Chicago in the 1910s

Ottenheimer, Stern and Reichert

Henry Ottenheimer worked for Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler in the famous firm Adler & Sullivan in the early 1890s. His main claim to fame during this time was getting into a fight with another draftsman, Frank Lloyd Wright, and stabbing Wright in the neck. Ottenheimer soon formed his own firm with Stern and Reichert. They designed commercial buildings and residences, in mostly Classical styles with some modernist elements. 

"Schindler answered an advertisement by the Chicago firm of Henry A. Ottenheimer, Stern, and Reichert. He was selected from several applicants because of his office experience with Mayr and Mayer and his dual degrees in engineering and architecture, plus the fact that he was a skilled draughtsman. With funds provided by the Chicago firm, Schindler sailed for America in June 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War." Gebhard, p. 15 

"Schindler's transformation of the small commonplace farm dwelling of J.B. Lee at Maywood (1916) into a Prairie house produced an unorthodox building. The existing interior was gutted and completely rearranged, with the lower floor becoming a large single living space. On the upper floor the bedrooms were regrouped and a bath was added." Gebhard, p.24

"The Buena Shore Club... had a steel frame, supplemented by reinforced concrete and walls of hollow tile. In some areas Schindler left the surface of the hollow tile exposed so that it would provide a tactile contrast to the white stucco walls. With its L-shaped rectangular blocks and its heavy vertical detailing, it parallels avant-garde Dutch work of the late teens and early twenties." Gebhard, p. 21

"In the Martin project one finds Schindler's first open acceptance of contradiction as a positive quality of design. Interior space is at one moment opened to the outside, at the next closed off. Large plate glass 'picture' windows in the dining and billiard rooms extend the interior outward, while the alcoves in each of these rooms, with their narrow slit windows, are close to being seculded caves." Gebhard, p.21

Competitions

"As a two-dimensional composition, his drawing for the neighbourhood centre is far more handsome and accomplished than the drawings for his thesis. As architecture, however, it is far more academic. The only points of strong similarity between his thesis scheme and the neighborhood centre are the multi-level walks and the pedestrian overpasses which project over the main street intersecting the site." Gebhard, p.19

While still working for Frank Lloyd Wright, "Schindler unsuccessfully entered the competition for a Free Public Library, Bergen Branch, Jersey City, New Jersey (1920). Considering the intensity of Schindler's admiration for Wright at this time, it is surprising how few specifically Wrightian ideas enter into the library project. The only external hint of Wright is in the fenestration where an intricate rectangular pattern of mullions occurs to the left and right of the main windows." Gebhard, p. 27-29