CHARLES ATWOOD. The Fine Arts Building

I would be hard put to identify which of  Charles Atwood's projects for Daniel Burnham and Company made the greatest contribution to Chicago Architecture.  Marshall Field & Company transitioned Burnham and Root's 19th Century designs (The Rookery and the Masonic Temple) to the 20th Century "Commercial" style.  The delicacy of  The Reliance Building ( see E. C. Shankland's contribution HERE) clearly expressed its steel frame construction.  And the Fisher Building continued the early Chicago School's predilection to the Gothic.  But,  the greatest public impact, both then and now,  is undoubtedly made by the Columbian Exposition's Fine Arts Building (now the Museum of Science and Industry).

Some 120 years after its conception, the Fine Arts Building still "holds its own, "  thanks in large part to extensive care given the building by the Museum.  Ongoing restorations allow us the luxury to "imagine".....  Wooded Isle is behind us.  And Henry Ives Cobb's Fisheries.  The World's Fair remains very "close" in Jackson  Park. And Atwood's presence is clear.

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