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Memorial Auditorium

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1938, Robin B. Carswell. Front St., east of Jefferson St.
  • Memorial Auditorium (David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim)

This gleaming white concrete structure is set within the park that runs along the river. The building is a splendid example of the late1930s PWA Moderne. Its several connected volumes are purely classic in their proportions and the general symmetry of their fenestration. But the classic has taken on a variety of Moderne features—concrete walls, glass bricks, doors with portholes—which must have made any Burlington citizen of the time respond to the building as a Moderne structure. The most formal facade is reserved for the entrance to the auditorium, where five doors are placed below a cantilevered balcony; above this balcony five windows continue the pattern of the door below. At ground level, near the corners, are box-framed windows, with perforated openings at each floor level above. As with many public buildings of the 1930s, the auditorium was funded by the federal government (Treasury Department).

Writing Credits

Author: 
David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim

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