Kearns Building

File:Kearns Building (4).jpg

The 10-story building was designed by Los Angeles architects John Parkinson and George Bergstrom and constructed 1909–1911. Parkinson & Bergstrom borrowed the style of architect Louis Sullivan, and the Kearns Building has been described as Sullivanesque, with a steel reinforced concrete frame and a white terracotta tile facade emphasizing vertical piers below a prominent cornice. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=82004145}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Kearns Building |publisher=National Park Service|author= |date= |accessdate=May 12, 2019}} With {{NRHP url|id=82004145|photos=y|title=accompanying pictures}}

The style of a Louis Sullivan skyscraper was built on classical form, with prominent window and door openings at street level, bands of windows between vertical piers, and a distinctive, highly decorated cornice. Often Sullivan designed porthole windows under a cornice.{{cite web |title=Sullivanesque Style 1890 - 1930 |publisher=Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission |url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/sullivanesque.html |accessdate=May 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422022950/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/architecture/styles/sullivanesque.html |archive-date=April 22, 2019}} Parkinson & Bergstrom used centered medallions between spandrels recessed behind the plane of piers to achieve a similar appearance.

The Kearns Building was named for Thomas Kearns, a wealthy former Utah senator and major stockholder in The Salt Lake Tribune. During construction of the building, Kearns was accused of manipulating the city council and its building code.{{cite news |title=Above the Law's Power |newspaper=The Salt Lake Harold-Republican |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=November 7, 1910 |page=11 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058140/1910-11-07/ed-1/seq-11/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}

A third of office space in the building was rented prior to opening in February, 1911,{{cite news |title=Tenants for Kearns Building |newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=January 29, 1911 |page=14 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045396/1911-01-29/ed-1/seq-14/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}} and most of the offices were rented by April of that year.{{cite news |title=Speakers at Feast Suggest Architects for New Capitol |newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=April 18, 1911 |page=14 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045396/1911-04-18/ed-1/seq-14/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}} Early tenants of the building included clothiers Gardner & Adams Co.{{cite news |title=Grand Opening: Gardner & Adams Co., |newspaper=Salt Lake Tribune |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=December 18, 1910 |page=9 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045396/1910-12-18/ed-1/seq-9/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}} and Rowe & Kelly,{{cite news |title=The opening of the beautiful new store of Rowe & Kelly... |newspaper=Goodwin's Weekly |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=March 18, 1911 |page=8 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2010218519/1911-03-18/ed-1/seq-8/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}Rowe & Kelly soon consolidated with Mullet Clothing Company as the Mullet-Kelly Co. See {{cite book |title=The Clothier and Furnisher |publisher=George N. Lowry Company |volume=80 |date=1912 |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR9bAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA3-PA93 |accessdate=May 11, 2019}} and the building included what was billed as "the most beautiful buffet in the United States," the Mecca.{{cite news |title=The Mecca in the New Kearns Building |newspaper=The Salt Lake Tribune |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=April 30, 1911 |page=32 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045396/1911-04-30/ed-1/seq-32/ |accessdate=May 11, 2019}}

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• National Register of Historic Places listings in Salt Lake City
• Aberdeen Quarry, the source of granite used for the first-floor columns and entrance archway
• Chicago school (architecture)

{{reflist|22em}}

• "[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2010218519/1910-12-17/ed-1/seq-47/ Kearns Building]", Goodwin's Weekly, December 17, 1910, pp 47

{{Commons category-inline|Kearns Building (Salt Lake City)}}

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Category:Office buildings completed in 1911

Category:Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements architecture

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Salt Lake City

Category:Skyscraper office buildings in Salt Lake City

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