Mabel McDowell Adult Education Center



The Mabel McDowell Adult Education Center (formerly the Mabel McDowell Elementary School) is an adult education center of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation occupying a historic building in Columbus, Indiana. The building, built in 1960, is a major early work of architect John Carl Warnecke. It was converted to an adult education center in 1982.

In 2001, the building was designated by the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark because of its architecture. In its application to the National Park Service for protected status, the building is described as "significant as an early example of modern architecture in Columbus, and as an important example of the contextual work of John Carl Warnecke, a leading architect of the twentieth century." The building is designed as a series of pods, connected by covered and trellised walkways. The major spaces in each pod (classrooms and other common spaces) are covered by individual pyramidal roof sections. The construction is steel framing on concrete slabs, with the walls finished in steel-clad glass and brick.

Warnecke's design for McDowell attempted to combine functionality with open space reminiscent of an Indiana farm landscape. In his concept for McDowell, Warnecke said a "dominant characteristic of southern Indiana is the flat terrain, a horizontal theme accentuated by tall Victorian houses, barns, and silos, with picturesque groves of trees. The school design is based on the creation of similar grouping of masses and spaces in a scheme which focuses the school group into its own controlled environment, yet extends it outward to the community." Warnecke also designed the John F. Kennedy grave at Arlington National Cemetery and the Hawaii State Capitol building.