FEATURE IMAGE (left to right): Thompson Center (“State Of Illinois” building), Helmut Jahn, 1985, Chicago, Illinois (https://johnpwalshblog.com/2021/05/10/helmut-jahn-1940-2021-notable-buildings-in-chicago-3-photos/); Frame house, 1884, Naperville, Illinois (https://johnpwalshblog.com/2021/02/07/architecture-chicagos-suburbs-1-photo/); Park Tower Condominium, Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz, 1973, Chicago, Illinois (https://johnpwalshblog.com/2021/02/01/architecture-chicago-2-photos/); Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile, Jean-Paul Viguier, 2002, Chicago, Illinois (https://johnpwalshblog.com/2021/05/24/sofitel-chicago-magnificent-mile-2002-jean-paul-viguier-chicago-illinois-1-photo/); The Mentor Building. Howard Van Doren Shaw, 1906, Chicago, Illinois (https://johnpwalshblog.com/2021/05/10/mentor-building-1906-howard-van-doren-shaw-chicago-illinois/).
37 Posts.
![My Architecture & Design Photography: CYRUS L.W. EIDLITZ (1853-1921), Dearborn Street Station [Polk Street Station], 47 W. Polk Street, 1885, Chicago, Illinois. (24 Photos & Illustrations).](https://johnpwalshblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Dearborn-Street-Station-Chicago-1885-Feb-2024-jpwalshblog-1-1200x900.jpg?crop=1)
My Architecture & Design Photography: CYRUS L.W. EIDLITZ (1853-1921), Dearborn Street Station [Polk Street Station], 47 W. Polk Street, 1885, Chicago, Illinois. (24 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE Image: Dearborn Street Station in Chicago’s South Loop is an Italian brick Romanesque building with a granite base that was opened in 1885 at the cost of $500,000 (or almost $16 million in 2024). The architect was New York–based Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz who went on to build One Times Square (1904) in New York…
My Architecture & Design Photography: LOEBL, SCHLOSSMAN & BENNETT, Chicago Loop Synagogue (1957), 16 N. Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois. (23 Photos).
FEATURE image: Chicago Loop Synagogue with stained glass window, Let There Be Light (1960) by American Expressionist artist Abraham Rattner (1895-1978). The synagogue was built in 1957 with this wall of stained glass. The colorful and semi-abstract artwork contrasts and complements with the architectural minimalism of the rest of the sanctuary. Text and photographs by…
My Architecture & Design Photography: DANIEL H. BURNHAM (1846-1912), First Presbyterian Church of Evanston (1895), 1427 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, Illinois. (11 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: Aeolian Skinner organ, sanctuary, 10/2015 6.27mb. Text and Photographs by John P. Walsh. SOURCES: https://firstpresevanston.org/connections/worship/- retrieved January 9, 2024. https://openhousechicago.org/sites/site/first-presbyterian-church-of-evanston/ – retrieved January 9, 2024. https://www.garrett.edu/about/our-history/ – retrieved January 10, 2024. http://www.famousamericans.net/minerraymond/ – retrieved January 10, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110905407/elizabeth-raymond – retrieved January 10, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167076695/miner-raymond – retrieved January 10, 2024. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/06/26/99547469.html?pageNumber=27 – retrieved January…
My Architecture & Design Photography: ALICE MILLAR CHAPEL, 1962, Edward Grey Halstead (1909-1992), 1870 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois. (20 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE Image: Alice Millar Chapel, 1962, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Text & Photographs John P. Walsh. The Purpose of the Alice Millar Chapel Breaking ground on Easter, April 21, 1962, the Alice Millar Chapel is on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The large chapel structure displaced 5 houses for the site’s four buildings…
My Architecture & Design Photography: EVANSTON, Illinois. (26 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE Image: 1432 Forest Avenue, Evanston, IL, 1885. Stylish single family home, nearly 5,000 square feet, has 6 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. Author’s photograph. 6/2022 7.7.mb 53% Text & Photographs John P. Walsh. Sources: A Guide to Chicago’s Historic Suburbs on Wheels and on Foot, Ira J. Bach, Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1981, pp. 499-530.…
My Architecture & Design Photography: WINNETKA, Illinois. (12 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: 822 Bryant, Winnetka, 1901. A grand example of the Shingle style working its way through the Arts and Crafts movement and influenced by the recent Prairie School’s horizontality and openness. Author’s photograph. 8/2014 99% 6.92mb. Test & Photographs John P. Walsh. Sources: A Guide to Chicago’s Historic Suburbs on Wheels and on Foot,…
My Architecture & Design Photography: WILMETTE, Illinois. (10 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: Detail of 804 Forest Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. The Prairie style house was built in 1906 by architect George Washington Maher (1864-1926) whose influence on the Midwest was profound and prolonged and, in its time, as great as Frank Lloyd Wright’s. Author’s photograph. 6/2014 3.95mb Sources: A Guide to Chicago’s Historic Suburbs on Wheels…
