Last updated: September 13, 2023
Article
West Beach Bath House
Thad Donovan
As one of the larger expanses of beach and dune in the park, West Beach protects fragile habitat while offering splendid scenery and opportunities to enjoy Lake Michigan. Though the park was established in 1966, it took a few years before Congress appropriated funds to purchase land. West Beach was prioritized because it was undeveloped, although some areas were sand mined in the early 1900s. By August of 1968, the park had aquired 385 acres of West Beach's original 444 acre footprint.
By the early 1970s, the National Park Service began developing plans for visitor services. Included in the project’s proposal was a bath house; a facility designed to provide restrooms, locker rooms, lifeguards, and space for food concessionaires to West Beach. The final plans also included building an entrance and service road, as well as a 600-car parking area for a total cost of about $2 million.
NPS
The West Beach Bath House was designed by architectural firm Howard, Needles, Tammen, & Bergendoff of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1973, an architectural model was unveiled, depicting a concrete structure with columns that held it above the sand. The design is recognized for its contribution to Brutalist architecture; characterized by its simple, functional form, extensive use of raw concrete, and reoccurring modular elements.
Joseph Gruzalski
Architect's construction photograph from The Way We Build Now, Andrew Orton, 1988.
The building’s design strived to minimize disturbance to the natural setting. Original plans would have disturbed rare wetlands called pannes that are adjacent to today's bath house. Thanks to Herb and Charlotte Read, Sylvia Troy, and their dedicated Save the Dunes Council, plans were reconsidered using the imput of local experts.
The bath house was built by Tonn and Blank Construction of Michigan City, Indiana in 1976 for $1.1 million. The total period on site was nine months with manufacture of the units starting six months before the start on site. Just before it’s opening, Don Castleberry, assistant superintendent at the time, said, “The whole idea was to set this thing down in a saddle between two dunes and not to be too obtrusive.”
Joseph Gruzalski
Brutalist architecture was a product of the reconstruction era following World War II, with roots in the United Kingdom. Brutalism has been a controversial design style since its infancy, often critiqued for feeling grim or inhuman. The West Beach Bath House design has weathered its share of criticism.
In July of 1976, during a helicopter tour that stopped throughout the Great Lakes, Environmental Protection Agency Director Russel Train visited West Beach at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. At this time, work on the structure had already begun. According to reports, Train said he was going to needle his friends in the park department about their choice of design for the West Beach Bath House. He said the concrete structure “stood out like a sore thumb” along the Lake Michigan lakeshore.
The Times, Munster Indiana; May 22, 1977.
On May 21st, 1977, a few months before the bath house officially opened, the National Park Service hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the whole West Beach unit. Congressman Floyd J. Fithian served as principal speaker, who referred to the park as “a place of magic.”
During the speech, Fithian paused for a moment of silence in memory of Dorothy R. Buell; founder and first president of the Save the Dunes Council. Mrs. Buell had passed away four days prior at her home in San Jose, California.
Steven Rossi
The West Beach Bath House opened its doors to visitors for the first time in July of 1977. That year, it received top honors by the Prestressed Concrete Institute for its achievements in “esthetic expression, function, and economy using precast and prestressed concrete.” The project represents the park’s first development for public use, and the first new grand public facility on Indiana’s shore since the Indiana Dunes State Park Pavilion in 1930.
Today, the bath house still serves visitors by providing washroom facilities, showers, lockers, lifeguards, and concessionaires to West Beach. A huge thank you to our custodial staff who do a phenomenal job at keeping this building clean and ready to receive the thousands that visit on sunny summer days.
Architect's drawing from The Way We Build Now, Andrew Orton, 1988.
Looking to experience the bath house for yourself?
Visit West Beach
For an in-depth description of the bath house's design, keep reading for an excerpt from The Way We Build Now by Andrew Orton, 1988:
Introduction
This single-story precast concrete building is a typical symptom of the importance attached to preserving the natural environment. It is designed to blend into its sand dune setting and to minimize the disturbance to the dune during construction. They key element in the scheme is a precast concrete unit, in the shape of a column capital, that connects the beam and column elements together. This capital unit is positioned at floor and roof levels and provides a generous amount of space to allow connections to be made easily. In a more general sense, it acts as a device for turning corners which is distinctive and has been repeated throughout to allow the division of the building into smaller units. This gives flexibility to the planning and helps reduce the visual impact of the building.
Joseph Gruzalski
Description
The building provides changing facilities for a lakeshore beach. The columns, which are cast in place in circular forms, are set out to a 27ft 5in square grid and are supported by pad footings. At floor levels, octagonal-shaped precast concrete capitals are places on top of the concreted column, eight reinforcement bars from the column passing through 2.5in diameter holes in the capital, which were formed by casting in corrugated pipe. At both floor and roof levels, the capitals sit on a mortar bed which allows adjustment for line and level. Precast prestressed beams, on a two-way grid, are placed between the capitals and in turn support precast prestressed hollow core planks, either 10in deep at floor levels or 8in deep at roof levels. Hardboard pads, 1/8in thick, are used to spread the load at the bearing of the planks on the floor beam. A 2in concrete topping covers the planks at floor level. At roof level the planks are covered with rigid insulation and built-up roofing. Eight large clerestory windows allow light into the interior. The clerestories are built from 8in precast wall panels bolted to the support beams and attached to 6in precast roof planks via weld plates cast into both unit types. The clerestory glazing has aluminum frames with spacer blocks between the frames and the precast concrete units. At floor level the cladding is mostly in brick. An important aspect of the design is that the cladding is not made to abut the columns but passes to one side on lines 45 degrees to the grid.
Indianapolis News, May 4, 1977
The building has a two-way grid of beams between the columns, unlike most commercial precast concrete frame systems in which, apart from perimeter beams, all the beams run in a single direction and are tied together by the slab. In this building all tie forces are taken by the beams; the slabs are simply places on top of them. The connection of the beam to the capital unit is worthy of note: two vertical 5/8in anchor bolts from the capital fit into 1.5in sleeves at each end of the beam unit. The bottom of the sleeve is filled with a compressible filler but, at the top, a nut on the anchor is bolted tight against the beam; the pocket for the nut is then grouted up. This detail allows sufficient movement to prevent the build up of large forces due to shrinkage and temperature movements, while still developing a sufficient tie force. There is no bending moment at this joint. The building resists wind and other horizontal forces by cantilever action of the columns; higher buildings than this would need to incorporate cross-bracing or shear walls. There is a nominal gap of 1/2in between the ends of the beams and the concrete capital to allow for dimensional changes and the inevitable variation in the sizes and in the positioning of the units. Large tolerances, although convenient for construction purposes, can sometimes give unacceptable variations in joint width and affect the strength of the joint. The capital connection detail adopted here is particularly satisfactory on these counts.
NPS
Precast units more than about five tons in weight can sometimes increase the cost of a precast concrete building. Only one crane was needed on this site and, in general, lifting weights were moderate. Beam and floor units were places after all the capitals were in position at each level. The total period on site was nine months with manufacture of the units starting six months before the start on site.
Conclusion
Even on a relatively small project such as this, there are still five types of beam, eleven types of wall panel, and several different widths for the floor units. The variations with small production runs can make such precast concrete construction expensive. However the variations here are mostly achieved by different box-outs of the same mould forms. Precast concrete is put to good use, the building units being almost maintenance free, having excellent straightness of line and a sandblasted finish which in colour and texture matches that of the dunes.