Helmut "Mike" Ajango (November 30, 1931 – November 15, 2013) was an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n-born architect based in

Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin Fort Atkinson is a city in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, Jefferson County, Wisconsin, United States. It is on the Rock River (Illinois), Rock River, a few miles upstream from Lake Koshkonong. The population was 12,579 at the 2020 census. Fort Atkins ...

in the United States.Creative mind behind Fireside, Gobbler Fort architect Ajango dead
November 18, 2013 Daily Jefferson County Union
Madison.com He designed more than 175 churches in southern

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

as well as Fireside Dinner Theatre (1964) and The Gobbler. His work has been described as combining Mid-Century Modern architecture and

Prairie Architecture Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in ...

. Fellow Fort Atkinson architect Gene LaMuro worked with Ajango on some of his projects. Ajango was born in Võru,

and fled with his family in 1944 to Germany when the Red Army returned to resume the Soviet occupation that had begun in 1939. In 1949, the family immigrated to the United States. Ajango graduated from

Wittenberg University Wittenberg University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. It has 1,326 full-time students representing 33 states and 9 foreign countries. Wittenberg University is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. ...

(1953) after studying art and mathematics and from

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

(1958) with an architectural degree. He served in the U.S. Army including as a meteorologist for artillery during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. When he returned home he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He established his architectural firm in Fort Atkinson in 1962. He studied architecture in Europe for six months on a Plym Fellowship from the University of Illinois in 1966. Ajango won the Milwaukee Inner City North Avenue Redevelopment Project Architectural Competition, in 1999 to redesign the buildings on one side of a city block. He bought the Faith Community Church building on Main Street and converted it into apartments. He and his wife Martha had three children. He was a

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

fan.

Works

* Fireside Dinner Theatre, Fort Atkinson, WI (1964) * Gobbler Supper Club and Motel in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin. * Monument to those murdered by the occupying Russian Army in 1942 in

Tartu, Estonia Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

dedicated in 2001 (after a construction delay) * Mount Pleasant Church in

Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...

Evansville High School (Wisconsin) Evansville High School (EHS) is a high school in Evansville, Wisconsin, United States. It was designed by Helmut Ajango. It is located at 640 South 5th Street. The school's teams compete as the Blue Devils. In 2006 it was a No Child Left Behind Blu ...

* Watertown office building on

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

's Monona Drive * Manchester Building on the square in Madison * Hoard Historical Museum expansion an renovation * Mack building and Wilson building renovation * Fort Atkinson Municipal Building in downtown Fort Atkinson * First Federal Building redesign into Fort Atkinson Area Chamber of Commerce office * Bank of Fort Atkinson expansion and renovation (first), now Johnson Bank * Black Hawk Hotel conversion for senior housing * Nasco additions * Shalom Presbyterian Church redesign and renovation (became Grace United Church, Ajango's congregation) Wisconsin Conference United Church of Christ 50th Anniversary
page B 18 * Wading pool shade cover at the original Fort Atkinson municipal pool * Assisted with the dome park shelter at Rock River Park * Helped develop the chamber of commerce's ''Fort Atkinson: City of Progress'' brochure * Designed staging and sets for the Fort Atkinson Community Theatre * Wrote and distributed a civil defense survey * Designed the Fort Atkinson bypass * Designed signs for chamber of commerce and municipal building * Restrooms in Ralph Park * Community-built house for a former chamber tourism director.

Works

See also

References

Further reading