Venetian Palazzo with a Lake View
[Arthur T. Aldis House (1896) Holabird & Roche, architects /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
Yesterday we started the week with a posting about four large mansions that survived
years of change, wear and tear, and the threat of demolition, only to find themselves back where they started as grand single family homes. This was never the case for the house designed by the architectural firm of Holabird & Roche for Arthur T. Aldis at 1258 N. Lake Shore Drive.
[Arthur T. Aldis House, 1258 N. Lake Shore Drive /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Unlike their neighboring architects, Holabird & Roche didn't look to H.H. Richardson for
inspiration, instead they turned to the 15th-century Palazzetto Contarini-Fasan in Venice. Although not not an exact replica of the Venetian palace, if you click on the link, the similarities are obvious.
[Balcony detail, Arthur T. Aldis House /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
Arthur Aldis, like his neighbors was a wealthy man having made a killing in real estate
development. He purchased this, and the adjoining lot to the north in 1893 for $16,000 with the intent to build two houses, one for himself and one for another business associate. Aldis was also a mover and shaker in the Chicago art scene. In 1913 the ground breaking Armory Show art exhibit was held in New York which exposed Americans to avant-garde, modern European painters like Picasso, Matisse and Degas for the first time. Aldis was instrumental in helping to bring the show to Chicago which was exhibited at the Art Institute. Apparently most of those in attendance left confused and flummoxed by what they saw.
The Aldis home was never broken up into a multi-unit rooming house like numbers 1250 &
1254 next door. Remarkably, 1258 has always been a single family dwelling, and surprisingly never seemed threatened with demolition, to be replaced by a high-rise apartment tower. Tomorrow we'll finish with the final house in our quartet of survivors, another Holabird & Roche design, but of an entirely different style for a new era.
See another Holabird & Roche house at: The Salvation Army Trains at a Tilt House.
Posted by designslinger at 6/8/2010 2:41 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Preservation
Tags: Chicago Venetian Revival Lake Shore Drive Holabird and Roche
Categories: Architecture, History, Preservation
Tags: Chicago Venetian Revival Lake Shore Drive Holabird and Roche
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