates & Edmonds Motor Company, Lansing Motor & Pump Company, Hildreth Manufacturing Company, New Way Motor Company, Beilfuss Motor Company, Ideal Motor Company, W.S. Olds Air-Cooled Motor Company, Peerless Motor Company, and Seager Engine Works. While some manufacturers would produce engines exclusively for use in automobiles and trucks, the industry would evolve to primarily manufacture engines for stationary applications such as power sources for machinery, pumps and hoists.
Lansing also supported one of the highest concentrations of forges in the nation, an industry closely associated with the automobile. The forging process produces pieces much higher in tensile strength than other processes such as casting or stamping, and is especially well-suited for producing heavy-duty parts for automotive applications, such as suspension components, crankshafts, and connecting rods. Over their years of operation, Lansing forges supplied a wide variety of parts to the local automobile and truck assembly plants, as well as for production of agricultural and off-road equipment. Five major forging operations were located in the city in the early twentieth century: Atlas Drop Forge, Melling Forging Company, Emergency (Lansing) Drop Forge, Federal Drop Forge, and Lindell Drop Forge. In addition to these major companies, many smaller forges were operated within engine or pump manufacturing facilities, as parts of machine shops or as on-site support operations within automobile plants. The forging industry enjoyed tremendous growth and prosperity in Lansing until 1979, one of the last periods of peak production, when the combined workforce of the five major forges totaled 1,400 employees.
While Lansing automobile manufacturers produced many components and parts within their own plants, they commonly contracted out the production of bodies, first for passenger autos and later for commercial vehicles like trucks and buses. Finished bodies were shipped on a regular schedule to the assembly lines of Lansing factories. In 1901, the Auto Body Company was the first company specifically created for the manufacture of bodies for the fledgling automobile industry in Lansing. Since the automobile industry was still in its infancy at this time, this venture was an experiment whose success relied on the future growth and expansion of the automobile industry. While the market for automobiles remained relatively small, Auto Body supplemented its operations by manufacturing sleighs, buggy parts, and other sundry items. With the growth of the automobile industry in Lansing, Auto Body became the largest plant of its kind in the early twentieth century, providing bodies for the Oldsmobile, ClarkMobile, Durant, and (initially) Reo, in addition to Rambler, Stearns, and Yale vehicles. Within the first three decades of the twentieth century, as the demand continued to increase for automobiles and the commercial vehicle market developed, Lansing area body manufacturers enjoyed tremendous growth.
As the nation's demand changed from horse-drawn wagons and carriages to automobiles, there were major shifts in the Lansing vehicle industry in the final decades of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. By the late 1880s, Lansing Wheel Company had already established itself as a major supplier of wheels for the wagon and carriage trade. In 1888, the company produced forty to fifty sets of wheels per day for the Michigan market. Just one year later, production had tripled to 150 sets per day. Lansing Wheel products were used by noted wagon and carriage builders such as the Studebaker Brothers of South Bend, Indiana; Michigan Buggy Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and the Racine Wagon & Carriage Company and Fish Brothers Wagon Company, both of Racine, Wisconsin. The Lansing Wheel facility was a complete, self-contained factory, able to perform the entire production process from log to finished wheel. The company was incorporated in 1885 and reincorporated in 1887. Its success was credited to then secretary-treasurer and general manager of the company, W.K. Prudden, a figure who would come to play a leading role in the industrial and civic history of Lansing.
A graduate of the Michigan Agricultural College, William K. Prudden (1859-1927) lived for several years in Indianapolis and Chicago, but returned to Lansing in 1888 as a real estate broker and breeder of fine horses. He was co-owner of the Lansing Wheel Company and served on the board of the Michigan Wheel Company before launching W. K. Prudden & Company in 1903 at 412 East Michigan Avenue (no longer extant). The company was regional distributor of Oldsmobiles and manufactured wheels for the Olds Motor Works at this site. As business increased, the company relocated to the north side of May Street on a site adjoining the Michigan Central rail line. A modest block building, it housed offices on the second floor and manufacturing space for racing sulky wheels on the first. At this building (now demolished), Prudden developed one of the major advancements in automotive wheel design, the artillery type of automobile wheel. As automobiles increased in size and weight, a stronger wheel was needed to safely carry the heavier load. The artillery wheel featured a much heavier spoke than the standard carriage wheels in use at the time, an example of how existing product designs were redeveloped and adapted to the new automobile industry.
