D.H. BURNHAM and Company. Charles Atwood

A BURNHAM DESIGNER and TEAM PLAYER

Charles Atwood, Daniel Burnham's "Outsider" from New York, gained his reputation for Beaux Arts design details at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and for pushing the envelope at the Reliance Building. But also, and maybe even more importantly, Atwood proved himself to be a team player at D.H. Burnham and Company. The Rookery, Marshall Field and Company, and Buffalo's Ellicott Square are clearly of the same heart, if not the same hand -- and show an evenhanded progression of the development of the highrise office building. (Even more so when one learns that Field's was originally designed as retail on the lower floors and offices above -- those three arches are the location of the now-remodeled light court. )

JOHN ROOT.  The Rookery  PHOTOCREDIT

CHARLES ATWOOD.  Marshall Field and Company

CHARLES ATWOOD. Ellicott Square PHOTOCREDIT

CHARLES ATWOOD.  Ellicott Square Interior.  PHOTOCREDIT

JOHN ROOT. Roookery. Interiror

Add Burnham's (Dinkelberg's)  1904 Railway Exchange to the mix and you see, clearly, a strong hand guiding Root, Atwood, Dinkelberg (and later Anderson) within the corporate structure.

FRED DINKELBERG. Railway Exchange. Interior.

CHARLES ATWOOD. Marshall Field and Company.  Detail

Still there was room for variations on a theme.  And creativity best born from the synthesis of Art, Architecture, and Engineering.

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I am very pleased to post this blog from my new Studio in the Pittsfield Building.  Overlooking  Alfred Shaw's Atrium.

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