Springwells Public Art

Springwells Public Art
End of an Era

If you ever get the chance to take a look around the Springwells water treatment plant, you’ll notice something different between it and the plain, utilitarian functionality of DWSD’s more-recently-constructed water plants. That’s because Springwells is a product of the 1920s, a time when buildings were expected to serve as more than housing for employees, machinery and processes.

During the 1920s and earlier, buildings were expected to have style, attitude, functionality, and be pleasing to the eye. To those ends, Springwells has been a rousing success. Nearly 75 years after entering service it continues to serve as a dependable workhorse for the Department. Through all those years, it has done it in style.

Of special note are eight bas-reliefs that decorate the exterior of the high-lift building. The carvings depict water-related scenes, such as a Native American drinking water from a stream, a Roman architect standing before an aqueduct, and Moses tapping the rock from Exodus 17.

Conspicuously absent is any mention of the name of the artist responsible. That’s by design. It was also the reason for Einar Kvaran’s visit to the Springwells plant in March 2004.

An architectural historian from New Mexico, Kvaran has been documenting the works of Corrado Parducci, an architectural sculptor whose carvings are as much a part of Detroit as is Diego Rivera’s Ford Rouge mural at the DIA.

The visit was part of Kvaran plans to publish a book about the life and career of Parducci.

Never heard of Parducci? You’re not alone.

Better known as “Joe” to his friends and admirers, Corrado Guiseppe Parducci (1900-81) was born in the tiny Tuscan village of Buti in Italy. After coming to America in 1904, he studied in New York before coming to Detroit.

In Detroit, he worked with virtually every architect active in town, such as Wirt Rowland; Charles Nobel; Smith, Hinchman and Grylls; George D. Mason; and William E. Kapp. Most notably, he was a favorite of Albert Kahn.

Joe dominated the Detroit skyline in the 1920s. His work can be seen on the Guardian, Buhl, and Penobscot Buildings and many others. During his lifetime, Parducci added his personal touches to more than 600 buildings, an incredible output. Yet, his name cannot be found anywhere on any of them. That’s because he believed the art should be bigger than the artist.

In a 1975 interview for the Smithsonian Institute’s Archives of American Art, Parducci said that an artist’s works have “gotta speak for themselves. You shouldn’t have somebody there to tell you what it is.”

In the same interview he said of his sculpture, “…It doesn’t scream. If you don’t know it’s there, and it’s still functioning, that’s good. Very few people know there’s any carving there.”

That’s typical of Parducci. “I’d guess there are a lot of folks who have driven or walked past (the Springwells carvings) many times and never noticed their existence,” said Kvaran. “Yet, you’d notice a big difference if they weren’t there.

“It wouldn’t look right,” he said.

Sadly, the golden age of architectural sculpture – of which Parducci was at the forefront – ended with the onset of the Great Depression. Buildings continued to be constructed in Detroit and elsewhere after the Stock Market Crash, but the money for the little extra touches, like carvings and murals was no longer there.

Many of Parducci’s commissions, for buildings that had not yet broken ground, were cancelled, and his jobs became fewer and farther between. Ironically, it was the Catholic Church that became a primary source of commissions for Parducci – a devout agnostic, “if not an out and out atheist,” said Kvaran – after the Depression.

by Michael Daisy, Public Affairs Division

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All content, artwork, and information included herein is ©2009 Detroit Water & Sewerage Department
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