Oral History of William Hartmann
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ORAL HISTORY OF WILLIAM HARTMANN Interviewed by Betty Blum Compiled under the auspices of the Chicago Architects Oral History Project The Ernest R. Graham Study Center for Architectural Drawings Department of Architecture The Art Institute of Chicago Copyright © 1991 Revised Edition ©2003 The Art Institute of Chicago This manuscript is hereby made available to the public for research purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publication, are reserved to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of The Art Institute of Chicago. No part of this manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of The Art Institute of Chicago. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface iv Outline of Topics vi Oral History 1 Selected References 191 Curriculum Vitæ 193 Index of Names and Buildings 194 iii PREFACE I met with William Hartmann in his home in Castine, Maine, where we recorded his memoirs on October 30th and 31st and November 1st and 2nd, 1989. His thirty-six years with internationally-renowned architecture and planning firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill began in 1945 in the New York office, but it was in the Chicago office to which he relocated in 1947 that his noteworthy career took shape. Hartmann retired in 1981 and now lives quietly in a small, beautiful village in Maine. In Chicago, his legacy and the days when he made things happen will be remembered for years to come. Because Hartmann was one of the few forces of continuity during a period when the urban landscape endured rapid and dramatic change, Hartmann's memories and judgments take on special authority. Unlike Skidmore, Owings & Merrill co-founder Nathaniel Owings's characterization of Bill as inscrutable, "sitting apart under the banyan tree with the inner glow of polished jade…" (The Spaces In Between), I found Bill to be warm, friendly, and unexpectedly refreshing in his conviction and appreciation for the role "good luck" played in shaping his career. Our sessions were recorded on eight ninety-minute cassettes that have been transcribed and reviewed by both Bill and me for clarity and accuracy. The transcript has been minimally edited in order to maintain the flow, spirit, and tone of Bill's original narrative. Selected published and unpublished references that I found helpful in preparing for this interview are appended to this document. This oral history text is available for study in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago, as well as in a complete electronic version on the Chicago Architects Oral History Project's section of The Art Institute of Chicago website, www.artic.edu/aic I thank Bill Hartmann, as will future historians, for his cooperation and the generosity with which he shared his firsthand recollections. We are grateful to Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for its support in funding this documentation. It seems fitting that Hartmann's oral history is sponsored by the firm whose reputation and prominence he helped create. My appreciation is also extended to Tessa Craib-Cox and Arlene de Smet at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who searched for the information that I requested, and to Carter Manny, Walter Netsch, and Marshall Holleb for the generosity with which they shared their recollections and information about Hartmann. For their help in finalizing this document, Joan Cameron, iv our able transcriber, and Meg Moss, our canny editor, deserve thanks. Betty J. Blum April 1991 v OUTLINE OF TOPICS Early Life 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4 Century of Progress International Exposition 17 Rotch Traveling Fellowship 21 Parental Influence 27 More About the Rotch Travelling Fellowship 30 Work with Oskar Stonorov 44 World War II 46 Joining Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 68 Oak Ridge, Tennessee 71 Terrace Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio 77 Kimberly-Clark, Neenah, Wisconsin 82 Standard Vacuum Oil Company, Palembang, Sumatra 86 Projects In China 89 Moving to SOM Chicago 92 Lake Meadows, Chicago, Illinois 97 The American Institute of Architects 104 Inland Steel Building, Chicago, Illinois 106 Saving Robie House, Chicago, Illinois 112 Developers 115 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, Illinois 117 Vision of the City 125 Civic Center, Chicago, Illinois 132 Pablo Picasso 136 Joan Miró 154 Vandenberg Center and Alexander Calder, Grand Rapids, Michigan 159 Boots Pure Drug Company, Ltd., Nottingham, England 160 W.D. and H.O. Wills Headquarters and Tobacco Processing Facility, Bristol, England 162 Shape of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 164 The Current State of and Thinking about Contemporary Architecture 166 Projects in Foreign Countries 169 vi Crosstown Expressway, Chicago, Illinois 172 Illinois Central Railroad Air Rights Project, Chicago, Illinois 175 Chicago 21/Plan Preservation 176 More About Preservation 177 Work at The Art Institute of Chicago 181 Thoughts about Chicago 184 Reflections 187 vii William E. Hartmann Blum: Today is October 30, 1989, and I'm with William Hartmann in his home in Castine, Maine. After studying architecture at MIT, traveling in Europe and Asia, serving four years in the military, you joined SOM in 1945, and it was there that you made your career for thirty-six years until you retired in 1981. For thirty-four of those thirty-six years, you were the head of the Chicago office. And you promoted your vision of Chicago to city officials, civic leaders, and private individuals. Perhaps today you are best remembered as the man who brought the Picasso to Chicago. But I know, after doing some research on your career, that that's only one highlight of a very long and important career. In an article published in 1982 that profiled architects who were important to the development of Chicago, you made the most powerful list. You've been called a mover and shaker, an architect philosopher, one of the centers of influence in the city, and Nat Owings wrote that you are "tough, compact and valuable." Now, could we begin as close to the beginning as we can, and in your own words, hear how it all took shape? Why did you select architecture for your career? Hartmann: Well, this goes back into pretty ancient history because I'm seventy-three, I guess, now. We're talking about sixty years ago, right? That's quite a long time ago, when I might have been thirteen or so. I was born and raised in New Jersey, and we lived for most of my formative years in a town called Somerville. My father had an interesting hardware business on a scale that doesn't exist anymore. This was in a rural area. There were many farms and dairies around Somerville, which sent their produce and products to New York. This was part of the Garden State which was the breadbasket of New York. This business sold all kinds of products to these farmers and the people of the town, and there also was some industry in the area. It sold things such as seed and barbed wire and kegs of nails and appliances, thousands and thousands of items. In the course of that, they were involved with many 1 construction projects. If anything major was built, my father used to bring home the plans, and he would work at night going over them, taking off the hardware and other kinds of things. There was one architect nearby. I thought he was quite an interesting gentleman. I became familiar with what an architect did and what the results of his work were. I went to the local schools in Somerville and decided in my last year of high school that I would see if I could go to MIT to study architecture. Blum: Do you remember the name of the architect? Hartmann: I regret I can't remember his name. The kinds of projects of any significance that there were in and around this area at that time would be some school buildings or an addition to the hospital or some small commercial buildings. Blum: Did you actually watch the construction? Hartmann: Oh, yes, and went over the plans. My father would have them laid out, and he'd be marking off the quantities. We would go to New York then to the manufacturers of these items to pick them up. So it was in that side of things that I had some orientation. Blum: Did you come to know the architect or was it just through the work that he gave your father? Hartmann: Oh, no. I knew him and his family. It was a small town, a town of perhaps five thousand. Blum: Were you aware of what he did and how he worked? Hartmann: Absolutely. Absolutely. Blum: And he inspired you? Hartmann: I don't recall much about his inspiration, frankly. But we did go to New York 2 quite often, maybe once a month, and I saw many buildings being built and, of course, many notable older buildings. Blum: Why MIT? Hartmann: Well, in looking into schools of architecture, MIT had the best track record of any school. MIT was the oldest school, and it had a very long list of distinguished architects that had gone there. You must also remember that this was at the time of the Great Depression. Architects were not terribly busy, and there wasn't very much encouragement to become an architect. It would be better to become a chemical engineer or some other kind of an engineer or a scientist or whatever. But I thought an architect is what I wanted to be. I must say, my parents, bless them, didn't discourage this completely and said go ahead, and so that's how things started. Blum: Did your high school offer technical drawing classes? Did you take those? Hartmann: Oh, yes.