Kohler through the lens of city planning

The planned village of Kohler has long been of interest to me, given my graduate education in City Planning. The tour of Kohler Company's manufacturing facility and Design Center provided an opportunity to spend some time getting reacquainted with Kohler as a place.

Walter J. Kohler Sr., after moving the company from nearby Sheboygan, sought to assure that the surrounding community would grow in an orderly fashion. He traveled to England in 1913 to meet with Sir Ebenezer Howard, who had established his authority on the development of what he called Garden Cities. Howard's book Garden Cities of Tomorrow was an early reading assignment in grad school. His vision of the good city was one in which industrial uses were isolated from residential and commercial uses; trees and grassy boulevards served as boundaries for these areas and a green belt buffered the community from its surroundings.

After visiting Howard, Kohler hired the Olmstead Brothers of Boston to create the first plan for the community. The Olmstead Brothers had previously designed Central Park in New York and the Harvard University campus, among other accomplishments. In 1917 the Olmsteads' initial 50-year plan for the Village of Kohler was adopted The plan guided development until 1977, when the Kohler plan was updated with help from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The current plan emphasizes environmental sensitivity, encourages the planting of trees, and preserves wetlands and woodlands.

Today, the village of Kohler is a charming and appealing place to live. Sculptures created by former artists-in-residence are integrated into the beautiful landscaping. The town, which benefits from its location at the north end of Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine, is defined on the south end by one of Kohler’s world-class golf courses, Black Wolf Run.

As a kid I had the impression that Kohler was a company town, with all of the negatives suggested by that label. In retrospect, that was probably unfair. After all, the Kohler Improvement Company was formed in 1917 to build homes that were sold to employees at cost. Middle and upper management have always been precluded from running for Village governing positions to assure an independent voice for the community.

Though unrelated to the planning of the village, Kohler Company's approach in the early 1900's to dealing with immigrant workers is worth noting and considering in the context of the contemporary debate on the subject. The company sponsored Americanization Day in early April. Immigrant employees were taken to the County Courthouse to file papers to become U.S. citizens. Employees prepared for the citizenship test by attending classes in English and American Government that were offered by the company.

Kohler products take me back to my Wisconsin roots

I grew up sixty miles from the village of Kohler, Wisconsin so it was particularly satisfying to select Kohler products for use in two of the bathrooms in the home I remodeled last year. Recently, I took advantage of an extended visit to Wisconsin to head over to Kohler to tour the company's manufacturing facilities.

I arrived at the Kohler Design Center at 8:20 A.M. for the three-hour tour. I soon discovered that I was the only one on the tour; even better, I had the benefit of two veteran Kohler employees as tour guides. Carl and Jim (who was going through retraining as a guide) each had 45 years work experience at Kohler under their belts. They proved to be excellent guides.

The tour started with a short video. Then we were off to the pottery building, a classic factory structure built in 1926, where ball clays, flint (a filler component), kaolin (a fine clay) and feldspar (a rock-forming mineral) combine to produce the material from which toilets, urinals, bidets and sinks are formed. Products in various stages of formation and curing were everywhere. High temperature and humidity are maintained in the pottery area throughout the year to facilitate production and measured drying prior to firing. It was surprising to observe the guys working in the area wearing only shorts and shoes when the landscape outside was snow-covered and the temp barely above zero.

I viewed a number of the original continuously heated kilns, and the new kilns that are being installed over time to replace them. The new kilns provide greater flexibility for firing the variety of products made in the facility and reduce the amount of natural gas needed to fire the pottery. The new kilns, while still very energy consumptive, reduce the use of nonrenewable resources and help keep manufacturing costs in line.

Kohler invests about $200,000 annually in its artist-in-residence program called Arts/Industry, managed by the director of the John Michael Kohler Art Center. Two of the four artists who are presently in residence work in the pottery area. I spent a little time talking with Denise Pelletier, an artist from Rhode Island who was preparing pieces for a fall exhibition. Her work involves interpreting personal care artifacts such as ear irrigators, nasal drains and bed pans in pottery in a way that is sensual at the same time that it is accurate.

The tour continued through the area in which fixtures are made and coated, then on to the foundry. The foundry dates from 1920, when Kohler produced iron farm implements that were sold to area farmers. After enameling a horse trough for a customer, Kohler Company found itself in the business of making bathtubs and sinks.

The foundry utilizes tons of recycled iron and other metals to create cast iron tubs and sinks in a visually stunning display of industry. Red-hot tubs and sinks emerge from molds for cooling, only to be heated again to 1600 degrees before being dusted with enamel powder, then reheated to secure the finish. Most of the handling is done by modern robotics, but there is a small section where workers still execute this process one tub or sink at a time to accommodate small runs.

I finished the tour at the Kohler Design Center, where I had an opportunity to see finished examples of many of the products I had seen in production. Today, Kohler is a diversified company that encompasses cabinets, furniture, motors and generators, resort and golf course properties (including a hotel and spa on the 17th fairway of St. Andrews in Scotland) in addition to the historically core business of tubs and sinks. In subsequent posts, I will look at some of the company's environmental initiatives and then at the unique community of Kohler from a planner's perspective.