Prudden became one of the major suppliers to the automobile industry, and the company expanded its facilities. A machine shop was constructed across May Street, just south of the original office building, and by 1910 the company began manufacturing rims. The president of the company was Harry F. Harper (1881-1949), one of Lansing's most prominent industrialists and civic leaders. Born in Wisconsin, Harper came to Lansing in 1903 and took a job as bookkeeper and shipping/receiving room clerk with W.K. Prudden & Company. He was subsequently appointed secretary of the company, and in 1916 was made president. Under Harper's management, the company was reorganized as the Prudden Wheel Company in 1916, and a major new factory/office building, was constructed at the south end of the complex, fronting on East Saginaw. In 1919, Prudden acquired Weis & Lesh Manufacturing Company of Memphis, Tennessee, which had holdings of thousands of acres of hickory hardwood. Prudden knew the amount of wood needed to satisfy the national automobile wheel demand would be huge, since more than 90% of all vehicles produced in the U.S. in 1920 used wood spoke wheels. The acquisition would ensure a steady supply of this important raw material to Prudden.
To the north of the Prudden site stood the Lansing Spoke Company. Located at the junction of the Michigan Central and the Detroit, Grand Rapids & Western rail lines, it was already well established by 1898. The site consisted of a sawmill, large drying shed, and manufacturing and finishing areas for spokes and rims, as well as vast storage areas for logs and wood. Headed by E.S. Porter and L.J. Driggs, the company successfully made the transition to the new automobile market and eventually changed its name to the Auto Wheel Company.
Another Lansing company that played a major role in the city's early automobile wheel industry was Gier Pressed Steel. Founded in 1903 as the Gier & Dail Manufacturing Company, the firm produced a general line of stamping and pressed steelwork. Seeing the success of other local companies in the production of automobile components, the partners decided to develop their own niche in that fast-growing industry. In April 1910 Gier & Dail purchased a 44,000-square-foot building on North Grand (part of the former Bement factory). With five presses, the company began to supply wheel hub flanges and valve stem ferules to other local wheel companies already in operation. The partnership dissolved in 1913, but in December of 1915 Burton S. Gier established the Gier Pressed Steel Company. The officers for the new company were W.K. Prudden (president), Harry E. Bradner (vice president), Harry F. Harper (treasurer), and B.S. Gier (secretary and general manager). In 1916, the company opened a $200,000 plant immediately north of the Auto Wheel Company on North Larch. Starting with sixty-six presses and a workforce of 200, the company manufactured a range of steel products, from kitchen utensils to auto bodies, with a principal focus on automobile wheel components.
The relationships between these companies, both in goods produced and leadership, would become more formalized in 1920. That year, three major Lansing firms and another from Tennessee would be merged together to form Motor Wheel Corporation. Auto Wheel (represented by Drury L. Porter, son of E. S. Porter), Prudden Wheel (headed by Harry F. Harper), and Gier Pressed Steel (founded and still managed by B. S. Gier) formed the local basis of the new company. The fourth company involved in the merger was Weis & Lesh Manufacturing Company of Memphis, Tennessee, which had been acquired the previous year by Prudden. Harry Harper was named president and general manager of Motor Wheel, a position he held until his retirement in 1946. In their first year of operation, Motor Wheel produced one million wood-spoke automobile wheels. To maintain their dominance, Motor Wheel purchased the Disteel wheel patents in 1923, as well as the assets of the Detroit Pressed Steel Company, and moved all of their machinery and equipment to Lansing. Along with these acquisitions, Motor Wheel also purchased the Forsyth Brothers Company of Harvey, Illinois, another manufacturer of steel wheels. As with the previous acquisitions, all of the Forsyth Company's equipment and machinery was relocated to the Lansing plant. Within the corporate framework, the Prudden and Gier facilities were referred to respectively as Plants 1 and 2. The relationship with Weis & Lesh ended in 1933.
