"The Farmers Union Building was designed in 1952 by architect Arthur Axtens (
visit link) . The building epitomizes Axtens architectural solution to the destructive force of nuclear bombs. It has a square, somewhat squat design, making it very stable. There are no large windows, instead the exterior walls of the highrise were cast monolithic with the floor to form a continuous deep girder around the building at each floor level. It has a windowless inner tower which would serve as a bomb shelter. Axten described the building as a “demonstration of efficiency, strength, beauty, and economy.” The State of Colorado bought the building in 1969 to house the State Social Services. " (from (
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"Historical Overview
The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union (RMFU) originated with a local chapter of the National Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America (NFU). This first Colorado chapter was organized by T.W. Woodrow in Teller County on May 17, 1907. Within a few months, Woodrow had organized six additional chapters in the state.
In 1908, the NFU established a Colorado division, commonly called the Colorado Farmers Union (CFU), which worked to encourage the improvement and survival of the family farm. By 1943, the organization had changed its name to the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, reflecting the inclusion of Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona in its activities. Current membership in the RMFU includes the states of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.
The three key areas of emphasis of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union are:
Education programs to facilitate the farmer’s knowledge of agricultural and legislative issues and stressing involvement of young farmers
Lobbying to promote pro-farmer legislation
Development and support of cooperative activity, which is reflected in numerous subsidiary organizations, including a marketing association and the Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Company (FUMIC)." (from (
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"Axtens lamented the general decline in architectural design and construction quality in the building community over the later years of his practice. In the introduction to a highly illustrated, large format self-published brochure of his work between 1927 and 1957, he offered a stinging criticism on the current state of architecture: The low level of architectural design has become so general that we are no longer surprised to see a church which we recognize as an enlargement of a farmer’s hog shelter or barn, or a college chapel which we recall as having seen as a zoo monkey house, or a school which we remember as an enlarged copy of a widely used chicken house design, or an office building obviously an enlarged egg crate, or a residence copied from a factory.
Noting that buildings of the 1950s must be resistant to the powerful new forces of “aeroplanes, atomic and hydrogen bombs, guided missiles and other powerful destructive forces,” he argued that “materials such as brick, stone and tile, since they cannot resist lateral forces of large magnitude, must be abandoned for structural purposes.” He also urged the discontinuous of the tall, narrow, flimsy buildings then being produced. In describing his Farmers Union Building, he noted that while it could not be said to be “bomb-proof”, it was highly “bomb-resistant” and “will withstand, without important structural damage, blasts that would collapse conventional buildings.”" (from (
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