Gustel R. Kiewitt Biography as told by the architect’s daughter Cathryn Kiewitt Mollman at an event at Thomas Jefferson School in Saint Louis, MO. June 2012
Gustel Kiewitt was born in Worms am Rhein, Germany, in 1902. His father was the Stadtbaumeister of that city for many years until his retirement in 1933, and many of his schools, municipal buildings, banks and utility plants are still in use in that city. His mother, Amalia, came from a large and prosperous merchant family in Dalsheim, near Worms. Fortunately he was young enough that he did not participate in World War I.
When he was eighteen years old he spent the summer sketching buildings all over the Rheinland and southern Germany, filling at least eight sketchbooks with lovely drawings which I am fortunate to still have in my possession. This was done in conjunction with his study of architecture at the Technische Hochshule in Darmstadt, from which he graduated in April 1921. After three months apprenticeship with an architect in Karlsruhe, he went on to Stuttgart to study engineering and was awarded a doctorate in architecture and engineering in November, 1923. He also met my mother, a nursing student, in Stuttgart and began a long courtship.
In 1925 Gustel Kiewitt fled the hyperinflation in Germany and emigrated to the U.S., bringing with him great enthusiasm for this roof system. He was sponsored by his Uncle Christophe Merkel, who had extensive greenhouses in the Cleveland area. He was hired as a church architect in St. Louis, working with George Barnett. His first church building was in Sandoval, IL.
Through his German connections he was introduced to Edward Faust, son-in-law of Adolphus Busch, and Faust became intrigued with this system. He immediately built a gothic arch lamella barn on his property in Chesterfield, which has been restored and is still intact.
In 1926 the Missouri Lamella Roof Company was incorporated, as a licensee of the Lamella Roof Syndicate, with Edward Faust as president. Faust introduced the system to St. Louis architects and engineers in 1925 at a lecture at his home, 1 Portland Place. Many lamella roofs were built in St. Louis, some for commercial ventures such as the Tip-Top Bottling Company and some for school gymnasiums, one of the first being St. Elizabeth Academy on Arsenal Street.
When the National Exhibition Company was formed to construct a large space for the National Dairy Show and other large shows contemplated by the Chamber of Commerce, the site plan was prepared by George H. Holcombe, at St. Louis exhibition specialist. My father and architect Herman Sohrmann were charged with the design of the buildings. They used the barrel arch of the lamella roof as the basis for their design, with half-round “broached” ends to form an oval shape over the large arena space. The lamella roof was set on cantilevered steel trusses which made the clear span 278 feet wide, at that time the largest clear span in the world. There was unobstructed viewing from every seat. It was considered an engineering marvel. The entire roof was completed in 45 days.
The building opened in October, 1929, for the National Dairy Show. Days later we all know what happened: The Great Crash. My father was never paid for his work. I found an interesting letter from a law firm which had attempted to extract funds from Ben Brinkman, head of the National Exhibition Co., which states that the situation was hopeless and in essence my Dad should just give it up. The roof was damaged in the tornado of 1958, which actually demonstrated again one of the advantages of the system: Only the north end section was removed by the wind. The rest remained sturdily in place. Dad WAS paid for replacing this section. The Arena was laid to rest on February 27, 1999. I had asked the demolition company (Spiritas) for one of the Lamellas as a keepsake. My letter was never answered.
The Missouri Lamella Roof Company persevered, with my father as principal designer and construction manager of the company, and ultimately sole owner. During the depression little work was to be had, and he got by with designs for pavilions and other structures for the CCC and WPA. Since the company also branched out into other types of roof, notably ornamental church trusses, the name became Roof Structures, Inc.
During the early 1940s Roof Structures built many aircraft hangars, for which the lamella roof was beautifully suited. It was also suited for recreational buildings at army bases. After 1945 Roof Structures built a large number of school gymnasiums and auditoriums throughout the middle-west, as well as many automobile dealerships’ service buildings. Here at Thomas Jefferson School, architects Bernoudy and Mutrux made good use of the lamella roof in the design of the gymnasium. At the intersection of Manchester and Kirkwood Roads in St. Louis County one may see a Lamella roof on each of three corners. A landmark in Webster Groves is Red LaMore Auto Body on Gore Avenue, which has been there since I was a small child. Almost all of the lamellas were fabricated of Douglas Fir by Rosboro Lumber Company in Oregon, many shipped by rail directly to the job site area.
As the demand for larger spans grew in the 1950s, the use of standard steel shapes became more important. Some very large spans were erected around the country, such as the Civic Auditorium in Corpus Christi, Texas, the National Orange Show in San Bernardino, CA, and our own Ladue Junior High School. In Italy P L Nervi experimented with concrete lamellas, one poured-in-place as a folded plate type, and one with precast lamellas.
Also in the early fifties there began to be demand for domed structures, so my Dad consulted Gustav Mesmer, professor of Mathematics at Wash U, and together they developed the Lamella dome for Wichita State University in Kansas. Based on this experience, the design was altered and became a series of pie-slices, partially for aesthetics and partially for structural considerations. This allowed the variation in the number of slices (standard was 12). This design was patented by my father, and was used for domes in several cities, most notably the Houston Astrodome which was an engineering sensation with its span of 640 feet. It was followed by the New Orleans Superdome with an even larger span. The structural integrity of these domes has been repeatedly tested by hurricanes. The original stress-test model of Houston decorates our garage wall.
My Dad, ever inventive, began experimenting with ideas for different shapes utilizing lamellas. Here are some of them:
The firm also branched out into other shapes and forms:
Independent Congregational Church (folded plate) Manske and Dieckman
Our Lady of Snows Ciborium, sculptor Bill Severson
When he died suddenly in 1964 (on a train in Connecticut, going to see a client) there many more ideas on the drawing board. While he did see the installation of the final member of the Astrodome, he did not see the completed dome. My husband Clay and I attended the opening with Conrad Pantke, his longtime friend and associate in New York.
My Dad was also an architect and designed several homes in the St. Louis area for friends. His first house was designed in the 30s for Edgar Denison, a very close friend who is best known for his definitive book on Mo. Wildflowers. It is now the residence of June Hutson of the Botanical Garden, who is maintaining his fabulous garden.
In 1937 our family moved into our new home on Bismarck Avenue in Glendale. It was strictly Bauhaus, with plywood panel sections, hermetically sealed windows, lots of glass block, and a flat roof. It is still there, slightly altered and occupied happily by the daughter of the man who bought it from us when we moved to our home in Ladue.
The Ladue house paid homage to Frank Lloyd Wright to a degree. Clay and I made a few improvements in the 1949 wiring, plumbing and fenestration but maintained the integrity of the place, and we still live there.
In the late 40s Daddy decided to go into the modular subdivision business, and set about the task on acreage on Grant Road in Webster Groves. My grandmother was installed in the first house where she lived happily until her health failed. In doing research for this talk, our daughter Melanie came across a real estate ad for one of the houses, which has been lovingly restored.