Woodward “Woodie” Garber (1913-1994) was the son of Frederick and Alice, and grew up in the house on Oak Street. Like his father, he was an important Ohio architect, but Woodie was a Modernist. Woodie studied architecture at Cornell University, winning a prestigious engineering society medal. He worked for the office of John Russell Pope, and also for SOM, the large corporate firm that became known for their glass-walled towers, which I’m sure was more to his liking. After serving in World War II, Garber worked for his father’s firm, renaming it Woodie Garber & Associates in 1953.

According to his obituary “He was as famous for rejected innovative designs as for buildings he completed.” In the mid-1940s, he designed a glass-sheathed tower on Lytle Park for Schenley Industries. It was a speculative endeavor to persuade Schenley to move its corporate headquarters from New York to Cincinnati, but it was never built. Woodie blamed the Tafts, who were dead-set against this radical new building in the historic context of Lytle Park. Published in a 12-page cover story of Progressive Architecture in 1945, “The Schenley Building would have been the first modern curtain wall, glass and reinforced concrete skyscraper in America.”

Woodie had better success with government and institutional projects such as the Ninth Street fire station (1951), the Public Library on Vine Street (1954-5), Drake Memorial Hospital, and schools in Finneytown, Bond Hill, Rose Lawn and Indian Hill.

In 1982, Woodie Garber was presented with a president’s award from the American Institute of Architects. The jury characterized him as “a man whose effect on local architecture was paramount 20 years ago and whose influence is still felt in many aspects of life in Ohio.”