Art Institute of Chicago

Design Projects, House Elevation Studies

Carl (Charles) J. Furst

Date

c. 1860–1870

Medium

Graphite and water color wash on drawing paper

Culture

United States

Department

Architecture and Design

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago has a strong tradition of German-born architects, extending from the first Chicago School to the modern architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Carl J. Fürst came to Chicago in 1864 and joined a robust community of German practitioners and educators, including Nathan Clifford Ricker, the first dean of University of Illinois School of Architecture, who was responsible for creating the nation’s second university program for architecture in 1872. Although many of Fürst’s Chicago buildings were designed in the rugged Richardsonian Romanesque style, this drawing shows several sketches for an elaborate villa with Corinthian pilasters, quoins, and an elaborate metal cresting at the roofline. Dating to his student days in Berlin, Fürst’s design recalls the popularity of Neoclassicism in Germany during the late 19th century that formed part of the eclectic mix of architectural styles in Chicago during the 1870s and 1880s.

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