Richard Ernest Schmidt (14.11.1865–17.10.1958) was an American

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 ...

, a member of the so-called first Chicago School and a near-contemporary of

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

and

Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...

Life

Schmidt was born in

Ebern Ebern () is a town in the Haßberge district of Bavaria, Germany. It is situated southwest of Coburg and northwest of Bamberg. Its population is about 8,000. Its mayor is Robert Herrmann. Ebern is about 1,000 years old and has an intact defen ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

and brought to America by his parents at the age of one. In 1883 he enrolled in the architecture school at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

, but left to begin practicing before completing the program, working for such architects as Adolph Cudell and

Charles Sumner Frost Charles Sumner Frost (May 31, 1856 – December 11, 1931) was an American architect. He is best known as the architect of Navy Pier and for designing over 100 buildings for the Chicago and North Western Railway. Biography Born in Lewiston, Mai ...

before eventually settling in Chicago in 1887. Eight years later, he asked Hugh Mackie Gorden Garden to join him as chief designer, who was also an extremely skilled structural engineer. A native of Canada, Garden had moved to Chicago in the late-1880s, apprenticing with several architectural firms, including Flanders & Zimmerman,

Henry Ives Cobb Henry Ives Cobb (August 19, 1859 – March 27, 1931) was an architect from the United States. Based in Chicago in the last decades of the 19th century, he was known for his designs in the Richardsonian Romanesque and Victorian Gothic styles. ...

, and

Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic, religious, and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry ...

, then becoming a freelance renderer, which brought him jobs with

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 ...

, and

. Although known primarily for their commercial and industrial designs, the firm also designed more than 300 hospitals as well as many other public structures, all in a progressive style, similar to Sullivan and Wright.

Selected commissions

Security Benefit Association Hospital Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted Coercion, coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons an ...

, Topeka * Theurer-Wrigley House, Chicago * Albert F. Madlener House, Chicago *

Montgomery Ward Company Complex The Montgomery Ward Company Complex is the former national headquarters of Montgomery Ward, the United States' oldest mail order firm. The property is located along the North Branch of the Chicago River at 618 W. Chicago Avenue in Near North Sid ...

, Chicago * Humboldt Park Boathouse Pavilion, Chicago * Cook County Hospital Administration Building, Chicago *

Michael Reese Hospital Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center was an American hospital located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1881, Michael Reese Hospital was a major research and teaching hospital and one of the oldest and largest ...

, Chicago * Institute of Thermal Research, Buffalo

References

External links

Chicago Commission on Landmarks page on Schmidt, Garden and Martin
Retrieved August 25, 2008 Axel W.-O. Schmidt, Der rothe Doktor von Chicago - ein deutsch-amerikanisches Auswanderschicksal, Peter Lan, Frankfurt 2003. --> 1865 births 1958 deaths American architects Chicago school architects {{US-architect-stub