My Architecture & Design Photography: LOUIS BOURGEOIS (1856–1930), Baháʼí Temple (1912-1953), 100 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. (10 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: To convey the Baháʼí principle of the unity of religion, architect Louis Bourgeois incorporated a variety of religious architecture and symbols including for Hindus, Buddhists, Native Americans, Jews, Christians and Muslims. Text & Photographs by John P. Walsh. The Chicago Baháʼí Temple House of Worship is the second such house of worship constructed…
My Architecture & Design Photography: GRAHAM, ANDERSON, PROBST & WHITE, Civic Opera Building (1929), 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois. (8 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: CIVIC OPERA BUILDING, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago. Plan of Chicago Authors: The Burnham Plan, co-authored by Daniel H. Burnham (1846-1912) and Edward H. Bennett (1874-1954) and published in 1909 encouraged making the Chicago River a focal point of building development. By 1929 massive projects including the Merchandise Mart, Chicago Daily News Building…
My Architecture & Design Photography: WAUKEGAN, Illinois. (19 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: 946 N. Sheridan Road, Waukegan, Illinois 1876. A fuller description of this house whose appearance is almost out of a 19th century novel is found in the post below. All text & photographs by author. INTRODUCTION. Waukegan, Illinois, is an historic community on Lake Michigan about 40 miles north of downtown Chicago. It…
My Architecture & Design Photography: R. HAROLD ZOOK AND WILLIAM F. MCCAUGHEY, The Pickwick Theatre Building, 1928, 3-11 South Prospect Avenue/6-12 South Northwest Highway, Park Ridge, Illinois. (10 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE Image: The Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace, opened in 1928. Its marquee is one of the most recognized structures in Park Ridge, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The marquee became famous nationwide when it was featured in the opening sequence of the nationally syndicated television show, Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert’s…
My Architecture & Design Photography: S. CHARLES LEE (1899-1990). The Loma Theatre (1944-46), 3150 Rosecrans Boulevard; San Diego, California. (4 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: The Loma Theatre with its vertical sign in San Diego, California. was opened in 1945. This is a true transitional/hybrid building for American architect S. Charles Lee. The architect retains the curves (in the sign) of his pre-war theatre buildings and moves to the angles (in the main structure) that increasingly marked his…
My Architecture & Design Photography: DANKMAR ADLER (1844-1900). Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church (Isaiah Temple) (1899), 4501 S. Vincennes Avenue; Chicago, Illinois. (6 Photos).
FEATURE Image: Signage of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago. The church is known as “the birthplace of Gospel music” since Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993) started his first modern gospel choir here in 1931. Author’s photograph, 10/2016 6.06 mb SOURCES: Alice Sinkevitch, AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 417. chipublib.org/fa-ebenezer-missionary-baptist-church-archives/
My Architecture & Design Photography: BEVERLY/MORGAN PARK (CHICAGO), Illinois. (58 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: Detail of wood, stone and brick used by architect Joseph Emil Hosek for his 1951 Prairie-style house at 8958 S. Hamilton Avenue in Northern Beverly. See a fuller description and another photograph of the house in this post. Text & photographs by John P. Walsh. INTRODUCTION. The Beverly/Morgan Park community owes its charm…
My Architecture & Design Photography: DANIEL H. BURNHAM (1846-1912) & CO., Fisher Building (1895-96), Chicago, Illinois. (8 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: FISHER BUILDING, 343 S. Dearborn Street, view from the south. Author’s photograph, December 2017. The success of the Reliance Building at 32 N. State Street built by Daniel H. Burnham (1846-1912) and John Wellborn Root (1850-1891) in 1890-91 and Burnham & Co. in 1894-95 led directly to the construction of the Fisher Building…
My Architecture & Design Photography: RIVERSIDE, Illinois. (53 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE Image: 124 Scottswood Road, Riverside, Illinois, 1871, by William LeBaron Jenney (1832-1907). There is a full description of this house in the post below. Text & photographs by John P. Walsh. INTRODUCTION. The location of today’s Riverside, Illinois, has been an active and important historical area since before the 17th century. It was part of…
My Architecture & Design Photography: RIVER FOREST, Illinois. (21 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: 562 Keystone Avenue, River Forest, Illinois, is a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1909. It is an excellent example of Wright’s mature Prairie style including its original Prairie-style glass. River Forest, Illinois is a suburb of Chicago in Cook County. River Forest is perhaps best known for its diversity of 19th and…
My Architecture & Design Photography: PLAINFIELD, Illinois. (1 Photo).
