05/29/2026
Indianapolis on My Mind
Caitlin Clark…Indy 500…Evans Woollen III. Wait! Who?
As summer waits in the wings this Memorial Day week, basketball celebrates Caitlin Clark’s return to the Fever’s court and the Indy 500 celebrates its 110th year with a come from behind, closest finish in its history.
So let's take sometime to celebrate Evans Woollen III. Or, at least know why he’s important to our architectural heritage. Woollen designed one of the earliest and largest examples of Post-Modern architecture in the Quad-Cities:
St. Ambrose University Library, 1996.
Applause, please, as the Library takes its 30th anniversary bow this year.
While Woollen, a native of Indianapolis (1926 - 2016) is pretty much an unknown quantity here, he is a Big Deal in his hometown. He’s credited with shaping its modern identity with some of the city’s most iconic public buildings while also designing churches, homes, libraries and historical renovations.
By the time Ambrose chose Woollen to design the new $8.1M library in 1991, he had developed a “situational architecture” philosophy that embraced the return to historicism in architecture.
The Post-Modern era that started with Michael Graves’ Portland Building in 1984 came a little later to this area but you see evidence of it all around the QC. The Library just happens to be a standout in the style.
From the use of red and cream brick to the distinctive features harkening back to classical design, Woollen eschewed the glass and steel style of his earlier career, not to mention his penchant for Brutalism and its heavy use of concrete.
Influenced by both the Victor Huot designed St. Ambrose Hall,1885, and the 4th Century Basilica di Sant’ Ambrogio in Milan, Italy, Woollen’s classical focus for the Library’s exterior is most evident with the freestanding 95 ft campanile (bell tower) capped by a 10,000 lb copper clad roof. It was built, not for bells, but more practically to house a required 2nd emergency stairwell.
Note the other classical references in his design: a mostly symmetrical west entrance elevation with a broken pediment roofline; romanesque arches forming the covered arcade and first level window treatments; horizontal bands of small windows (clerestory) set high on the walls that flood the interior with light.
Observe, also, the flourishes of wrought iron railings in pastel blue; the decorative lintels spanning the large windows; and finally, the vertical quoining, like slender doric columns capped with stone, drawing your eyes upward.
The bell tower is hard to miss as you traverse Locust street. Next time drop by and check out all the details of Woollen’s Post-Modern creation. Then, step inside and experience the dramatic light-filled and colorful atrium that welcomes students each semester.
Further afield, if you ever make it to a Fever game or the Indy 500, scan the skyline or drive the streets of Indianapolis for more of Evans Woollen III’s architectural story.
***Much more information accompanies the photos. Be sure to click on them!***
A shout out to Onnica Marquez, archivist extraordinaire, who manages almost 150 years years of St. Ambrose’s history.
