CHARLES BOWLER ATWOOD. Biography

CHARLES BOWLER ATWOOD, Daniel Burnham’s Senior Designer from 1891 until 1895 was born in Charlestown, Massachusets in 1849. He was educated at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University and in the Offices of Ware and Van Brundt. He practiced architecture in Boston and later in New York, where he was credited, while associated with the Herter Brothers, much of detail work of the Vanderbilt Mansion.

Daniel Burnham brought Atwood to Chicago in 1891, to replace John Root as Design Constultant to the Columbian Exposition of 1893.

Atwood’s years in Chicago were productive and remarkable. In addition to the Columbian Exposition, where he designed the Fine Arts Building (now the Museum of Science and Industry), the Peristyle, and the railroad terminal, he contributed to the chicago skyline with marshall field & company, the reliance building and the fisher building.

His Obituary in the New York Times said “...those who knew Atwood merely as a loveable companion, who had the failings of a somewhat artistic and erratic temperment hardly realized that he devoted much time to the serious study of his profession.....”

Facile designer, classicist, sure-handed contributor to the Chicago School of Architecture, and still, a personal enigma, Charles Bowler Atwood’s presence in Chicago tells a shadowed story that begs photography

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CHARLES ATWOOD. Architecture and Ornament

PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREGORY H. JENKINS AIA

CHARLES ATWOOD

Design Partner for D.H. Burnham and Company.

I find myself, once in a while, (not often, mind you) rarely, (actually), at a loss.  Unable to cope, momentarily, (of course),  with rapid changes in technology, economy, taste, and scale. It would be nice if things would just...stay the same.....for a bit.   So, it is inexplicable that I find some kind of  solace in turn-of-the-century Chicago Architecture. 

Charles Atwood was design partner for D.H. Burnham and Company, one the largest and most influential Architectural firms in the country, from 1891 to 1895 -- when upheavals in technology, economy, taste and scale rival our own.  Electricity. Radio. Elevators. Steel columns bolted to steel beams.  Automobiles. ...all new. A Magic City. Economic Bust.  Immigrants. Unimaginable wealth. Unimaginable Filth. Classicism vs. Regionalism.   Atwood, for 4 years anyway, was able to "deal."   At the Fair, he detailed a Classic fantasy.  For Marshall Field,  a palace, for the ladies.  At the Reliance Buillding, a delicate, un-ornamented structural frame that laid lightly on its foundations.  And at the Fisher Building --Gothic ornament (for the locals) and a scheme to rival the Chicago Schoolers.  Atwood was from New York.

I've enjoyed photographing Atwood in Chicago.  Appreciated his flexibility.  His expertise in detail.  And wonder,  -- if he was simply flawed when opium overtook his life, or if it was "the times".  Daniel Burnham went on, undeterred, to even greater successes -- first with Frederick Dinkelberg and then with Peirce Anderson and Edward Bennett.

But Atwood quietly died. With just a few buildings remaining, each remarkable in its own right -- divergent in style and reason -- to tell us a story.  One that is just out of reach.

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CHARLES ATWOOD.  Architecture and Ornament

PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREGORY H. JENKINS AIA

OPEN STUDIO. 10.15.10. NOON TIL SEVEN

55 EAST WASHINGTON STREET - STE 420

CHICAGO 60602

ATWOOD. Museum of Science and Industry

From Swamp to Fine Art in 18 Months

Charles Atwood began sketches for the Fine Arts Building at the Columbian Exposition in April of 1891.  18 months later this dome capped the rotunda.  Daniel Burnham took a tremendous leap of faith in hiring Atwood to replace John Root as the Fair's design consultant.  With no time for a personnel mistake.  Daniel Burnham's reputation (not to mention the City of Chicago's) relied heavily on the right decision. 

Burnham's capacity for "right decisions" stuck with him throughout his career.  Root.  Atwood.  Dinkelberg. Anderson. Bennett.   Burnham always, somehow, chose the right designer for the right time.

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