Category:National Guardian Life headquarters (Madison)

National Guardian Life 

American life insurance company
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Instance of	business
Industry	insurance
Headquarters location	Madison
Inception	1910
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Built in 1964-1965, this International Style modern office building is located at 2 East Gilman Street in Madison, Wisconsin (see the Property Record online).

The building features a glass curtain wall (reminiscent of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) sandwiched between a parapet and floor structure clad in metal panels with a trapezoid geometric motif at the top and bottom (conceivably inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright), a recessed first floor with pilotis or exposed columns (à la Le Corbusier) around the perimeter of the floor, framing storefronts, and clad in stone panels, a penthouse with an oversized cap, exposed columns, and stone panel cladding, a low-slope roof, and a large lawn to the side and rear, which conceals the building’s underground parking garage. Despite being a well-designed International Style structure, the building seems to have been disregarded by local architectural historians and history groups.

The building replaced the historic Vilas Mansion, home to several notable early and prominent citizens of Madison and a favorite building of Frank Lloyd Wright. The demolition of the mansion in 1963 and the construction of this building catalyzed the creation of the historic preservation movement in Madison and the state of Wisconsin, as it was massively out of scale with the surrounding buildings. The loss of a historical landmark as significant as the Vilas Mansion made many in the community realize the need to protect the city’s historic resources.

The building is a noncontributing structure in the Mansion Hill Historic District, designated by the City of Madison in 1976 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.