FEATURE image: Flanders House (1841), 24044 Main Street, Plainfield, Illinois. See a fuller description below. Jason and Lucy Flanders House, 1841, Plainfield, Illinois. Plainfield was settled at the end of the 1820’s when James Walker constructed a sawmill on the DuPage River. The mill attracted settlers to the region and created Will County’s first permanent…
My Architecture & Design Photography: YAROSLAW KORSUNSKY (1926-2009). Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Church (1975), 739 N. Oakley Boulevard; Chicago, Illinois (22 Photos).
FEATURE image: Exterior of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Church with its gold domes. The tradition-minded parish, founded in early 1970s, serves a busy urban community. The huge mosaic over the main entrance memorializes the conversion of the Ukrainians to Christianity in 988 by St. Volodymyr of Kyiv or Vladimir of Kiev (957-1015). The mosaic was executed…
My Architecture & Design Photography: WORTHMANN & STEINBACH; POINTEK. St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral (1915); 2238 W. Rice Street; Chicago, Illinois (19 Photos).
FEATURE image: Chicago. St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral. At the western main entrance are the stars and stripes of the U.S. flag and the blue and yellow Ukraine flag. An avenue of trees lines the south side of the cathedral building. With its huge size and detailed architecture, St. Nicholas stands prominently on its 20…
My Architecture & Design Photography: LOUIS H. SULLIVAN (1856-1924). Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral (1903), 1121 N. Leavitt; Chicago, Illinois. (13 Photos).
Holy Trinity Cathedral was built on a limited budget. It is a small building at 47 x 98 feet situated on an east-west axis. The main body of the church is square with extensions and an octagonal dome above. The picturesque country-church entrance has a metal and wood canopy whose design and ornamentation were created…
My Architecture & Design Photography: MCCARTHY, SMITH & EPPIG. St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 1939, 524 Ninth Street, Wilmette, Illinois. (19 Photos).
FEATURE image: St. Francis Xavier Church was erected in 1939 in an established well-maintained residential neighborhood in Wilmette, Illinois, just blocks inland from Lake Michigan. The attempt was made by the area’s Roman Catholics to fit in unobtrusively and harmonize with its neighbors on Chicago’s Northshore. 6/2014 3.56mb The English Gothic-style church is usually associated…
My Architecture & Design Photography: GEORGE H. JOHNSON (1830-1879). Iron Block (1861/1899), 205 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (6 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: Iron Block, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, following its extensive restoration in 2014. Photograph by author taken in September 2016. The Iron Block at 205 East Wisconsin Avenue on the corner of busy Water and Wisconsin in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was erected in 1861. The architect was George H. Johnson (1830-1879) of New York City and…
My Architecture & Design Photography: RAPP & RAPP. Oriental Theatre (1926), 24 W. Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois. (3 Photos).
FEATURE image: Oriental Theatre completed in 1926 and renamed the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in 1997. It became the Nederlander Theatre in 2019. Author’s photograph taken in December 2017. In Chicago’s Loop, the Oriental Theatre opened on May 8, 1926. In the first half of the 20th century, Randolph Street was one of…
My Architecture & Design Photography: ANONYMOUS/UNKNOWN. Row Houses (1873), 802-812 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois. (2 Photos & Illustrations).
These early row houses were developed in Chicago’s Gold Coast/River North neighborhood in the early 1870s immediately following the Great Chicago Fire. That conflagration began south of the city’s downtown area at 137 DeKoven Street (around 1100 South) and blew its destruction north through Downtown and upwards into today’s Gold Coast area. The fire petered…
My Architecture & Design Photography: COBB & FROST. The Cobden (1892), 418-424 W. Belden Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. (2 Photos & Illustrations).
The Cobden is a Richardsonian-Romanesque flats-above-storefront building that has anchored the northwest corner of busy Clark Street and residential Belden Avenue since 1892. It was designed by architect Charles Sumner Frost (1856 –1931) of the firm of Henry Ives Cobb (1859-1931) and Frost. Born in Maine and trained as an architect in Boston, Frost moved to…
My Architecture & Design Photography: JEAN-PAUL VIGUIER. Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile (2002), 20 East Chestnut Street; Chicago, Illinois (3 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile, Chicago, Illinois. architect: Jean-Paul Viguier. 6/2014 4.66mb Author’s photograph. Jean-Paul Viguier (b.1946) is a leading modern Paris-based French architect. In 2003 his Sofitel Chicago Water Tower (renamed the Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile) was chosen by the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) as the “best new building…
My Architecture & Design Photography: HELMUT JAHN (1940-2021) in Chicago, Illinois. (5 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: Helmut Jahn, State of Illinois (Thompson) Center, 100 W. Randolph, Chicago, Illinois, 1979-1985. The Thompson Center was officially bought by Google in 2022 for a reported $105 million. Author’s photograph. 5/2014 4.75 mb Introduction. Helmut Jahn was famous in Chicago and around the world for his prolific postmodern architecture particularly his work in…
My Architecture & Design Photography: HOWARD VAN DOREN SHAW (1869-1926). The Mentor Building (1906), Chicago, Illinois. (1 Photo).
