The

architectural firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countri ...

now known as Holabird & Root was founded in

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

in 1880. Over the years, the firm has changed its name several times and adapted to the architectural style then current — from Chicago School to

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

Modern Architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

Sustainable Architecture Sustainable architecture is architecture that seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings through improved efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, development space and the ecosystem at large. Sustainable ...

. Holabird & Root provides architectural, engineering, interior design, and planning services. It is Chicago's oldest architecture firm. The firm remains a privately held partnership currently operating with five principals and four associate principals.

History

The founders,

William Holabird William Holabird (September 11, 1854 in Amenia, New York – July 19, 1923 in Evanston, Illinois) was an American architect. Holabird was the son of General Samuel B. Holabird and Mary Theodosia Grant. He studied at the United States Mili ...

and

Ossian Cole Simonds Ossian Cole Simonds (November 11, 1855 – November 20, 1931), often known as O. C. Simonds, was an American landscape designer. He preferred the term 'landscape gardener' to that of ' landscape architect'. A number of Simonds' works are listed ...

, worked in the office of

William LeBaron Jenney William Le Baron Jenney (September 25, 1832 – June 14, 1907) was an American architect and engineer who is known for building the first skyscraper in 1884. In 1998, Jenney was ranked number 89 in the book ''1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ran ...

. They set up their own independent practice, Holabird & Simonds, in 1880 when they took on the project for an extension to

Graceland Cemetery Graceland Cemetery is a large historic garden cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Ir ...

, passed on to them by Jenney. In 1881,

Martin Roche Martin Roche (1853–1927) was an American architect. Life In partnership with William Holabird, Martin Roche designed buildings following the Chicago School and that were landmarks in the development of early sky scrapers. He worked for Wi ...

, who had also worked for Jenney, joined them as a third partner. After only working together on five projects, Simonds left the firm in 1883 to pursue a career as a landscape architect. Holabird, Simonds & Roche became Holabird & Roche. A few years later however, the firm once again collaborated with the ex-partner when, from 1889 to 1895, they designed and built Fort Sheridan, for which Simonds provided the landscaping. Beginning with the Tacoma Building (completed 1889; demolished 1929), their first major commission, and the Marquette Building (1895), the firm became well known for its groundbreaking Chicago School skyscrapers. An enormously successful practice, they also designed large, ornate hotels across the country, including Chicago's

Palmer House The Palmer House – A Hilton Hotel is a historic hotel in Chicago's Loop area. It is a member of the Historic Hotels of America program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Palmer House was the city's first hotel with elevators ...

, with

Richard Neutra Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. He ...

in a junior role on the team. Their work was part of the architecture event in the art competition at the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from ...

and the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

. In 1928, after the deaths of William Holabird (1923) and Martin Roche (1927), the firm was renamed Holabird & Root. The new firm was run by Holabird's son

John Augur Holabird John Augur Holabird (1886–1945) was an American architect based in Chicago. Biography John Augur Holabird was born in Evanston, Illinois on May 4, 1886, the son of architect William Holabird. He was educated at The Hill School, then train ...

and John Wellborn Root Jr., who had both joined back in 1914. Under their leadership, the firm adopted an Art Deco style. The company name changed to Holabird, Root & Burgee for a while, and two further generations of Holabirds served as partners (up to 1987). Currently located in the Marquette Building, the firm is once again called Holabird & Root, though no one of either name is currently affiliated.

Buildings

2010-03-03 1968x2952 chicago marquette building

Chapel, 1888 *

Pontiac Building The Pontiac Building is a historic high-rise building located at 542 S. Dearborn St. in the Printer's Row neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. History Built in 1891, the building is the oldest surviving work in downtown Chicago designed by the ...

, 1891 *

Monadnock Building The Monadnock Building (historically the Monadnock Block; pronounced ) is a 16-story skyscraper located at 53 West Jackson Boulevard in the south Loop area of Chicago. The north half of the building was designed by the firm of Burnham & Root ...

(southern half), 1893 *McConnell Apartments, 1210 North Astor (Chicago), 1897 *

Gage Group Buildings The Gage Group Buildings consist of three buildings located at 18, 24 and 30 S. Michigan Avenue, between Madison Street and Monroe Street, in Chicago, Illinois. They were built from 1890–1899, designed by Holabird & Roche for the three milline ...

, 1899 *57 East Jackson Boulevard (Chicago), 1899 *

Chicago Building The Chicago Building or Chicago Savings Bank Building is an early skyscraper, built in 1904–1905. It is located at 7 W. Madison Street in Chicago. Designed by the architecture firm Holabird & Roche, it is an early and highly visible example ...

, 1904 * Oliver Building, 1907 & 1920 * University Club of Chicago, 1908 * Cook County Courthouse/Chicago City Hall, 1910 *North American Building, 36 South State Street (Chicago), 1911 *

Sherman House Hotel The Sherman House was a hotel in Chicago, Illinois that operated from 1837 until 1973, with four iterations standing at the same site at the northwest corner of Randolph Street and Clark Street (Chicago), Clark Street. Long one of the city's major ...

, 1911 * Century Building, 1915 *

Muehlebach Hotel The Hotel Muehlebach () is a historic hotel building in Downtown Kansas City that was visited by every President from Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. It is currently operated as one of three wings of the Kansas City Marriott Downtown hotel ...

, 1915 *

University Laboratory High School (Urbana, Illinois) The University of Illinois Laboratory High School, also known as Uni High or just Uni, was established in 1921 and is a laboratory school located on the engineering section of the University of Illinois campus in Urbana, Illinois. Its enrollme ...

