page_title: Herbert W. Tullgren
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Herbert W. Tullgren / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: The Astor on the Lake is a historic building located in the Yankee Hill neighborhood of downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
context_page_description: Herbert Wallace Tullgren was an American architect active throughout 1910s-1930s. He was centered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but his work can be seen in different locations throughout Wisconsin such as Whitefish Bay, Waukesha, Shorewood, and Fond du Lac. His designs made use of Art Deco and Art Moderne, which was popular during the time.
context_section_description: Tullgren was born in Chicago, Illinois in July 1889, the second child to Martin and Barbara (née Kregness) Tullgren. During 1894, Martin Tullgren caught the gold rush fever, and left Chicago with his family to become a prospector in Black Hills, South Dakota. Later, he would work as a superintendent of the mines for the Storm Cloud Mining Company in Arizona. The family lived in Maple Gulch on Crown King road, about 11 miles southeast of Prescott, Yavatapi Territory, Arizona, and used a mule as a means of transportation. By the end of the Tullgren's time in Arizona, Martin worked at Homestake Mining Company building and assisting in timbering, and supporting of galleries.
  In 1900, the family moved back to Chicago, where Martin, along with Chicagoan partner Archibald “Archie” Hood, set up their own practice, Hood & Tullgren. The pair received contracts from people/companies such as Chief Justice Fuller, Montgomery Ward & Co., and other leading firms in Chicago. By 1902, they had moved their business, and Martin's family including Herbert, to Milwaukee. Herbert, under Hood & Tullgren, began his architectural training with his father, which proved to be the only formal architectural education he would receive.
  
  In 1907, Herbert left Milwaukee to attend Staunton Military Academy in Staunton, Virginia. However, he only spent a year there. Afterwards, he began work as a draftsman with his father's partnership, Hood & Tullgren. By 1909, the partnership had dissolved, and Martin began a new practice, Martin Tullgren & Sons, with both sons, Sven Minard and Herbert. Herbert only took a short break from 1917 to 1919, when he joined the Wisconsin State Guard as a Captain-Adjutant.
  Under Martin, the firm had built buildings such as the Downer Theater, Astor on the Lake, and Hotel Retlaw. However, by 1922 Martin, who had been ill for several months, died at the age of 64, leaving Herbert to take charge of the office. This included design, office practice, and supervision. Thus making him president of the firm by 1926 to 1936, before the business dissolved.
  During the 1920s, Herbert also started other companies alongside the family firm. In 1923, he founded the Terra Company, a real estate company, along with Minard as president, and carpenter Emil Grossmann as vice president. Then sometime in 1927 or 1928, he founded Herbert W & S. Minard Tullgren, Inc., another real estate company. This put Herbert as president, and Minard as vice president. However, in 1928 after Minard's death, Pansy, Minard's widow, became vice president of Herbert W & S. Minard Tullgren, Inc. While Herbert remained president of that company, he became the treasurer of Terra Co., and Emil Grossmann became president.
  By the 1930s, Herbert was a well established architect having built multiple office buildings, apartments, hotels, theaters, and even schools. In the early 1930s, Herbert shifted his sights more on building affordable middle to working class urban housing. He even patented, Patent No. 1896734, the duplex (two-story) apartment design, in 1933 after finishing the Viking Apartments in 1931. Herbert was sure of the economic and functional advantages. The Viking Apartments proved this by setting a record for Occupancy During Hard Times at 92%, when the national average for apartment was only about 60%. The Viking Apartments are also shown to be the only architecture that the Fylgia Corporation, a company formed in 1931 with C.E. Look and Elmer A Johnson with Herbert as president, had built.
  Confident in the benefits of duplex apartments, Herbert published a pamphlet in 1937,The Tullgren Plan for City Housing, to further describe the social and economic benefits. The floor plans included a living room, dining room, and a kitchen on one floor, and sleeping quarters and a bathroom on the floor above. Public corridors were not required on the sleeping quarters floor, and thus creating more space. In fact, it would create 15% more space, oppose to a conventional single floor apartment. By cutting down corridor space that would have needed to be furnished, equippe
caption: Astor on the Lake, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK CX7430 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2006:05:07 20:07:36", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "256", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "922", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "0", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:05:07 16:11:28", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:05:07 16:11:28", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "28/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1200", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "800", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "796", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "80", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "34", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}