Steven Monz Tells Kalo Of Architect Benjamin Marshall
Photo Credit The Benjamin Marshall Society
When historical organizations get acquainted with each other they frequently find their interests overlap.
That was the case for Steven B. Monz, a former Park Ridge resident, who now serves as a board member of the Lake Forest Preservation Society and the Benjamin Marshall Society.
He knew of Alfonso Iannelli, whose home and studio — the Iannelli Studios Heritage Center — have become the headquarters of the Kalo Foundation of Park Ridge.
He gave a special talk Dec. 12 for Kalo, encouraging Park Ridge to do everything it can to preserve its architectural legacy.
Monz’s chief interest is Benjamin H. Marshall (1874-1944), an architect who put his distinctive mark on Chicago’s lakefront and downtown buildings in the first three decades of the 20th century, while Iannelli worked as a designer and sculptor with Barry Byrne and other creative architects on Art Deco and Modernist public buildings.
Monz sees common interest in the organizations and their pursuits to preserve their architectural heritage.
He became aware of Park Ridge originally because of Richard Nickel, who was one of the first in Chicago who tried to document and preserve Chicago’s remarkable architecture.
Nickel’s parents lived in Park Ridge, and before his own untimely death, Nickel had documented Iannelli and his artwork at the studio here.
Marshall and Iannelli’s paths also occasionally crossed, and one early article includes both men as guests at a Chicago area gathering.
Marshall had arrived on the scene as Chicago was still recovering from the wide devastation of the 1871 Chicago fire and the temporary grandeur of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition on the South Side.
He worked as an architect and developer, designing vast estates for wealthy friends in the north and west suburbs.
His own lavish estate is perched on a rocky lakeshore cliff in Wilmette across the street from where the Bahai Temple now stands.
He was considered a “bon vivant” Monz says, an elegant dresser, hosting celebrities including the Duke of Windsor, entertainers like Fred Astaire and business moguls.
Rooms were designed to literally move in his house, and they physically did, up and down, out of the way and back in place.
The mansion and land were lost in the Depression; and sold to Nathan Goldblatt. The residence was torn down by subsequent owners. The site is marked now by the surviving entry arch across from the Bahai Temple.
He designed palatial theatres, including the Woods Theatre which would later show modern films and dominate the block across from Daley Plaza; the Blackstone Theater (now used by DePaul University) and the Blackstone Hotel in the south end of the Loop; and the ill-fated Iroquois Theater, which had barely opened in 1903 when it was destroyed with a deadly fire.
Marshall’s Edgewater Beach Hotel was built near Lake Michigan, one of the elegant places for a night out on Chicago’s North Side. This landmark hotel, torn down in 1967, has been gone for a generation now, but its adjacent apartments and some parts of its campus survived modern developers.
Just north of downtown, Marshall built the Drake Hotel at the S-curve that defines East Lake Shore Drive, and developed most of the high rise apartment buildings east of it.
Monz says that block is still considered “the best real estate in the world” by some accounts. He recommends it for walking tours.
The South Shore Country Club was another Marshall project.
Samuel Insull built the throne-shaped Civic Opera House building downtown, but Marshall designed Insull’s house.
Monz is impressed by the height and design of the Marshall buildings, the grandeur they still invoke, and the unusual floor plans onside.
Monz grew up among families who lived amidst the Marshall landscapes, and he delights in introducing the legacy to new generations.
The Benjamin Marshall Society has been developing a documentary to present the surviving buildings to modern Chicagoans.
It had a premiere showing in November at the Gene Siskel Film Center at a panel discussion on Chicago architecture, “Tear That Wall Down, Raze the Old, Make Way for the New.”
While still dubbed the “Benjamin Marshall Documentary” on the society’s website, there is a preview available.
The documentary asks what defines Chicago architecture: the familiar buildings and the faith the public has that these landmarks will always be there, a collective experience. Its purpose is to introduce Marshall, a mystery man now, through his buildings which have become iconic.
Benjamin Marshall Society President and Co-founder Jane LePauw attended the Kalo talk.
There is an effort by the Benjamin Marshall Society to get the documentary broadcast to the public, and promises to get the full final video posted online.