Even though it was a leading supplier of wooden wheels, the company anticipated that automobile wheels would one day be constructed of steel, and in 1924 Motor Wheel made its move into the steel wheel market with the introduction of their Truarc wheel. The new product featured a steel disc with a demountable rim. This development represented a radical departure from the design and overall concept of the spoke wheel that, even with advancements, was still essentially a holdover from the carriage era. The new design had a distinctively modern appearance and apparently attracted the attention of the buying public, as it was offered as optional equipment on two or three of the leading makes of automobiles of the era. The introduction of this exciting new product, along with the acquisitions of possible competitors, ensured Motor Wheel's continued dominance in the wheel industry. By the end of that decade, it had become the world's largest manufacturer of both wood and steel wheels, and had produced more steel wheels for use on passenger cars than all other manufacturers combined.' Further steel wheel developments followed, with the introduction of wire wheels by 1926. The design of these wheels was changed in 1930 to create a larger hub shell and a reduction in the number of spokes, resulting in a more rigid wheel design.
During this period, and throughout their lifetimes, both Prudden and Harper were actively involved in local business and community affairs. W.K. Prudden built and donated the city's first auditorium in 1916, which served as the center for all cultural and civic events in the community until 1955, when it was removed for construction of a new civic center. He was President of the American Savings Bank, and in 1917 was instrumental in the construction of the Prudden Block at the southwest corner of Washington and Michigan in downtown Lansing, where the bank was the primary tenant. When the Prudden Block burned in 1920, another building was constructed a year later on the site and again named in his honor. At the time, the Prudden Building was the tallest commercial building in the city. Prudden was a crusader for paved roads and was one of a group of prominent local businessmen that advocated for laying the first paved section of road between Lansing and East Lansing. He was President of the Lansing Chamber of Commerce, and in 1917 was appointed the State Fuel Administrator by President Woodrow Wilson. In recognition of his contributions, Prudden received a posthumous community service award in 1984 from Lansing's Regional Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to his position at Motor Wheel, Harry F. Harper was also associated with a variety of other business, civic and charitable enterprises. His business affiliations included vice-president of the American State Bank, Central Trust Company, and Michigan Steel Tube Products Company of Detroit. He helped to organize the Duplex Truck Company, and for many years was active as a member of the Board of Water & Electric Light. Harper helped establish the Chamber of Commerce, the Community Welfare Fund, the Central Trust Company, and the Lansing City Club. He was an original member of the executive committee for the Edward W. Sparrow Hospital, as well as a long-term benefactor of that facility. He also helped finance construction of Lansing's St. Lawrence Hospital in 1924, and was a financial backer for the Republican Party. Dedicated to conservation causes, Harper was a board member of the Izaak Walton League for many years, and helped in the establishment of Isle Royale (in Houghton, Michigan) as a national park. On the national level, he was one of the founders of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association.
Significant product advancements continued throughout the company's history. In 1931, Motor Wheel teamed up with Campbell, Wyant & Cannon Foundry Company to introduce Centrifuse brake drums. The Campbell Company developed this process, which involved centrifugally casting and fusing iron into a rolled steel ring to create a brake drum that had a textured iron braking surface with the strength of steel. The Centrifuse brake drums were lighter in weight than cast brake drums, but stronger. In 1953, Motor Wheel introduced the Electrofuse welding process, in which eliminating the use of rivets to attach the rim to the wheel's disc enabled the construction of an airtight steel wheel, thus permitting the use of a tubeless tire, today's standard on the road.
In 1961 the Motor Wheel headquarters was moved to Plant No. 2 (the former Gier Pressed Steel facility on North Larch Street), and the Prudden site was readied for sale. Preparations included a major clearance program, and it's at that time that many of the factory buildings at the Prudden site were demolished. Motor Wheel became a subsidiary of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in 1964. By 1970, with thirteen plants in operation across the country, the corporation produced more than 14 million wheels annually, available in 700 different styles. The company remained one of Lansing's major employers, but in 1996 the Motor Wheel Corporation left Lansing and was merged with Hayes Wheels International, a transaction that was valued at approximately $1.1 billion.
