Edward Herbert Bennett (1874–1954) was an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and city planner best known for his co-authorship of the 1909

Plan of Chicago The Burnham Plan is a popular name for the 1909 ''Plan of Chicago'', co-authored by Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett and published in 1909. It recommended an integrated series of projects including new and widened streets, parks, new railr ...

Biography

Bennett was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1874, and later moved to San Francisco with his family.Cohen, 2004, page 307 An employee of Robert White, he was encouraged by famous architect

Bernard Maybeck Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7, 1862 – October 3, 1957) was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was an instructor at University of California, Berkeley. Most of his major buildings were in ...

to pursue his education at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and was a student there from 1895 to 1902, thanks to the generosity of

Phoebe Apperson Hearst Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst (December 3, 1842 – April 13, 1919) was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. Hearst was the founder of the University of California Museum of Anthropology, now called the Phoebe A. Hearst M ...

. The training and friendships he made at the École shaped his entire career. After graduating, he spent a short time in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with prominent architect

George B. Post George Browne Post (December 15, 1837 – November 28, 1913) was an American architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition. He was recognized as a master of modern American architecture as well as being instrumental in the birth of the skyscra ...

, who sent him to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to assist architect Daniel H. Burnham in preparing a plan for the military academy at

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

. Burnham found Bennett's work highly satisfactory and in 1903 invited him to move to Chicago to collaborate on the comprehensive plan for San Francisco, and afterwards, the

. The completed San Francisco plan was not implemented in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, but Bennett became well known for his design work and co-authorship of the 1909

.Cohen, 2004, page 307 While Burnham raised money and visibility for the Chicago Plan, Bennett created the actual layouts and drawings which are so well known today. Bennett also trained with Chicago's then leading country house architect

Howard Van Doren Shaw Howard Van Doren Shaw AIA (May 7, 1869 – May 7, 1926) was an architect in Chicago, Illinois. Shaw was a leader in the American Craftsman movement, best exemplified in his 1900 remodel of Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago. He designed ...

. Bennett made Chicago his personal and professional headquarters for the rest of his career. He served on the

Chicago Plan Commission The Chicago Plan Commission is a commission implemented to promote the ''Plan of Chicago,'' often called the Burnham Plan. After official presentation of the Plan to the city on July 6, 1909, the City Council of Chicago authorized Mayor Fred A. Bu ...

in various capacities into the 1930s and developed a substantial private practice and a national reputation as a city planner. Burnham, who largely retired from active practice after 1905, other than for his work in Chicago, directed applicants to Bennett, who, with partners William E. Parsons (1872–1939) and Harry T. Frost (1886–1943), served as a planning consultant to many cities large and small. In the plan for Chicago, Burnham and Bennett created a working document giving substance to the City Beautiful philosophy. From this prototype Bennett developed comparable plans for numerous American cities, including

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, and

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

Bennett married Catherine Jones from the prominent Lake Forest Jones family. They had one son, E. H. Bennett Jr., who was also an architect. In 1916 Bennett designed and built their estate,

Bagatelle Bagatelle (from the Château de Bagatelle) is a billiards-derived indoor table game, the object of which is to get a number of balls (set at nine in the 19th century) past wooden pins (which act as obstacles) into holes that are guarded by wooden ...

, on the northeast corner of the original Jones estate. The house still stands at the corner of Deerpath and Green Bay Roads in Lake Forest. Bagatelle is an interpretation of the

Château de Bagatelle The Château de Bagatelle is a small Neoclassical style château with several small formal French gardens, a rose garden, and an ''orangerie''. It is set on 59 acres of gardens in French landscape style in the Bois de Boulogne, which is loca ...

in Paris's

Bois de Boulogne The Bois de Boulogne (, "Boulogne woodland") is a large public park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. The land was ceded to the city of Paris by t ...

. Its classical garden with central fountain echos the design of Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain on Chicago's lakefront. He also owned Deerpath Farm, a dairy farm and country retreat on just west of Lake Forest which he gave to his son, and which now remains intact as the Deerpath Farm

conservation community A conservation community (or conservation development) is a real estate and conservation hybrid model of land development, consisting of both protected areas and human settlements, with the primary goal of saving large parcels of land from ecolo ...

