revisiting odin j. oyen and his remarkable building in la crosse, wisc.

nearly sixteen years ago, i was attending college during the day and working as an audio engineer at night in a recording studio a friend and i haphazardly piecemealed together in the basement of the historic odin j. oyen building. during the course of organizing the studio space, i befriended the new owner of the building, who had every intention of restoring it to its former glory. the facadectomy performed in the 1960's concealed much of the street level entrance. shoddy aluminum paneling was used to cover the limestone treatment. the original oversized commercial doors were relegated to the basement. the stained glass transom and showcase plate glass window display were destroyed.

when it came time to undo these senseless alterations, i recall eagerly crawling onto the shoddy projecting awning and began to tear away madly at the aluminum paneling covering the decorator's name, which was clearly visible in historic photographs i had studied intensely at an earlier time. i was excited, yet equally nervous that the name would have been damaged or removed altogether.

to my great surprise and true astonishment - and after ripping apart the aluminum and plywood - i uncovered the first of the deeply incised letters used in identifying odin j. oyen's firm (i.e, stone name late). incredibly, the original gold leaf inlay (found deep within the carved lettering) remained nearly perfectly intact!

uncovering the name, in its entirety, generated uncontrollable excitement within myself and the onlookers observing from street level. from that point on, the momentum snowballed and within a few weeks a number of us were working both day and night on both the exterior and interior to reclaim and restore any and all design characteristics representing the time period of oyen's occupancy. we did this out of passion, with the only form of compensation being the ability to partake in the experience itself. (i find myself doing this again with the chicago athletic association building in downtown chicago).

the experience deeply impacted me to say the least. unknowingly - at least at the time - the events surrounding the oyen building renovation would ultimately pave the way towards the abandonment of my doctorate program (and my science career as a whole) later in life in order to create urban remains, which to this day remains the undying focal point of my life's work.