Renovations for the University Club of Chicago

Often times, the most significant commissions are not those that are the largest of those that cost the most money.  The work that Joseph Silsbee did for the University Club of Chicago, though modest in comparison with other works, may have been the most important in sustaining his career.

Silsbee was a founding member of the club in 1887 and was hired to design renovations to the third and fourth floors of the Henning & Speed Building for use as the Club headquarters.  The officers and founding members of the club consisted of prominent citizens, many of whom were graduates of eastern Ivy League Universities.  Several were Silsbee's classmates at Harvard.  As the club grew, it's membership list reads like a directory to Silsbee's residential clients.

In 1889, the club had outgrown it's initial space and purchased a building on Dearborn street to renovate for it's new clubhouse.  Again, Silsbee was hired to oversee the renovations and a large addition.  The building was the Hansen Building, designed in 1885 by architect John Addison.  Addison was a talented architect and his five-story brick and terra cotta office building seemed to be a perfect canvas for Silsbee to add to.            

Silsbee oversaw complete modifications of the interiors for the club's use.  On the exterior, he was responsible for a two-story and attic addition that dramatically changed the profile of the existing structure.  The addition is marked by two large intersecting gable roofs.  It is remarkable how Silsbee's addition almost seemlessly blends with Addison's structure.  Facing Dearborn street, the pilasters of the original structure are extended an additional story and capped with ornimantal terra cotta.  The bottom of this large gable is composed as an abstract over-sized Paladian window with a giant terra-cotta encrusted pediment at the top of the gable.  A flag pole extended from the center of this element.  An excellent image of this feature, with foliate elements intertwining the initials "U C", can be found in the archives of the Art Institute. 

In 1892, on the eve of the World's Columbian Exposition, Silsbee was hired once more to renovate the rooms, staircase and elevator to prepare the club for the numerous visitors that were expected for the World's Fair.  At this time, Silsbee also renovated the second floor of the club so it could be sublet to the Chicago Literary Club.  Silsbee and many other University Club members were also members of this club.  It began meeting in the University Club library, pictured below, a year before it made it's permanent home on the second floor.

It is in the meetings of the Literary Club where we get a rare glimpse of Silsbee's interest in architecture theories.  His close friendships with prominent club members Frederick Gookin and Joseph Kirkland are worth noting but more important is the fact that Silsbee delivered scholarly papers at the club.  Though they were never published, he presented papers on Color in Architecture and Back Yards.  The most interesting presentation would have been his contribution to a four-part series given by himself along with architects Irving Pond, Peter Wight and Louis Sullivan in 1895.  In this series, each architect pondered the question: "Can Architecture Become Again a Living Art?".  The Literary Club stayed in the University Club building until 1906 when it moved to the Orchestra Building in rooms designed by club member, Irving Pond.   

The most remarkable room in the University Club was the Banquet Hall.  This was a two-story space on the sixth floor.  It had a dramattic curved beam ceiling and the walls were decorated with the shields of the colleges represented by the club members.  At the time of the 1893 renovations, there were thirty-seven.

As with all of the rooms in the clubhouse, the room had elaborate woodwork and was richly decorated.  At the end of this room was an ornate balcony, where musicians could perform during club events.

In 1909, The University Club moved to its current clubhouse, the masterpiece of architect Martin Roche, on Michigan Ave.  The Dearborn Street clubhouse was sold to the Press Club of Chicago.  Silsbee was also a member of this club and it is due to the pride that the Press Club had in this building that we have the above images.  All of the images are from various club publications now found online.  The Press Club stayed in the building until it moved in 1915.  It moved back to the building in 1929, where is stayed until the club disbanded in 1939.  The entire block, which also contained Henry Cobb's Boyce Building, was demolished in the 1960's.        

