Madlener House |
M A D L E N E R H O U S E
Madlener House is the work of architect Richard E. Schmidt and designer Hugh M. G. Garden. It was built in 1901–02 for Albert Fridolin Madlener and his wife Elsa Seipp Madlener, both of whom came from prominent pioneer Chicago families that emigrated from Germany in the 1850s.
From the outset, Madlener House was recognized for the quality of its architectural design. Robert Spencer, a young Chicago architect, writing in an article in The Brickbuilder published in Boston in 1903, cited the house as an example of "the best domestic architecture of the decade—distinguished by its simplicity and severity. He particularly admired the front doorway, "richly carved with an original and beautiful 'Sullivan-esque' design." The noted architect-writer Russell Sturgis, in Architectural Record two years later, called the house "exceptional" in its interior design, and this opinion, despite vicissitudes in architectural taste, has prevailed to the present day.
After a century, Madlener House stands out as an unusually successful amalgamation of tradition and innovation in architecture, a harmonious reflection of its time and place. In its compact, cubic massing the house is related to the German neoclassical work of Karl Friedrich Schinkel and his followers in Berlin, but in many of its details it clearly reveals the influence of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Chicago around 1900 was a dynamic city in which new ideas were challenging established norms in many fields, especially architecture, where stylistic and technological developments achieved international recognition. The ferment was fueled by unprecedented growth and intense economic activity. In the short span of fifty years, from 1850 to 1900, Chicago changed from a small frontier town with a population of 28,000 to a bustling metropolis of 1,698,000 inhabitants. Foreign-born and their children made up over 75 percent of the influx, and of these by far the greatest number were Germans, among them the Madleners, Seipps, and Schmidts. Although an independent German culture is scarcely recognizable in the city today, at the turn of the century Germans were influential in the economic, social, and intellectual life of Chicago. In the architectural profession, Germans made up the largest ethnic entity.
Roula Geraniotis, in the essay "An Early German Contribution to Chicago's Modernism," points out the influence of Berlin's neoclassical architecture on residential work by Chicago's German architects. Richard Schmidt began his study of German-language publications on architecture and design in 1882 and 1883 while apprenticed to Adolph A. Cudell, who was German-born and German-educated. When he began designing houses for wealthy Chicago Germans a few years later, it was natural that Schmidt turned to the work of Schinkel and his followers for inspiration, and the Theurer House of 1895 clearly shows this influence. Madlener House, designed six years later, can be closely compared to such buildings as Gropius and Schmieden's Villa Schöne (Berlin, 1874) in its simple, cubical massing, low-hipped roof above a projecting cornice, three stories above a raised basement, and simply framed windows and doors. The house also shows similarities to the project for a German villa by August Hermann Spielberg. But many elements of the house did not develop out of this German neoclassical style. A fresh, new movement was stirring in Chicago architecture at the time, and both Schmidt and Garden were eager young adherents to the cause. The design for Madlener House reveals the extent to which they had absorbed its principles by 1901.
Louis Sullivan was the central figure in this movement. In his rejection of historical styles and precedents, and his advocacy of an architectural design founded on simplification of elements and the unity of functional and aesthetic considerations, Sullivan had a profound influence on residential, as well as commercial, architecture. Sullivan offered young architects an approach to architecture, a way of thinking about it, rather than supplying them with a specific vocabulary of forms.
While his buildings provided a tangible means of understanding the application of his design principles, Sullivan's writings, lectures, and drawings were equally compelling to the younger generation of architects for whom he became the theoretical and philosophical leader. It was through the Chicago Architectural Club, established in 1894, that young architects and draftsmen such as Richard Schmidt, Hugh M. G. Garden, Dwight Perkins, and others had the greatest contact with Sullivan, who was an honorary member. The club organized exhibitions at The Art Institute of Chicago annually, to which the members contributed drawings that were published in catalogues. The club also held regular meetings consisting of lectures, sketching sessions, and discussions.
While Frank Lloyd Wright was not a member of the club, he participated in the exhibitions, and associated with a number of these architects in an informal group known as the "Eighteen." Many of them shared offices at Steinway Hall, and met at mealtime to discuss current work and matters of general professional interest. Schmidt and Garden were among those who gathered to share their views in this forum.
It was during this period of great activity and intellectual exchange at the turn of the century that the Arts and Crafts movement, international in scope, became established in Chicago. Wright, Dwight Perkins, and Robert Spencer were charter members of the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society, and a number of the young architects associated with the club and the "Eighteen," including Schmidt and Garden, were involved in and sympathetic to the movement. Chicago architects and designers maintained a steady connection to the international aspects of the movement through travel, publications, and exhibitions and lectures given by leading figures in the English movement.
Many of the young architects who were influenced by Sullivan and participated in the debates and exhibitions of the Chicago Architectural Club became involved in a movement in the early part of the twentieth century that later became known as the Prairie School. The Chicago Arts and Crafts movement, as it evolved out of these exchanges between architects and designers, also contributed to the development of the Prairie style, particularly in residential architecture. Simplicity, a respect for materials, and the use of forms that evolved naturally from the prairie landscape were all aspects of the work produced by these architects, most of whom spent some time in the studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, who is perhaps most strongly identified with the Prairie school.
Madlener House was designed during this period of innovation in residential architecture. Richard Schmidt and Hugh Garden, while accomplished in the execution of more traditional styles, had both been exposed to the work of Sullivan and Wright, and were closely involved with the discussion and debate related to the Arts and Craft School movements. They incorporated elements of each of these influences in their design for Madlener House.
