The Architecture of John Wellborn Root

Students of the Chicago School of Architecture owe a deep debt of gratitude to Donald Hoffmann for his pioneering work on John Wellborn Root who, along with Louis Sullivan, were the pioneers of late 19th century urban architecture in America. This is an important book for any architectural library.

Root's Ironic Legacy Hoffman makes a thorough case for John Wellborn Root's place as one of America's great architects. It is therefore a bitter irony that Root's less talented partner, Daniel Burnham, is cited in most modern encyclopedias as one of the founders of the Chicago School of Architecture, while Root---especially at the time of Hoffman's 1973 book---often is not. After all, it was Root's creative genius that propelled the firm of Burnham and Root into international focus at the moment of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Root's relative anonymity began with that exposition, for he had died two years earlier of pneumonia. He had been set to rise to certain international stardom as consulting architect for the exposition. He had planned to feature American forms, not European ones. He submitted the site plan and died unexpectedly the same month. His site plan was mostly realized, but not so his thematic proposal, which was overwhelmed by Parisian Beaux Arts designs. This lost opportunity was also America's loss. Burnham was largely to blame: he was chief of construction, and he inexplicably countered Root's American theme. The resulting exposition design under Burnham's leadership merely repeated a previous European showcase. Because of the European theme of the Chicago Exposition, the Chicago School was set back a decade. Even worse, architects all over America emulated the exposition. To this day, the American landscape suffers the influence of the Chicago Exposition. One is left to marvel at how different America would look today had Root lived even long enough to guide the exposition to American forms. About 97% of Root's buildings were razed in the first sixty years of the Twentieth Century, primarily because the business district of Chicago can't grow outwards because of geography. Therefore, it must grow upwards, and that means taller buildings are forever replacing tall buildings, Root's included. Root's legacy is indeed full of ironies.Root's Roots Hoffman's important work on this book is singularly responsible for reviving Root's place in architectural history. In the quarter century that has passed since Hoffman's book was published, Root is now accepted by historians, though not the general public. If there is a weakness in Hoffman's book, it is the spare attention given to Root's life outside Chicago. Here are three details which would have rounded out this otherwise splendid book: (1) Root was born in my hometown of Lumpkin, Georgia in 1850. I remember the commanding wooden two-story home in which he was born. It was torn down about 1963. Adding to the Root irony, his birthplace today is occupied by a simple brick house. Most natives of his hometown know nothing more than the text of a historical marker about Root, which seems to point out this modern house. (2) John Wellborn Root's father, Sidney, invented international business in Atlanta. Sidney engineered At

John Wellborn Root's short life was elemental in the development of the early skyscraper. With his partner, Daniel Burnham, Root quickly climbed the social ladder in his adopted city of Chicago, receiving commissions to design South Side mansions for industrialists in the 1870s. The firm of Burnham & Root quickly rose to great acclaim designing commercial buildings such as the Grannis Block and the 10 story Montauk Block, credited as the first building ever referred to as a skyscraper. Root engineered several key technological improvements that made the tall building possible, including the use of a steel within a concrete foundation and was, along with contemporaries William LeBaron Jenney and Holabird & Roche, involved in the use of metal interior frame to support a large building's weight, rather than the historic use of masonry load-bearing walls. Root's Second Rand McNally Building was the world's first building to be supported only on a steel frame. The 22 story Masonic Temple was the world's tallest building when completed in 1892. Root's designs generally frankly expressed their structure in a Romaneque manner, being instrumental in the creation of the so-called "Chicago" or "commercial style". Yet his work was often beautiful, as seen in the Women's Temple, Rookery and Monadnock- the latter two critically-acclaimed structures still standing in Chicago. Root was an accomplished orator and reader, and if he had not died in 1891 at age 41, he, rather than Louis Sullivan, may have become the spokesman of the Chicago style. The artuiculate Root wrote many articles in trade magazines and spoke at architectual forums, speaking of his architectual theories. Certainly Root was a witty, pleasant gentleman greatly admired by his peers.Nevertheless, Hoffman's book is not uncritical; the book looks at the failures and the minor commisisons of churches, train stations, and the like. A complete history of Root's work is presented with special emphasis is placed on the most important works listed above. Hoffman's book is well footnoted and his conclusions are supported by the evidence. After the first chapter, Hoffman mostly eschews biography, focusing on Root's career.The book is interesting and rich in details. Hoffman explores the dynamics of Burnham & Root's successful partnership whereby Root, the designer, handled the drawing, and Burnham, the planner, laid out interior floor plans and handled the "jaw work" in talking to clients.The relationship with Burnham is interesting for it is Burnham who is best remembered today for his later work in the city planning movement. Although Root's buildings have mostly been demolished as their cities, Chicago, Kansas City, San Francisco and others, have grown upward, several survive and this book keeps the memories of the others alive.