Helmut Ajango


Helmut "Mike" Ajango was an Estonian-born architect based in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin in the United States. He designed more than 175 churches in southern Wisconsin as well as Fireside Dinner Theatre and The Gobbler. His work has been described as combining Mid-Century Modern architecture and Prairie Architecture. Fellow Fort Atkinson architect Gene LaMuro worked with Ajango on some of his projects.
Ajango was born in Võru, Estonia 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 after studying art and mathematics and from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign with an architectural degree. He served in the U.S. Army including as a meteorologist for artillery during the Korean War. 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 fan.

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