Where we are—Ugly Dog Media's Historic Headquarters

Ugly Dog Media has its offices in the historic Vandalia Railway Station building, a four square brick building with Romanesque windows and masonry details, and an Italianate roof.  The railway station was originally constructed in 1900, and is a unique blend of the then emergent "American Four Square" construction style, and the more romantic City Beautiful or Beaux Arts movement, which championed the incorporation of grandeur and beauty in public architecture.

Most small town railway stations at the turn of the 19th century were relatively utilitarian wooden or block sheds, with low hipped roofs and truncated gables.  The four square style, while totally different in appearance from these typically shed-like buildings, shares with them their leading value of practicality.  The four square style –the only architectural style original to the United States – is all about practicality:  a cubic building contains the maximum amount of interior floor space, and minimum possible amount of exterior wall, and roof, of all possible building shapes.  Not only does this give significant economies in construction, but also in heating, cooling (which in those days was done by means of convection currents through double-hung windows in high ceilinged rooms), and maintenance costs, especially with regard to the roof.

Romanesque elements in the building include paired Roman arched windows, which are the most prominent character defining feature, red brick arches over the windows, stone courses along the lower part of the building, and a round bay, also having Roman arched windows, in the front of the building.  The low, broad roof is an architectural feature more commonly considered Italianate, than Romanesque, but the artistic appropriateness of blending Italianate and Romanesque elements is clear.

The historic stationhouse's unique combination of utilitarian practicality and romantic beauty is particularly appealing to a company that marries usefulness with artistry in its own work.

P.S.:  It really bugs this writer to hear the building described as having an "industrial" style or feel, because it does not.  It has the large spaces and open architecture of a building built for public use – but that is not "industrial."  It has the plain, heavy woodwork of a building built for relatively utilitarian purposes (this was clearly not a luxury depot), but that is not industrial.  On the contrary, the truly industrial headquarters building across the street has many more refined and luxurious features than this building.  -- K.R.H.N.