"Vertiginous Verticality"

To the firm of Holabird & Root of Chicago went a medal last week because they had designed Chicago's Palmolive office building, a severe and splendid tower, gleaming in the sun by day, arc-lit by night. It was the Gold Medal of Honor of New York's Architectural League,* most coveted prize in the profession, awarded last week during the League's annual exhibition.

War teaches its warriors the virtue of utility, simple methods. Modern architects expound the same virtues. Perhaps the fact that many of them fought in the World War is significant. In November 1918, John Wellborn Root, Captain with the U. S. Engineer Corps in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives, was wounded near Nancy. John Augur Holabird, later to become his architectural partner, was a West Pointer, served as Major and later as Lieutenant Colonel of Field Artillery.

Their modernity was amply demonstrated by the designs and photographs they exhibited last week of the Palmolive and six other Chicago buildings, the Rand Tower in Minneapolis and the Racine (Wis.) County Courthouse. Said the jury of awards: ". . . They are evolving a treatment of the skyscraper that makes the most of the inherent structural necessities of the building. . . . They make the most of great simple masses, and avoid the finicky decoration that distracts from the beauty possibilities of sheer structural necessity." Art Critic Royal Cortissoz describes their work as "vertiginous verticality."

It was inevitable that the success of Holabird & Root should encourage the modernist faction in the Architectural League. Added to this, perhaps a larger proportion of the exhibits than ever before displayed the influence of utility and simplicity. Even in domestic architecture there were more plain surfaces, less elaborately romantic Tudor, more convenience and less picturesqueness.

Holabird & Root are both sons of able architects. John Augur Holabird's father, William Holabird, established the firm of Holabird & Roche early in the century. Son John, 43, was born in Evanston, went to the Hill School, to West Point, to the Beaux-Arts. In 1919 he joined his father's firm, helped design the Chicago Temple Building, Grant Park Stadium (Soldier Field, famed scene of Tunney's second victory over Dempsey), Palmer House, Stevens Hotel, all of Chicago.

John Wellborn Root, 42, succeeded to the name and profession of his father who was chief architect of the Chicago World's Fair until his death in 1891. After Cornell and the Beaux-Arts, John Jr. won third prize in the competition for the Chicago Tribune Building. The firm was reorganized as Holabird & Root in 1920.

*The New York Chapter of American Institute of Architects used to award a gold medal at the Architectural League show. Since 1914 it has been awarded directly by the Chapter. This year it went to Dan Everett Waid, Manhattan architect, "for distinguished work and high professional standing."

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