The Meaning of Architecture: An Essay in Constructive Criticism 1918
(Originally published in 1918. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1918. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
A Strange Fellow, and Other Club Papers (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from A Strange Fellow, and Other Club Papers
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Excerpt from A Strange Fellow, and Other Club Papers
F toilet stand whereon lay frizzes, bangs, powder, etc., in fact all the delicacies necessary to the finished toilet of a lovely society leader.
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Irving Kane Pond was an American architect and structural engineer.
Background
He was born on May 1, 1857 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, the first son and second of three children of Elihu Bartlit and Mary Barlow (Allen) Pond and an older brother of Allen Bartlit Pond.
His father, an early settler in southern Michigan, was the publisher of the Coldwater Sentinel and later of the Ann Arbor Argus. He was the first president of the Michigan Press Association, for some years president of the Ann Arbor school board, and an active supporter of and donor to the University of Michigan. This interest in civic affairs was transmitted to Irving, who, like his brother Allen, maintained throughout his life a liberal social philosophy and a deep concern with problems of social welfare.
Education
After attending public schools in Ann Arbor, Irving Pond entered the University of Michigan, from which he graduated with a civil engineering degree in 1879.
He was awarded two honorary degrees (1911 and 1930) by the University of Michigan.
Career
He moved to Chicago in 1879 and worked as a draftsman in various architectural firms until 1883, chiefly in the office of Solon S. Beman. A year of travel in Europe (1883 - 84) and further architectural experience preceded the establishment in 1886 of a partnership with his brother Allen in Chicago under the firm name of Pond & Pond. Chicago had entered into that great architectural renaissance which ultimately proved to be the most important chapter in the development of modern building. The Pond brothers participated immediately in the Chicago movement, receiving large commissions within four years of opening their office.
In a practice which extended over nearly fifty years the firm designed every kind of structure, but their best work lay in the field of public and educational buildings. Of these the most important in Chicago were: ten buildings of the Hull House group (1890 - 1908); the Irving Apartments (1897); the Chicago Commons (a settlement house, 1899-1901); the American School of Correspondence (1907); the Women's Baptist Training School (1908); and the Ravenswood Presbyterian Church (1915). They designed in addition many churches, clubs, hospitals, hotels, and private residences.
Allen Pond died in 1929, and in 1931 Edgar Martin joined the firm as partner. The association was dissolved in 1934 with Irving Pond's retirement.
For his architectural achievements Pond was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1910 and its president, 1910-11. He represented the United States Government and the American Institute of Architects at the International Congress of Architects, Venice and Rome, 1911. In addition to a steady flow of reviews and articles in the architectural press, he wrote four books, each a collection of papers read before the Literary Club: The Meaning of Architecture (1918); A Strange Fellow (1938), a collection of stories; and A Day Under the Big Top (1924) and Big Top Rhythms (1937), reflecting his lifelong enthusiasm for the circus.
He died in Washington, District of Columbia, at a convention of the American Institute of Architects, apparently of a heart attack.
Achievements
Irving Kane Pond formed the Chicago architectural firm Pond and Pond in partnership with his brother, they worked together for more than 40 years, their buildings are considered to be among the best examples of Arts and Crafts architecture in Chicago. Their famous works: the American School of Correspondence; the Women's Baptist Training School; and the Ravenswood Presbyterian Church. He was also one of the founders of the Eagle's Nest Art Colony.
For the Baptist school the firm received the gold medal of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1909.
Pond subscribed to the functionalist and organic philosophy of architecture which was developing in America during the latter half of the nineteenth century and which was given its richest and most dynamic expression in Chicago from 1880 to 1920. His architectural work reflected, though more conservatively, the characteristics of the later Chicago school, whose approach to architecture was in great measure dominated by the buildings and ideas of Louis Sullivan. Here, although structure and function were clearly expressed, there was strong emphasis on formal, plastic, and decorative elements. Along with the others of the Chicago group, Pond sought to develop an original ornament along with expression of structure which he thought gave artistic voice to the new technical possibilities and utilitarian demands.
Some of his buildings (generally the simpler and clearer) show considerable architectural distinction, though membering and details often tend to be heavy, lacking the delicacy and subtlety of work like that of Sullivan, George Grant Elmslie, or Frank Lloyd Wright.
Membership
He was elected to membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters. International recognition came with election as honorary corresponding member of the Institute of German Architects, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Central Society of Austrian Architects.
Pond's indefatigable zeal for social organization led also to active membership in a number of Chicago clubs, among them the Chicago Literary Club.
Interests
Pond was particularly fond of circus acrobatics and indulged in amateur tumbling and balancing up to his eightieth year.
Connections
More than seventy years of bachelorhood terminated for him when he married Katharine L. de Nancrède of Ann Arbor on June 9, 1929.