Prudden/Motor Wheel not only had a profound impact on Lansing's local economy but, like other early second-tier suppliers, was "key in establishing Michigan's dominance in the automotive industry. Components manufacturers' willingness to share in visionary, risky endeavors in these early days had far reaching implication for Michigan." The last remnant of the Prudden Wheel Company and Motor Wheel corporate offices at East Saginaw stand as a tangible link to that pioneering era in Michigan's automotive history, and to the entrepreneurs who were an integral part of it.
Building Description
The former Prudden Wheel Company building is a three-story reinforced concrete structure with brick curtain walls. Its construction made use of the Kahn Trussed Bar System, a reinforced concrete structural system that was widely adopted in the design of auto factories and industrial buildings in the early twentieth century. The building has an L-plan footprint and a distinctive smokestack bearing the Prudden name in contrasting brick. At its peak, the Prudden plant covered fifteen acres on the eastern fringe of Lansing's corporate limits, and consisted of over thirty-five structures of varying sizes and functions. Most of those buildings were demolished after 1961, and the complex has since been divided into five separate parcels, with the current nominated property occupying one 2.27-acre parcel. The nominated building is the last remaining structure of a once-bustling industrial complex. Originally designed for administrative offices and machine shops, it was rehabilitated in 2006 for luxury apartments.
The Prudden Wheel Company property is located on the east side of the Grand River in Lansing, immediately adjoining the Penn Central and C & O Railroad tracks (formerly the Michigan Central Railroad). The Prudden building faces south onto East Saginaw Street, a major Lansing thoroughfare. Saginaw Street was redesigned in the 1950s to go under the railroad crossing at this location. As a result, the Prudden plant is now almost twenty feet above the grade of the new road surface.
The site was acquired in 1905, when the Prudden Company relocated from a location near Lansing's commercial core to a building between Sheridan (now Oakland) and May streets on the Michigan Central tracks. A two-story concrete block building that was constructed on that site formed the core of a rapidly expanding complex that by 1913 included at least eighteen additional one- and two-story iron and wood post factory buildings, straddling both sides of May Street (to the north of the current site). Building assignments included the rim shop (storage and inspection), wheel room, bending room, machine shop, tin shop, kiln (for drying lumber), boiler room, fuel house, spoke wood shed, several factories, and: finished wheel storage. On the west side of the railroad tracks stood a billet shed and storage shed. In 1916 the current three-story building was constructed for offices and light assembly. By the 1950s, the number of support structures on this site had grown to over thirty-five. Most were demolished after 1961 when the corporate offices were moved to Plant No. 2 (the former Gier Pressed Steel facility) on North Larch Street.
Today, the surrounding neighborhood contains a mix of industrial, commercial and residential properties. On the south side of Saginaw directly opposite the Prudden site is Oak Park, and to the immediate north of it is a professional/municipal office complex that was built in 1999.
The Prudden building has an L-plan footprint. The facade is oriented to the south, and runs parallel to East Saginaw Street; the intersecting rear wing parallels the railroad tracks. The east wing (facing Saginaw) is approximately 382 feet long and 79 feet wide. The rear wing is 311 feet long and 101 feet wide, which includes a 30-foot-wide loading dock addition on the back (east) side of the wing. The whole building encompasses a total area of 178,900 square feet. Offices were originally located in the east end of the east wing (on the three upper floors), with auto parking indicated at basement level and machine shops occupying the remainder of the building. In 2006, as part of a certified rehabilitation, the interior space was divided into 122 loft-style apartment units, ranging in size from 617 to 1,716 square feet. The basement continues to be used for parking.
