Heierding Building

This triangular building was constructed to fill the tip of a parcel created by a diagonal road intersecting a grid of streets oriented to the cardinal directions. Built by Ben Dancy in 1914, the two-story building was erected as a meat market for the the Heierding brothers, a family of German immigrants. The market was located on the lower floor and apartments were on the upper floor (occupied by the Heierdings). The building, typical of commercial structures throughout the Plains, is clad in red brick with cut limestone ornament arranged in a design of clarity and delicacy. The facades of the lower floor are brick panels of varied size that are outlined with staccato rhythms of limestone and alternate with large glass openings. On the upper level, paired double-hung windows alternate with vertical linear ornament extending above the cornice.

The building operated as a meat market until 1960, but even after that business closed, its refrigerated lockers remained in use by renters until 1969, when the building was shuttered. After it was heavily damaged by fire in 1987, local architect Rand Elliott purchased the building and rehabilitated it for his architectural office. The first level contains a gallery/conference space and staff offices; the studio is on the second floor. With the interior walls and ceiling painted white, translucent theater scrims for room dividers and clear fiberglass pipe for ductwork, the minimalist interior is filled with light. At the pointed end of the building, Elliott keeps a hanging bare light bulb burning night and day as a symbol of hope and opportunity for a design that emerged anew from a charred shell.