Daniel_Burnham_and_John_Wellborn_Root

Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root 2. General Discussion John Wellborn Root was born in Lumpkin, Georgia on January 10, 1850. After a brief life as both a successful architect and writer, he died in Chicago Illinois on January 15, 1891. Root first went to school in Atlanta, Georgia, then near Liverpool in England at Clare Mount School. He graduated in 1869 from New York University where he was educated as a civil engineer. At Renwick & Sands, an architectural firm in New York, Root was apprenticed for a year, then worked for another New York based architectural firm, John Butler Snook, who was then building the vast Grand Central Station for Cornelius Vanderbilt (Zanten, “Root” 137). Following the disastrous fire of 1871, Root moved to Chicago in January 1872 to become a potential partner and head draughtsman with Peter Bonnett Wight who had formed a partnership with William H. Drake and Asher Carter. Soon after, Daniel Burnham entered Wight’s office. “It was in Mr. Wight’s office,” records Mr. Burnham, “that I first became acquainted with John Wellborn Root, with whom I at once formed an acquaintance which lasted until the end of his life” (Moore, 17). Burnham and building, root, burnham, rookery, monadnock, chicago, slaton, design, walls, buildings, brick, first, hines, figure, zanten, office, exterior, one, light, steel, court, new, block, hoffmann, glassman, construction, because, 83, root’s, built, brooks, 138, romanesque, robison, papyrus, made, interior, firm, corner, considered, been, beams, architectural, 927, years, tall, supported, structure, street, metal