Woollen, Molzan and Partners (WMP) is a U.S.-based second-generation architecture, interior design, and planning firm that Evans Woollen III founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1955. The firm was previously known as Evans Woollen and Associates and Woollen Associates. It remained in business for more than fifty-five years before closing its doors in 2011. Woollen began by designing mid-century modern residences, but the firm's design projects expanded to include a diverse portfolio of designs for libraries, worship facilities, museums, performing arts centers, private residences, public housing, and correctional facilities, among other projects.
Notable examples of the firm's work in Indianapolis that are among the city's most significant modern-style buildings include Clowes Memorial Hall, the Minton-Capehart Federal Building, the White River Gardens Conservatory, the west entrance and atrium addition to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and the Indianapolis Public Library's Central Library addition. Notable project elsewhere in Indiana include the Cushwa-Leighton Library at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame; Indiana University's Musical Arts Center in Bloomington; and Saint Menrad Archabbey's monastery and library in Spencer County. The firm also designed urban renewal projects outside of Indiana such as the Over-the-Rhine Pilot Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, in addition to academic libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Central Michigan University, and Asbury University, among other projects. The firm's work has been featured in numerous books, periodicals, and online resources. Its projects have also received at least twenty awards from the American Institute of Architects.
History
The architectural firm was founded in 1955 and was known as Evans Woollen and Associates and Woollen Associates before it incorporated as Woollen Molzan and Partners in 1982. The firm was small in size, but it designed a wide range of projects that included commercial, religious, and government buildings, as well as academic buildings and correctional facilities, among other works. It ceased operations in 2011.
Founding in Indianapolis
Twenty-seven-year-old Evans Woollen III (1927–2016), who received a B.A. and an M.Arch. degree from Yale School of Architecture in 1952, founded the architectural firm in his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1955. At Yale, Woollen studied under modern architects Philip Johnson, Louis Kahn, Paul Schweikher, and John M. Johansen. Woollen also apprenticed at Johnson's firm in New Canaan, Connecticut, and worked on his own for two years before returning to Indianapolis.
Partners
In 1968 Woollen formed a partnership with Lynn Molzan, a Tacoma, Washington, native who joined the Indianapolis-based firm in 1965. Evans Woollen and Associates incorporated as Woollen Associates in 1968; after the addition of more partners, it was incorporated and renamed Woollen, Molzan and Partners in 1982. In addition to Woollen and Molzan, the principals of the firm included, among others, Laurence R. O'Connor; William Brady, who joined the firm in 1980; and Kevin Huse, who joined the firm in 1985 and later served as its president. The firm remained in operation for more than five decades. Woollen sold his interest in the firm and retired from the practice around 2001. Woollen Molzan employed as many as nine licensed architects during the 1990s; by 2006 it had only four. The architectural firm was dissolved and closed in April 2011; architects Molzan, Huse, and Mike Brannan joined Ratio Architects Inc., a local competitor.
Woollen initially maintained an office on Indianapolis's Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. In 1980 the firm's leaders acquired the historic Majestic Building, restored it, and maintained its offices there for several years. When Woollen Molzan closed in 2011, its headquarters were located on South Kentucky Avenue in Indianapolis.
Design projects
The firm's wide range of modern building designs included banking facilities, libraries, office buildings, and churches, as well as academic buildings, performing-arts facilities, and correctional facilities. It was also involved in numerous historic preservation and urban-redevelopment projects.