Background
William B. Ittner was born in 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
William B. Ittner was born in 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
Mr. Ittner was graduated at the age of nineteen at the Manual Training School, Washington University, subsequently he entered Cornell University with the class of 1887 as a special student in architecture. A later period of travel and study in Europe enriched his architectural training
Mr. Ittner returned to St. Louis in 1888 to begin his career in the office of Eames & Young. In less than a year he left to establish his own office, and continued private practice until 1897 when he was appointed Commissioner of School Buildings for St. Louis. After serving in that capacity until 1910, he was promoted to the position of Architect of the Board of Education, and during the next six years had charge of designing all the public schools in the city, among which were the McKinley, Soldan, Yeatman, Summer and Cleveland High Schools, and the Harris Teachers' College. The total number of his buildings is said to exceed five hundred, built in 115 communities in twenty-nine states.
Mr. Ittner's school architecture in which beauty of design was combined with plan efficiency, brought him wide renown. Among the most important projects completed under his direction were the Central High School at Washington, D. C. costing over a million dollars; in St. Louis five High Schools, seventy-five Elementary and six special schools built at a total cost of fifteen million; High School and three Elementary schools at Universal City, Mo.; College Hall and Domestic Arts Building at Lincoln University, Jefferson City; two High Schools and thirteen Elementary Schools at Kirkwood, Mo.; the Central Technical High School at Columbus, Ohio, costing over a million; at Gary, Indiana, in 1915, the Emerson, Froebel and Horace Mann Schools, the Roosevelt, 1929, and Lew Wallace, 1930, costing over two million; Greenfield, Ohio, Edward Lee McLain High, Vocational Building, City Elementary, 1923, later High School addition; Long View, Wash., Robert A. Long Senior and Junior High, 1927; Minneapolis, Minn., Central High, two Elementary School additions; Nashville, Tenn., Hume-Fogg High; Pottsville, Pa., Senior High; Dallas, Tex., three High Schools and twelve Elementary; Lawrence, Kans., Liberty Memorial High and Woodlawn Elementary; Washington, D. C., Central High School, 1915, costing over a million; Granite City, 111., Com¬munity High School; Waterloo, Iowa, West Side High School.
In addition to the above Mr. Ittner served as Consulting Architect on a fifteen million dollar school program at Buffalo, on another large school project at Niagara Falls, and others at Birmingham, Ala., Knoxville, Tenn., and St. Petersburg, Fla. Also he was Associate Architect on the Warren Harding High School at Bridgeport, Conn., and school programs in a number of other cities.
He was president of the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects from 1893–95, was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Missouri in 1930, served as president of the Architectural League of America during 1903–04.