Y. M. C. A. Building for Gary Indiana

In 1909, Elbert Gary donated funds so that the City of Gary could build a Young Men's Christian Association Building.  The building was to serve as a sports and recreation center, library, temporary dormitory, and dining facility for men in the city.  Joseph Silsbee had already set up a satellite office in the Gary Land Company Building and had much work at hand in the new city.  Construction was under way for a similar building designed by Silsbee for the Oberlin College Campus.  He seemed the perfect candidate for the new project in Gary.    

The Gary Y.M.C.A. Building was a massive cut stone structure that once stood on an entire city block, facing north on Fifth Avenue.  With it's lack of ornament, strict symmetry and wide hipped roof, the structure is austere and monumental.  It is also vaguely classical in it's appearance with modest carved stone work in the brackets at the balcony over the doorway and at the entry.  Besides this detail and some brackets at the eave, the structure is defined primarily by flat planar surfaces, piers and bands, all in the buff smooth stone material.  Photos better articulating this detail can be found at the U. S. Steel Gary Works Photo Archive.

At the time of construction, the building was considered "state of the art".  It was constructed of concrete, had accommodations for all modern functions with electricity and mechanical heating.  While the community seemed proud of the new structure, it was particularly proud of the handsome interiors.  The ground floor was dominated by a single open room with wide spans of carved beams supported by marble columns.  This main hall was arranged as a club-like setting and was lit with a series of elaborate chandeliers.  At the east and west ends of the main entry hall were large fireplaces with murals above.  Throughout, there were small grouping of furniture to create intimate gathering areas.  Directly opposite the entry was a wide grand staircase to the upper floors.  A bronze plaque, memorializing the building's patron was located at the top of the first stair landing, facing the hall.  The walls were articulated with paneling and wainscoting throughout.  It took approximately three years for the structure to be completed and once completed, were considered some of the finest interiors in the city.  I am unsure when the structure was demolished but a modern building, approximately forty years old, currently occupies the site.

Competition Design for the Milwaukee Club

Some of an architect's best plans remain in that state, a mere depiction of ink on paper or linen.  In 1883, Joseph Silsbee's Chicago office, Silsbee & Kent, was invited to submit a design for a competition for the commission of a new clubhouse for the Milwaukee Club.  Other architects that were invited included pioneering Chicago architects Burnham & Root and future Milwaukee City Hall designer and talented architect Henry C. Koch but it was club member Edward Townsend Mix that would win the competition.  With such a talented pool of architects and being a relative unknown in the Midwest, it seemed that it would be an uphill battle for Silsbee to win such a commission.

A consolation to not winning the competition was the exposure that the competition gave to Silsbee.  An image of the firm's highly refined Queen Anne design appeared in the national journal, American Architect and Building News.  The depiction shows a building complete with details and motifs that are found on the Queen Anne residences that Silsbee designed yet executed at an urban scale.  As in other works, it also shows Silsbee's continued fascination with architectural design trends that were spreading from England, particularly by the work of architect Richard Norman Shaw.  Silsbee may have seen Shaw's work firsthand while traveling in Europe but it also would have been familiar as it was widely published at the time.  

Silsbee & Kent's building would have been constructed with a first story of Connecticut brownstone and upper stories made with red pressed brick.  The bays were to be clad in wood and the roof tile.  The interiors would have been a richly decorated array of billiards, banquet and reading rooms organized around a large central stair hall.  A large entry porch, roof decks and decorative iron balcony introduced exterior spaces adjacent to almost all of the interior gathering rooms.  

Photograph of Milwaukee Club, Edward Townsend Mix, Architect.  Photo by James Steakley

Evidence of each of the competition entries does not exist but it is likely that they were all designed in the Queen Anne idiom.  Silsbee's entry shares some of the features of the completed building including the central entry and details like the bay window and side balcony.  This similarity may be due to a set program given by the client or it could be that desirable elements from other entries were incorporated into the final design.  What separates Silsbee's work from the winning design is the overall variety of windows and other architectural elements and the level of refinement and attention of detail given to those elements and their incorporation into a cohesive design.  Had it been built, it may have opened a new chapter on Silsbee's career in a new city and would stand as a testament to Silsbee's remarkable talent as a designer.