The building exterior features concrete sills, concrete columns, and brick spandrels. Window openings measure roughly 9'6" tall and 18' wide. These openings originally held large multi-light, steel casement windows with horizontal pivoting sash. All windows on the west side of the north wing (adjoining the railroad tracks) were enclosed with brick after 1936, and in ca. 1985 the windows on the south, east, and north elevations were replaced with fixed aluminum sash. In 2006 enclosed openings were re-opened, and windows throughout the building were replaced with multi-light casement windows with outward projecting awning units that closely replicate the original windows, in conformance with Secretary of Interior standards.
The main entrance is located on the south facade, which is eighteen bays long. The original entrance was located in the second bay from the east end of the facade wall. A 1926 photograph shows the doorway set within a flush brick wall, with a plain surround and flat metal canopy. Following a 1953 remodeling, a more monumental doorway with stone wing walls, rubbed limestone columns, and an aluminum-faced overhang was relocated to the fifth bay, and a new window and brick wall were used to infill the original entrance bay. The architect for this renovation was the Lansing firm of Lee and Kenneth C. Black." In 1985, another renovation resulted in further alterations to the entry, including enclosure of the canopy with an Exterior Insulated Finishing System (EIFS). A new door system installed in 2006 more closely resembles the original storefront entrance, with double doors, multi-light sidelights and transom, and flat hanging canopy.
At the west end of the facade at ground level is another large opening. In 1916 a railroad spur was extended directly into this opening for loading and unloading goods. The tracks have since been removed and the floor is ramped down to the basement. The opening was fitted with overhead garage doors in 2006 and now provides tenant access to the basement parking area. An exit door is located at the end of the east wing, which is three bays wide.
The north wing (west elevation) is fifteen bays in length; the end (north) wall is a flush surface with no door or window openings. A historic addition on the east side of the north wing has increased the width of the building by twenty feet. The addition follows the same design system seen on other exterior walls, but is steel framed. Prior to the rehabilitation, the east wall had an open loading dock at first-floor level. The loading dock has since been enclosed with brick walls, doors and windows, and concrete patios have been added, all in accordance with federal rehabilitation standards. A large red brick smokestack at the north end of the wing has the Prudden name spelled out in yellow brick, a ghostly remnant of that company's earlier occupancy.
Prior to its renovation, the building's interior featured an open floor plan with no interior partitions, except for the elevator shafts and stairwells. The floor plan features two rows of precast concrete columns that are equally spaced about twenty feet apart across the width of the intersecting wings. The columns have mushroom capitals, with a flat plinth on top of each for reinforcement. Many of the columns are up to two feet in diameter, but their sizes vary, with the narrowest columns on the third floor near the building perimeter. The columns are hollow, and appear at one time to have been used for gravity-fed steam heating from a source at basement level.
Original concrete elements are prominently featured in the new design. Many of the new interior partitions are set between the precast columns. All ceilings are exposed flat slab concrete, with no applied finishes. Within the apartments, the floors are rubbed concrete; they are carpeted in most public areas, and the remodeled front entrance area has terrazzo floors.
Looking northeast from south side of Saginaw Street underpass, showing elevated rail line and general setting (2006)
Aerial view of fully developed Prudden/Motor Wheel complex. (1936)
Looking northeast from rail bed to primary (south) facade and west elevation, showing fenestration pattern and exterior wall features (2006)
Historic view showing administrative offices at east end of east wing. Note original location of main entrance, and pivoted (open) window sash (1926)
Looking northwest to east and south elevations of east wing. Note new location of front entrance, and similarity of new canopy to historic element (2006)
West wall of north wing, showing rail spur to loading dock (far right), brick smokestack, and original pivoting sash. (1936)
North and east wall of east wing, showing garage exit at grade level. New office/municipal complex is on the right (2006)
West wall of north wing, showing new window units (2006)
East wall of north wing, looking northwest towards smokestack. Walls, doors, and windows on first floor are new, enclosing former loading dock (2006)
Interior view of parking garage in basement of east wing. Scarring on columns suggests that gravity-fed steam heating units may once have been mounted there (2006)
Interior view of southeast corner unit, showing freestanding column, exposed concrete surfaces, new partition walls, general scale, and natural illumination (2006)
