Amanda Marcott and Brittany Schomaker
Why we picked Fergus Falls:
Our architecture studio class was called Saving Minnesota 10 Buildings at a Time. In this class we were able to choose a building from the 10 Most Endangered List of historic buildings in Minnesota to research and to find a reuse plan. The Regional Treatment Center in Fergus Falls, MN stood out from the list due the attraction to the elaborate architectural aesthetics as well as the challenge that went with the size and complexity of the existing building and the overall site.
-Research before visit-
Doctor Thomas Story Kirkbride was a traveling doctor with influential ideas on how to treat the mentally insane patients of his buildings. Dr. Kirkbride was the founder of the ideas and overall shape of the building footprint. He wanted to provide each patient with natural light, fresh air, and sense of community. That was the basis of his building construction of the ‘batwing’ footprint. Kirkbride was not the architect, which is often thought; the architect was actually Warren Dunnel of Minneapolis, MN. There were multiple buildings to work with on the site and we needed to find out on our tour what buildings we could still use for the plan and which buildings were already for sale. We needed to assess the basic history of the building and its contribution to the city. Information about the city such as population, demographics, etc needed to be investigated. We also found that there was already an adaptive reuse project of another Kirkbride institution in Michigan. We were able to take information from that project and apply them to ideas for this specific building in Fergus Falls. Before visiting the site and after collecting some of this data, we also came up with a few ideas for the reuse plan to go into the tour with. Those ideas included: golf course, bed and breakfast, restaurant, shops, and housing. We wanted to have some ideas before visiting so that we would have a base to build upon after we collected and observed information at the site visit.
-During visit-
Our site visit started with a 4am road trip from Minneapolis to Fergus Falls MN. As we drove up to the site its size became more tangible, realizing that in order for a reuse plan to work we would need to consider more details than we had previously thought. Upon our arrival, we met with Guy Taylor, a Fergus Falls city official, who led us on a remarkable four hour tour of the building and the immediate surrounding site. The most memorable parts of the tour included: climbing the administration building tower, the 4th floor criminally insane ward, self sufficiency of the building itself, the extensive underground tunnel system, the administration building itself which included the physician’s quarters.
On the tour we learned not only what each part of the building and each room was originally intended to be used for but also how each of the operations within the building correlated with the city. We found out what buildings were already taken down, the buildings that for sale by GOLDMARK SCHLOSSMAN Real Estate Company, and what buildings were in danger of demolition. With this new information we were able to revise our reuse plan ideas. We are really appreciative that Mr. Taylor took time out of his Friday to take us on such an elaborate and insightful tour of RTC.
-Newspaper-
We set up a meeting with Ryan Howard, from the Fergus Falls Daily Journal to get a better understanding of what the publics opinion was of the building as well as what they would want for possible reuse ideas. Throughout our dialog with each other we learned how important RTC not only was but IS to the community. It was reassuring to know that even though certain negative stigmas can be associated with institutions for the insane, this was not necessarily the case for RTC. Mr. Howard gave us insight for reuse plan ideas such as bringing in professional business and younger community members to boost the population and economic growth. He also told us that because of the older demographic of the city, that housing was not needed for the community. Jobs and population stimulation needed to be addressed first before more housing would be implemented in an immediate plan. Not only did we gain useful information from this meeting but we were also able to help to gain interest in the building and its potential for reuse though an article published by Mr. Howard to the community in the Fergus Falls Daily Journal on our project. This was vital that we let the community know that this building is important to the history of Minnesota, the city of Fergus Falls and also to people outside of the community.
-Historical Society-
The historical society in Fergus Falls was a helpful resource to background information to the city and the site. We were able to meet with Chris Schuelke to hear stories about RTC and community involvement with the building. The story that Mr. Schuelke told that stuck with us and was retold in our presentations was that of a visitor that went on a tour with him.
The man that came to the tour made a comment that he had not been there in many years. Unsure of how to react to this statement respectfully, Mr. Schuelke listened as the man elaborated on his comment. The man had gone to RTC with his vocational class many years before. As a group they all congregated into a room that they assumed as a patient area due to the man sitting on a flat bed surrounded by men in white lab coats. As the students stood and watched, the doctors proceeded to drill a hole on each side of the patient’s head, and strung a wire through his head. The wire was pulled tight, and consequently the front and back parts of the patients brain connect was severed to help him think more logically, curing his insanity. When it was over, everyone just walked away like nothing happened and returned to normal activity.
Stories such as this made life in the RTC become more realistic and created a stronger connection to the building. The story also helped us with our presentations because it engaged the audience and allowed them to also become more connect to the building.
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