Howard Van Doren Shaw was a prominent American architect and teacher. His students David Adler, R. Harold Zook and Edward H. Bennett became notable architects in their own right.
Background
He was born on May 7, 1869 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. His father was Theodore Andrews Shaw, a wholesale dry-goods merchant of Madison, Indiana, whose Scotch Presbyterian ancestry went back to the settlement of Pennsylvania. His mother was Sarah Van Doren of Brooklyn, a descendant of Pieter Van Doorn, who emigrated to America from Holland in 1659 and settled at New Amsterdam.
Education
After preparing for college at the Harvard School in Chicago Shaw went to Yale College, where he graduated in 1890. After studying architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1890 - 91), he spent about a year abroad.
Career
He entered the office of William LeBaron Jenney and William B. Mundie, pioneers in the design and erection of the skyscraper. When, sometime in the following year, he opened an office of his own, his work consisted at first in designing houses for his friends. His work, particularly in domestic architecture, exerted a powerful influence on younger architects and on taste in general. Though reminiscent often of English or Austrian precedent, his style was very personal. He never used French and seldom Italian motives. The buildings he erected, for the most part, were of such character and magnitude that neither his ideals nor his talents had to suffer restrictions.
He designed many town houses in Chicago, and country houses in Lake Forest and other fashionable suburbs. His other buildings include the Market Square in Lake Forest; a model town, built by the Clayton Mark Manufacturing Company, Indiana Harbor, Ind. ; and in Chicago the Lakeside Press buildings; the Mentor Building; the Fourth Presbyterian Church (with Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson); the University Church of the Disciples of Christ; the Quadrangle Club, University of Chicago; the Kenneth Sawyer Goodman Memorial Theatre; apartments at 1130 Lake Shore Drive, 2450 Lakeview Ave. , and 191 E. Walton Place.
About 1898 he built a beautiful house, "Ragdale, " in Lake Forest, Illinois, where he lived until his death. The estate became an experimental laboratory for the testing of his taste and craftsmanship. Here, in his spare hours, he became an excellent carpenter, bricklayer, tree-surgeon, gardener, and painter; he also designed the setting, lighting effects, and scenery for an outdoor theatre, and did much of the work upon it.
Although he was of a markedly retiring disposition, behind the scenes he exerted a powerful influence in many civic and charitable activities. He was a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1900, chairman of the state art commission, a trustee of the United Charities and of Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois.
He died of anemia in Baltimore, Maryland.
Achievements
Membership
In 1906 he became a member of the American Institute of Architects.
Interests
Throughout his life he sought recreation in travel, often in Europe.
Connections
On April 20, 1893, he married Frances Wells, daughter of a prominent Chicago merchant, who with their three daughters survived him at the time of his death.