A Mentor building has stood on the northeast corner of State and Monroe Streets since 1873. Until 1906, a 7-story building was erected here.1 The 1906 building by Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926) is 17 stories high with two basements on rock caissons.2 Shaw’s only skyscraper presents an unusual mixture of styles, a talent for…
My Architecture & Design Photography: ANONYMOUS/UNKNOWN. Chicago Harbor Lighthouse (1893). Active lighthouse on Lake Michigan played a vital role in Chicago’s economic development and the U.S. Midwest.
FEATURE image: Chicago Harbor Lighthouse (1893), Chicago, Illinois, 2017. Author’s photograph. Known as the “Chicago Light,” the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse is an active automated lighthouse dating from 1893. About one-half mile beyond Navy Pier, the lighthouse stands at the north of the main entrance of the Chicago Harbor in Lake Michigan. The lighthouse has had a…
My Architecture & Design Photography: NAPERVILLE, Illinois. (2 Photos).
FEATURE image: 15 S. Sleight Street, 1883, Naperville, Illinois. See its description below. Frame house, tower, clapboard and shingle patterns. The tower is cut on a bias (on an angle), approaching 45 degrees. This has the tower with less surface area than if cutting it square. The cut also can serve an aesthetic or other…
My Architecture & Design Photography: SOLOMON, CORDWELL, BUENZ (SBD). Park Tower Condominium (1973), 5414 N. Sheridan Road; Chicago, Illinois. (2 Photos).
Park Tower Condominium is on the lakefront next to north Lake Shore Drive and across from Foster Beach in Lincoln Park. Its address is 5414 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago Constructed in 1973 by Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz (SCB), a Chicago architectural firm founded in 1931, the tower was planned as the first of three towers in a…
My Architecture & Design Photography: KETLER-ELLIOT. The Chicago Avenue Bridge (1914), Chicago, Illinois. Demolished in 2018. (13 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: Portion of the open-grate pony-truss bascule Chicago Avenue Bridge and concrete house, erected in 1914, as it was in its last years of operation. Pointing to increased high traffic volume and load-bearing capacity issues, the 104-year-old bridge was demolished and replaced in 2018. Author’s photograph taken in May 2016. Built in 1914 by…
My Architecture & Design Photography: ANONYMOUS/UNKNOWN. Collegiate Church of St. Gertrude (c. 1050), Nivelles, Belgium. (6 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: The Westwork of the Collegiate Church of St. Gertrude in Nivelles, Belgium, fronts an expansive historical building of the 11th century. Photograph by author, March 1992. Nivelles is an ancient settlement about 25 miles south-east of Brussels in Belgium’s French-speaking region of Wallonia. St. Gertrude of Nivelles (c. 628-659) was the daughter of Blessed…
My Architecture & Design Photography: JOHN AUGUSTUS ROEBLING (1806-1869). The Brooklyn Bridge (1869-1883), East River, New York City (3 Photos).
FEATURE image: The Brooklyn Bridge (looking westward), August 2005. Author’s photograph. The Brooklyn Bridge over the East River is the oldest extant bridge in New York City—a city of bridges—and is also the city’s most architecturally famous. The opening of the hybrid cable-stayed and suspension bridge in May 1883 has been called “the Dawn of…
My Architecture & Design Photography: AUGUST WALLBAUM. St. Michael Church, 1869, in Old Town. Founded in 1852, it is Chicago’s Oldest German Parish. (27 Photos & Illustrations).
FEATURE image: At the top of the high altar’s retable in St. Michael Church in Chicago’s Old Town is the figure of St. Michael the Archangel, the parish church’s patron. St. Michael is mentioned in several places in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. The near northside Chicago parish has been administered by the Redemptorist…
My Architecture & Design Photography: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1867-1959). Fallingwater, 1935, Mill Run, Pennsylvania. (7 Photos & Videos).
FEATURE image: Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mill Run, Pennsylvania. March 2010. Author’s photograph. Fallingwater is a house designed in 1935 by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). It is in the Laurel Highlands of southwest Pennsylvania, about 70 miles away from downtown Pittsburgh. The house was intended as a weekend retreat for the Edgar J.…
