Product Description

Along Prairie Avenue, majestic Lake Shore Drive, and Astor Street, the Armours, McCormicks, Pullmans, and Ryersons immortalized their place among Chicago s elite with lavish palaces. They were designed by the great architects of the era, including Daniel Burnham, Frank Lloyd Wright, Howard Van Doren Shaw, and David Adler, in styles that ranged from Classical and Romanesque to Prairie School and International Modern.

GREAT HOUSES OF CHICAGO, 1871 1921 is the first authoritative study of Chicago s city houses. Thirty four in-depth profiles, illustrated with restored archival photographs, drawings, and floor plans, portray a private world of Midwestern splendor. This masterful volume includes biographical sketches of leading Chicago architects, a comprehensive bibliography, and a portfolio of 40 additional, rarely-seen residences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #194985 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 334 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In the period after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, a burgeoning economy and fortunes led to a building boom. This latest volume in the Urban Domestic Architecture series charts the changing architectural tastes and steady migration of the part of Chicago society that one early 20th-century commentator referred to as the sifted few to their enclaves on Prairie Avenue and Lake Shore Drive. The mansard roofs and restrained exteriors of the French-style mansions built by such Chicago leaders as Marshall Field, Cyrus McCormick and Henry Pullman masked lavish and eclectic interiors. This was a period that saw some of the earliest designs of Frank Lloyd Wright as well as two of H.H. Richardson's final Romanesque structures. The authors often spend as much time on the families that commissioned a specific home as they do on the architecture itself. This combination of social and architectural history places both the most traditional and the more advanced houses in the context of their times, while paying due attention to such acknowledged masterpieces as Wright's Robie House of 1908–1910. Benjamin and Cohen (coauthors, North Shore Chicago, 1890–1940) include brief biographies of 25 architects and their firms, along with 350 b&w photos, drawings and floor plans. (Mar.)
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Review
...illuminating new book...The heart of the book consists of in-depth profiles of the 34 houses, which are portrayed with drawings, restored archival photographs, floor plans and text. The profiles are sharply drawn and richly detailed. Together, they reveal broad stylistic shifts, from the dark, cluttered, European-influenced houses of the 1870s, to the bright, open Prairie Style houses at the turn of the century, to the graceful, tradition-minded eclecticism of the Teens and '20s as rendered by such talents as Howard Van Doren Shaw. --Chicago Tribune, April 12, 2008

...illuminating new book...The heart of the book consists of in-depth profiles of the 34 houses, which are portrayed with drawings, restored archival photographs, floor plans and text. The profiles are sharply drawn and richly detailed. Together, they reveal broad stylistic shifts, from the dark, cluttered, European-influenced houses of the 1870s, to the bright, open Prairie Style houses at the turn of the century, to the graceful, tradition-minded eclecticism of the Teens and '20s as rendered by such talents as Howard Van Doren Shaw. --Chicago Tribune, April 12, 2008

This delicious feast of a book is the fifth in the admirable Acanthus Press series on urban domestic architecture in the U.S. The present book examines 34 Chicago houses in detail and appends a portfolio of single images of 40 or more. Of the whole group, 45 have been destroyed and only 12 are still private residences, so the emphasis is necessarily - an nostalgically - on what once was. Just as informative and interesting as the images, the text tells us much about why the owners lived as they did. --Interior Design, March 2008

Three dozen vintage mansions - including 28 landmarks - are examined in the book. The publication, loaded with hundreds of photographs, visits residences on such city streets as Astor, Prairie, Lake Shore Drive, Drexel, lakeview, Greenwood and Woodlawn. --Chicago Sun-Times, March 23, 2008

Three dozen vintage mansions - including 28 landmarks - are examined in the book. The publication, loaded with hundreds of photographs, visits residences on such city streets as Astor, Prairie, Lake Shore Drive, Drexel, lakeview, Greenwood and Woodlawn. --Chicago Sun-Times, March 23, 2008

About the Author
Susan Benjamin owns a Chicago-area consulting firm, Benjamin Historic Certifications, with a focus on historic preservation. Her firm specializes in preparing landmark nominations and in acquiring tax benefits for homeowners and developers who rehabilitate their landmark properties. Susan frequently lectures, makes television appearances and has written several books and many articles on Chicago architecture. She is a resident of Highland Park.

Stuart Cohen is a practicing architect and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Stuart s firm, Cohen and Hacker Architects, specializes in residential architecture and the restoration and renovation of historic houses. He is the author of two books and numerous articles on architecture.

Susan Benjamin and Stuart Cohen are co-authors of North Shore Chicago: Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs, 1890 1940 (Acanthus Press, 2004)

Customer Reviews

THE CHICAGO WAY
As with all Acanthus Press books, this volumn is exquisitely presented, the paper quality is first rate and the black and white archieval images are vivid. I think most people, when they think of great Chicago houses, think of the great houses of Chicago's North Shore suburbs, most notably, Lake Forest, however, as this book chronicles, Chicago itself had some outstanding homes. Though i was familiar with some of the homes presented, many I was not. I think anybody with an appreciation of fine books or Chicago grand residental architecture will not be disappointed in this book. Frankly, anything that Acanthus Press publishes is worth owning if for no other reason than to appreciate the lost art of creating a fine book.

Great houses of Chicago 1871-1921
A very good read of the movers and shakers of early Chicago and their homes. Very insightful and the pictures are a part of our architectural history. A wonderful book.

A lush and wonderful volume
Great Houses of Chicago is a treat to read, or to simply browse through. Filled with images of the magnificent homes that once were, or still remain, a part of my city, it is a book that I'd recommend to any lover of Chicago history or urban architecture.