, 1917 *

Waterman Building (Chicago) The Waterman Building is a historic building on State Street in Chicago's Loop. Designed by Holabird and Roche, construction began in 1919 was completed in 1920.The American Architect'. Vol. 115, No. 2263. May 7, 1919. p. 10. Retrieved November 1 ...

, 1920 *

Memorial Stadium (Champaign) Memorial Stadium is a stadium on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, United States. The stadium, used primarily for football, is a memorial to the university's students who died in World War I; their n ...

, 1923 * Chicago Temple Building, 1923 *

Nicollet Hotel The Nicollet Hotel, in downtown Minneapolis, was located on a slightly irregular block bounded by Hennepin Avenue, Washington Avenue, Nicollet Avenue and 3rd Street South adjacent to Gateway Park. The original hotel on the site (often called the ...

Minneapolis, Minnesota 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 ...

, 1924 *

Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) since ...

, 1924 *

Hotel, 1925 *Hotel Wausau,

Wausau, Wisconsin Wausau ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marathon County, Wisconsin, United States. The Wisconsin River divides the city into east and west. The city's suburbs include Schofield, Weston, Mosinee, Maine, Rib Mountain, Kronenwetter, and ...

, 1925 *Pedestals for

Ivan Meštrović Ivan Meštrović (; 15 August 1883 – 16 January 1962) was a Croatian sculptor, architect, and writer. He was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb. He studied at Pavle Bilinić's ...

's ''The Bowman'' and ''The Spearman'' statues, 1926 * Stevens Hotel, 1927 * Schroeder Hotel. Milwaukee, 1928 * 333 North Michigan Building,

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

, 1928 *

Palmolive Building The Palmolive Building, formerly the Playboy Building, is a 37-story Art Deco building at 919 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Built by Holabird & Root, it was completed in 1929 and was home to the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Corporation. The Palmo ...

, Chicago, 1929 *

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

Building, Chicago, 1929 * Rand Tower,

, 1929 *

Chicago Board of Trade Building The Chicago Board of Trade Building is a 44-story, Art Deco skyscraper located in the Chicago Loop, standing at the foot of the LaSalle Street canyon. Built in 1930 for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), it has served as the primary trading v ...

, Chicago, 1930 *

Henry Crown Field House Henry Crown Field House is an athletic facility on the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Construction of the building took place in 1931 on land owned by the university. The cost of construction, however; was covered by ...

, Chicago, 1931 * University of Illinois Ice Arena, 1931 * Battle Creek Tower,

Battle Creek, Michigan Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, Michigan, Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle C ...

, 1931 *

Jefferson County Courthouse (Birmingham, Alabama) The Jefferson County Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama is the main county courthouse of Jefferson County, Alabama. It is the county's sixth main courthouse building, and the third in Birmingham. The cornerstone was laid in 1929, and the building ...

, 1929-1932 *

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...

Hand-turned Scoreboard and Center Field Bleachers, 1937 * Mason City Public Library,

Mason City, Iowa Mason City is a city and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,338 in the 2020 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro Go ...

, 1939 *

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

State Capitol Building,

Bismarck, North Dakota Bismarck () is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the state's second-most populous city, after Fargo. The city's population was 73,622 in the 2020 census, while its metropolitan popula ...

, 1934 * Statler Hotel Washington, 1943 * Adams County Courthouse, Quincy, 1950 *Morris Inn

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

, 1951 *

Hotel Tequendama Hotel Tequendama & Centro de Convenciones (Convention Center) is an historic hotel in Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia. It is located in the San Diego, Bogotá, San Diego neighborhood of the town of Santa Fe, Bogotá, Santa Fe at the intersection of Te ...

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, 1952. *

Fisher Hall (University of Notre Dame) There are currently 33 undergraduate residence halls at the University of Notre Dame, including 32 active residence halls and Zahm Hall, which serves as a transition dorm when residence halls undergo construction. Several of the halls are historic ...

, 1953 *

Pangborn Hall (University of Notre Dame) There are currently 33 undergraduate residence halls at the University of Notre Dame, including 32 active residence halls and Zahm Hall, which serves as a transition dorm when residence halls undergo construction. Several of the halls are historic ...

, 1955 * One Financial Plaza, Minneapolis, 1960 * Skybridge, City of

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...

, 2005 *

Ogle County Courthouse The Ogle County Courthouse is a National Register of Historic Places listing in the Ogle County, Illinois, county seat of Oregon. The building stands on a public square in the city's downtown commercial district. The current structure was complet ...

Renovation, Oregon, Illinois, 2010 *

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

Champlain Building Roof and Facade Renovation, Chicago, Illinois, 2012

Sources

*Blaser, Werner. Chicago Architecture: Holabird & Root, 1880–1992. Basel; Boston: Birkhauser Verlag, 1992. *Bruegmann, Robert. Holabird & Roche/Holabird & Root: An Illustrated Catalog of Works, 1880–1940. New York: Garland Publishing, 1991. *Bruegmann, Robert. The Architects and the City: Holabird & Roche of Chicago, 1880–1918. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

References

External links

Holabird & Root's current website

Holabird & Root on Google Maps
Master Planning Interior Design Structural Engineering Chicago Sustainable Architecture {{DEFAULTSORT:Holabird and Roche Chicago school architects Architecture firms based in Chicago Companies based in Chicago Companies established in 1880 Chicago school architecture in Illinois Olympic competitors in art competitions