. For many years, Bennett's office was located in the penthouse of the Santa Fe building at 80 E. Jackson in Chicago. From this vantage point he could supervise the construction of Grant Park, which he designed as part of the

, and its structures including

Buckingham Fountain Buckingham Fountain is a Chicago Landmark in the center of Grant Park, between Queen's Landing and Ida B. Wells Drive. Dedicated in 1927 and donated to the city by philanthropist Kate S. Buckingham, it is one of the largest fountains in the ...

and the original

Peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=fou ...

in today's

Millennium Park Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in 2004 and intended to celebrate the third millennium, is a prominent civic center near ...

. His son E. H. Bennett Jr. later occupied this same office through the late-1960s. Bennett's firm was a pioneer in the creation of

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

ordinances and the study of transportation and

regional planning Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land ...

as urban design tools. He usually served on a consultant basis, frequently for quasi-public or commercial interests such as the

Commercial Club of Chicago The Commercial Club of Chicago is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit 501(c)_organization#501(c)(4), 501(c)(4) social welfare organization founded in 1877 with a mission to promote the social and economic vitality of the Chicago metropolitan are ...

. His vision of the city was formed in the application of Beaux-Arts design principles of axiality and the incorporation of monumental public buildings as civic markers, coupled with a systematic ordering of functions for efficiency. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the nature of planning work changed. Fully three-quarters of the Bennett firm's work done in the 1920s was for official city planning agencies rather than for independent business or civic groups. With the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, Bennett's volume of work declined. From the late 1920s, he was involved in planning for the 1933 Chicago

Century of Progress Exposition A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1933 to 1934. The fair, registered under the Bureau International des Expositi ...

, and designed a number of structures for it. From 1927 until 1937, Bennett served as Chairman of the Board of Architects responsible for the development of the

Federal Triangle The Federal Triangle is a triangular area in Washington, D.C. formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and E Street NW. Federal Triangle is occupied by 10 large city and federal office buildings, all of which are ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

, a large complex of government buildings between the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

and the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

built to house a number of Federal agencies, including what is now the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

. Although most of his life's work reflected the Beaux Arts tradition, Bennett also designed two known

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

structures, one a personal studio on the south grounds of the Bagatelle estate, and the other a house in the artist colony of Tryon, North Carolina. After the retirement and death of his partners, Bennett closed his practice in 1944 and spent the final decade of his life in retirement. In the course of his career, Bennett had worked in nearly 20 states, from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, as well as in Puerto Rico and Canada. He presented his papers to The

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

in 1953, and these were supplemented by additional gifts and bequests from his architect son, Edward H. Bennett, Jr., over the following two decades. In 2008 Edward Bennett's Grandson, Edward Bennett III donated a substantial collection of Bennett's personal papers, drawings and photographs including his personal notebooks for the Plans of Chicago and San Francisco to

Lake Forest College Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts inst ...

Works

* 1909

- Chicago, IL *

Michigan Avenue Bridge The DuSable Bridge (formerly the Michigan Avenue Bridge) is a bascule bridge that carries Michigan Avenue across the main stem of the Chicago River in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States. The bridge was proposed in the early 20th century as ...

- Chicago, IL *

at Millennium Park (original) - Chicago, IL * Civic Center Park -

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, CO * 1915 Plan for Ottawa *

Luis Muñoz Rivera Park The Luis Muñoz Rivera Park (or Parque Luis Muñoz Rivera in Spanish) is a 27.2 acre (110,000 m2) recreational public space located in Puerta de Tierra in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The park was named in honor of Puerto Rican statesman Luis Muñoz ...

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...

Notes

References

*Coventry, Kim; Meyer, Daniel; Miller, Arthur H. "Classical Country Estates of Lake Forest, Architecture and Landscape Design 1856-1940" (2003), New York: W. W. Norton & Company, pages 209, 211, 227, 288-89; cover photograph * Cohen, Stuart; Benjamin, Susan. "North Shore Chicago, Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs 1890-1945" (2004), New York: Acanthus Press, pages 41, 43, 302, 307, 319 * Draper, Joan E. "Edward Bennett: Architect and City Planner 1874-1954" (1982), Chicago: University of Chicago Press

External links

Portrait
at the

Encyclopedia of Chicago ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'' is a historical reference work covering Chicago and the entire Chicago metropolitan area published by the University of Chicago Press. Released in October 2004, the work is the result of a ten-year collaboration b ...

The other author of the 1908 Plan of Chicago: Edward H. Bennett - urban designer, planner and architect

Edward H. Bennett Collection, 1850-1985: Lake Forest College Library

Classic Country Estates of Lake Forest
at Google Books Search
Drawing
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Edward H. American neoclassical architects Beaux Arts architects American urban planners 1874 births 1954 deaths Architects from Chicago American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts 20th-century American architects