Hermann V. Von Holst - in Chicago

In Chicago

Herman V. von Holst graduated from the architecture program at the University of Chicago in 1893 and the architecture program at MIT in 1896. He found employment as a draughtsman at the prestigious architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, in their Chicago office, one of the successor firms of the celebrated architect Henry Hobson Richardson. By 1900, von Holst was head draughtsman at the firm. Following extensive travels, von Holst opened his own practice in Chicago in 1905, with offices in The Rookery Building, Chicago. In 1909, he moved his office to Chicago's Steinway Hall, where he was among a colleagial group of Prairie School architects.

Active in professional organizations, von Holst served as Treasurer of the Architectural League of America in 1905. He published several books on architectural subjects, including Cyclopedia of Drawing (1907) and Modern American Homes (1913) which featured work of fellow architects including Walter Burley Griffin, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Lawrence Buck. He served as professor of architectural design at the Chicago School of Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago. He also taught design in the Department of Architecture at the Armour Institute of Technology (later IIT).

In the period 1904-1906, von Holst created summer countryside estate architecture in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for socially prominent and wealthy clients, including Pittsburgh glassmaking millionaire George A. Macbeth and International Harvester partner John Glessner, whose Chicago Glessner House was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson.