1339 Main Street
Main Street features a wide variety of buildings whose styles reflect national and international architectural movements. Many modern buildings erected during the 1970s and 1980s are vastly different than neighboring structures. The Bank Building Corporation of St. Louis designed this building as a new home office for the Standard Savings and Loan Association in 1971. Completed in 1973 at a cost of three million dollars, the property today houses City of Columbia offices. The building’s slanted slab-faced walls pierced by random patterned, elongated windows have been likened to the appearance of computer punch cards in use during the 1960s and 1970s. The property is essentially an interpretation of the Brutalism school of design made famous by Swiss architect Le Corbusier [1887-1965] during the mid-20th century. Characterized by massive or monolithic forms, examples of Brutalist architecture typically are made of poured concrete and are devoid of exterior decoration. In this instance, an applied stone aggregate enhances the building’s façade.
- Architect: Perry C. Langston
- Architectural Style: New Brutalism
- Built: 1973
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1339 Main Street, 1978. Image courtesy Russell Maxey Photograph Collection, Richland Library
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1339 Main Street, 2010. Historic Columbia collection
