John Wellborn Root
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So, why say so much in tribute to John Wellborn Root? It is because his work echoes what I have been saying for the last 12 years on Design List: The purpose of universities should be to teach/research/learn about new architectures. It should not be a preparation for PRACTICE, except as it brings this new knowledge and research skills to PRACTICE. The "profession" must seek the ART of architecture rather than seeking students of architecture to produce architecture in the PRACTICE setting. It must prepare those students for PRACTICE in the office setting for practice. Alternatively, those students might consider blazing their own paths without the office practice setting, and on their own. That is, they would have more than enough knowledge and research skills to serve office practice---without actually physically belonging to it.
Note how the work exhibited here is a connection to this attitude of discovering new architectures. Although John Wellborn Root came to his work through the high skill of draftsmanship, he was very innovative. Also, his personality and culture-in- music were wonderful in the service to his clients. This is in stark contrast to his arrogant contemporary, Frank Lloyd Wright,who also came to his work through the high skill of draftsmanship and the conceptual process influence of Louis Sullivan. John Wellborn Root also worked on the Chicago Exhibition with Frederick Law Olmstead. John Wellborn Root's plan for it was carried on with few modifications, after his early and unanticipated death, by Frederic Law Olmstead. (The latter person, known as "the father of landscape architecture", is my 5th cousin, 4 x removed. His son, Jr., was Harvard Professor of City Planning, the intellectual leader of the American city planning movement.)
I highly recommend reading any of the inspiring biographies of these special persons in architecture.
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1931, Financial District, Mills Tower,
220 Montgomery St., San Francisco.
Lewis P. Hobart.
Lewis Hobart's tower respects the original design. The arched entrance with its fine detail leads to a restrained lobby with a graceful branching stair and unusual foliated balusters (Woodbridge & Woodbridge 1992:27).
When it was built in 1891, the Mills Building (45) at 220 Montgomery Street was the epitome of modernity because of its entirely steel frame (the first in San Francisco), its high-speed elevators, its innovative use of terra-cotta, and its organization of 420 offices around a light well. Designed by Burnham and Root, it was built for Darius Ogden Mills, head of the Bank of California. This structure is considered the finest pre-earthquake example of the Chicago style building in the city. The base, with its Romanesque arch (similar to that of Burnham's Chronicle Building), in Inyo white marble with brick and terra-cotta ornamentation above. Despite the claim that it was fireproof, the building suffered extensive interior damage in 1906; it was rebuilt in 1908 and enlarged twice in 1914 and 1918, according to drawings by Polk. His restored lobby still features the lavish use of marble. The Mills Tower at the back of the building was designed by Lewis Hobart and added in 1931 (Wiley 2000:168). "
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http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/landmarks07.asp#76
Landmark 76
Mills Building/Mills Tower
220 Montgomery Street/220 Bush Street
Financial District
Built 1890, 1907, 1931
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http://www.goldrushtrail.org/walkfin.html
On Bush above Sansome is the block-long Mills Building (Burnham and Root, 1892), with its Mills Tower (Willis Polk, 1907). The lobby is the site of ongoing exhibits, such as art by school children of the City. Here, in the 1870s, the Suffrage Movement set its platform.
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http://www.verlang.com/sfbay0004ref_19thc_011.html
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1891, Financial District, Mills Building,
220 Montgomery St., San Francisco.
1908, Burnham and Root; 1914, 1918, D.H. Burnham and Co./Willis Polk; 1931, Lewis Hobart.
The only surviving pre-fire skyscraper that clearly reflects the great Chicago School tradition from which it sprang; the wall composition recalls Adler and Sullivan's Auditorium Building of 1888. Damaged but structurally intact after the 1906 earthquake and fire, the building was restored and twice enlarged by Willis Polk, who headed the local D.H. Burnham and Co. office. Lewis Hobart's tower respects the original design. The arched entrance with its fine detail leads to a restrained lobby with a graceful branching stair and unusual foliated balusters (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992:27).
The elevator, of course, made such buildings possible. But not until a group of young Chicago architects introduced the steel frame and poured concrete construction could buildings over six stories tall become practical. Indeed, the Chicago firm of Burnham and Root designed the first eight-story building in San Francisco: Mike de Young's Chronicle building at Market and Kearny, in 1889, which stands today, shorn of its clumsy clock tower and sheathed in a blank modern skin. Within two years the same firm was commissioned to design the Mills Building on Montgomery, which, despite many alterations, still boasts its handsome Romanesque entrance portals (Alexander and Heig 2002:331).
All of the aforementioned San Francisco buildings followed this Richardson influence, as tastes emerged from the Romanesque to the Classical Roman. The Crocker Building, with its arcaded portico, and the Mills Building serve as excellent examples of Richardson Romanesque, while the Emporium and Flood Buildings, with their Roman arches and engaged columns, reflect the newer Roman Revival Style (Alexander and Heig 2002:333).
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http://www.gallen.com/TheSwigCo/backgrnd.htm
The Mills Building, a 435,000 square foot office building on Montgomery Street - a historic building opened in 1892. Designed by Burnham and Root, the Mills Building is one of the finest examples on the West Coast of the Chicago School of architecture.
The Swig Company either holds outright ownership interests in these properties or owns a partial equity interest in partnership with other investors. Swig Company partners include Trizec-Hahn, The Shorenstein Company, William Wilson & Associates, PaineWebber, Wells Fargo Bank and the Weiler-Arnow family, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and S.L. Green Realty.
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http://www.verlang.com/sfbay0004ref_20thc_010.html#220_montgomery
1931, Financial District, Mills Tower,
220 Montgomery St., San Francisco.
Lewis P. Hobart.
Lewis Hobart's tower respects the original design. The arched entrance with its fine detail leads to a restrained lobby with a graceful branching stair and unusual foliated balusters (Woodbridge & Woodbridge 1992:27).
When it was built in 1891, the Mills Building (45) at 220 Montgomery Street was the epitome of modernity because of its entirely steel frame (the first in San Francisco), its high-speed elevators, its innovative use of terra-cotta, and its organization of 420 offices around a light well. Designed by Burnham and Root, it was built for Darius Ogden Mills, head of the Bank of California. This structure is considered the finest pre-earthquake example of the Chicago style building in the city. The base, with its Romanesque arch (similar to that of Burnham's Chronicle Building), in Inyo white marble with brick and terra-cotta ornamentation above. Despite the claim that it was fireproof, the building suffered extensive interior damage in 1906; it was rebuilt in 1908 and enlarged twice in 1914 and 1918, according to drawings by Polk. His restored lobby still features the lavish use of marble. The Mills Tower at the back of the building was designed by Lewis Hobart and added in 1931 (Wiley 2000:168).
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