The architects gave special attention to the entrance. The influences of Sullivan and Wright are most apparent in the beautifully incised ornament of the limestone frame and the delicate bronze grillework of the doorway. These were designed by Garden, who, in the manner of Sullivan, developed his own ornament, which he called "Gardenesque," using a juxtaposition of geometric and organic forms. The pattern formed by a ribbon running through octagons is original in its abstraction. The entrance was clearly influenced by the one designed by Wright for Winslow House in its strong, broad bands of ornament framing the doorway. These bands of original ornament, evolving from a combination of natural and geometric elements, were in turn inspired by Sullivan's design for the Wainwright Tomb.
While there is a resemblance to Gropius and Schmieden's Villa Schöne at the third story, in that a series of small windows is contained between two horizontal bands, the treatment of the Madlener House is strikingly different. The windows are grouped together and deeply recessed behind rows of freestanding colonettes with capitals in an original foliate design by Garden, and are complemented by bands of ornamental brickwork. The original articulation of the delicately mullioned casement windows adds richness to the design. The influence of Wright's Heller House is unmistakable.
The interior of the house continues the restraint of the exterior and exhibits the same skillful amalgamation of old and new. The simplicity of the overall design, the use of natural materials as decorative elements throughout the house, and the original ornament are related to the work of Sullivan, Wright, and other Prairie School architects who, in the Arts and Crafts tradition, applied such principles to their residential designs. We find these details throughout the house: in the original "Gardenesque" carving around the fireplace in the entrance hall; in the geometric patterning of the art glass in the lost library cabinet doors and in the radiant green and gold windows that light the stair landing; in the stair balusters and newel posts; in the delicate inlay work in the music room which replicates the design of the bronze grillework at the front door; and in the filigree work that ornaments the cast-plaster dining room ceiling.
In the details of Madlener House we see the sure hand and eye of a mature artist who knew how to select and modify to serve the purpose of the overall design. This is evident in the rich variation of fireplace enclosures, the simple detailing of wood paneling, and the exuberant modification of cove moldings. We find it also in the selection of materials and in the subtle balancing of their textures and colors. Richly veined marbles, exotic circassian walnut, mellow onyx, close-grained mahogany, and warm-toned limestone; all are brought together on the first floor in a way that is both agreeable and convincing. The addition of sculptor Van Den Berghen's joyful, softly patinated bronze relief "Spirit of Waves" above the fireplace mantel is an appealing finishing touch in the Arts and Crafts tradition.
In contrast, materials and details on the second floor are restrained and simple, except for the staircase and art glass windows that link the upper and lower spaces. But another climax is reached in the ballroom on the third floor. There the grand scale of the room is enhanced by the great ceiling coves that extend up into the attic and by an unusually deep base molding. In its details and its totality Madlener House is a masterful creation.
Albert Madlener died in 1947, and his wife died in 1962. Title to the house then passed to their eldest son, Albert Jr., who sold it to a real-estate developer in 1963. Letters to the Chicago Tribune decried its probable loss to the wrecker's ball for a high-rise apartment building. A group known as the Chicago Heritage Committee suggested that the City buy the house for the mayor's residence, but the suggestion gained little support. It was at this point that the Graham Foundation, which had recently lost its lease on rented quarters, came forward to purchase the house. With the house saved, the City promptly designated it an official architectural landmark. In 1970 the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1973 it came under the protection of the City's new ordinance governing historical and architectural landmarks. The original drawings for the house are now in the collection of the Architecture Department at The Art Institute of Chicago.
In 1963 the Foundation made minor changes to adapt the house to serve its philanthropic and educational activities. This work was carried out by architect Daniel Brenner of the firm of Brenner, Danforth and Rockwell, and showed consideration for the special quality of the building at a time when architectural preservation was only beginning to be appreciated. Architectural Forum (April 1965), in an article entitled "Improving on History" said, "Perhaps the job that Brenner did might best be termed an evocation—a calling forth of the inherent quality of the original. The principal tool [is] simplification." The elegance and simplicity of the overall design and the many subtle details could perhaps be better seen and appreciated after the restoration, when the house was no longer a busy residence filled with the many accoutrements and furnishings necessary for the comfort of a family.
A few interior partitions were removed to create a library on the first floor and two exhibition galleries on the second floor. The built-in bookcases were removed from the living room, their art glass doors having been previously removed. The west window was lowered in the dining room to match the height of the south window. Mahogany woodwork in these rooms and in the music room was bleached and refinished, changing the appearance from a highly polished orange-red to a satin-finished, light nutty brown. Chandeliers and wall sconces were removed throughout the house, as was a mantel from a fireplace on the second floor.
On the exterior, except for the lowered dining room window on the west wall, no alterations were made. In the courtyard an areaway was filled in and blue-stone paving, a pool, and trees were added. In 1969, the second story was removed from the coach house and the bricks were used to close up several window openings in the east wall and build a wall at the north end of the courtyard. In 1987, architect John Vinci installed a permanent collection of fragments from famous Chicago buildings, many of them designed by Sullivan, in the courtyard. Also in 1987 two large flower urns were added at the front entrance.
The Society of Architectural Historians in Chicago offers tours of the Madlener House. For more information, contact the SAH at tel. 312-573-1365.