Edward H. Bennett

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Edward H. Bennett (1874 - 1954) was an architect known for his civic contribution and his work in the area of Chicago.

[edit] Biography

Bennett was born in Wiltshire, England on 1874. He received his education at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1895 to 1902, thanks to the generosity of Phoebe Apperson Hearst. The training and friendships he made at the École shaped his entire career.

After a short time in New York with architect George B. Post, Bennett moved to Chicago to assist architect Daniel H. Burnham in preparing a plan for the military academy at West Point. Burnham found Bennett's work highly satisfactory and took him on to do the field work for the comprehensive plan for San Francisco begun in 1904. Although this completed plan was not implemented in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, Burnham hired Bennett full-time to work on his plan for Chicago.

Bennett, who co-authored the Plan of Chicago in 1909, made Chicago his personal and professional headquarters for the rest of his career. He served on the Chicago Plan Commission in various capacities into the 1930s and developed a substantial private practice and a national reputation as a city planner. Burnham, who largely retired from active practice after 1905, other than for his work in Chicago, directed applicants to Bennett, who, with partners William E. Parsons (1872-1939) and Harry T. Frost (1886-1943), served as a planning consultant to many cities large and small. In the plan for Chicago, Burnham and Bennett created a working document giving substance to the City Beautiful philosophy. From this prototype Bennett developed comparable plans for numerous American cities, including Minneapolis, Detroit, and Portland, Oregon.

Usually serving on a consultant basis, frequently for quasi-public or commercial interests such as the Commercial Club of Chicago, the firm was a pioneer in the creation of zoning ordinances and the study of transportation and regional planning as urban design tools. His vision of the city was formed in the application of Beaux-Arts design principles of axiality and the incorporation of monumental public buildings as civic markers, coupled with a systematic ordering of functions for efficiency. Bennett's ideas about the marriage of technical and aesthetic ideals are important examples of urban utility and beauty in a democratic society. Bennett was concerned with both the regional organization of a city's services and the individual citizen's enjoyment of his city. He realized the importance of transportation planning, the placement of government and civic structures, zoning, and the creation of parks and public spaces for public enjoyment.

After World War I, the nature of planning work changed. Fully three-quarters of the Bennett firm's work done in the 1920s was for official city planning agencies rather than for independent business or civic groups. With the Great Depression, Bennett's volume of work declined. From the late 1920's, he was involved in planning for the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, and designed a number of structures for it. From 1927 until 1937, Bennett served as Chairman of the Board of Architects responsible for the development of the Federal Triangle in Washington, DC, a large complex of government buildings between the White House and the United States Capitol built to house a number of Federal agencies, including what is now the National Archives and Records Administration.

After the retirement and death of his partners, Bennett closed his practice in 1944 and spent the final decade of his life in retirement. In the course of his career, Bennett had worked in nearly 20 states, from California to Florida, as well as in Puerto Rico and Canada. He presented his papers to The Art Institute of Chicago in 1953, and these were supplemented by additional gifts and bequests from his architect son, Edward H. Bennett, Jr., over the following two decades. The collection comprises the complete archival holdings of Bennett's work, consisting of manuscript materials, daily diaries, photographs, drawings, newspaper clippings, and published plans for a number of cities.