By The Barry Centennial Team*
Chicago is famous for its architecture. International visitors make pilgrimages to visit the city’s buildings by renowned architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Mies Van Der Rohe, Jeanne Gang, and Helmut Jahn. But in the early 1900’s, developers in Chicago sought out other talented architects, like Robert Seeley DeGolyer. Few Chicagoans are familiar with DeGolyer’s name, but the residents who live in his buildings understand why he was hired to design luxury apartments on the city’s lakefront.
DeGolyer was very busy during the 1920s turning out designs for one top-drawer apartment building after another. His handiwork was sprouting up along the lakefront from the Gold Coast to the northern boundaries of Lincoln Park. He used a variety of stylistic motifs as decoration. He was adept at Venetian, Second Empire, Florentine Palazzo, Tudor, Native American, and Art Deco styles. He designed for his client, the site, and whatever historically correct architecture trend worked for the job at hand.
DeGolyer began as a Beaux-Arts architect. Throughout his career, he utilized Beaux-Arts planning principles. Exteriors were organized like a classical column in three parts – base, shaft, and capital. The result was handsome facades which provided the envelope for the architect’s even greater strength: his planning which resulted in interior designs which were described as well distributed, well disposed, and well composed.
DeGolyer believed that apartment buildings and hotels needed to be planned with practical living accommodations. He wanted each project to be attractive to owners and investors. He felt a building’s exterior needed to be pleasing so it could withstand the test of time. He shied away from what he called freakish architecture.
DeGolyer was born in Chicago on June 9, 1876. He was the second child of Nelson DeGolyer, a grain broker, and Laura. The family moved to Evanston, Illinois when he was six. DeGolyer attended public schools until his third year in high school when he transferred to Northwestern Academy to prepare for the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University. He secured admittance to Yale in1894, though only stayed for one year. Quickly realizing he wanted to be an architect, DeGolyer transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He graduated in 1898 with a thesis on “A Design of a Club House for a Country Club”.
After college, DeGolyer joined the Chicago architectural firm of Holabird and Roche. Next, he had a brief stint with the Chicago Board of Education. In 1902 he moved to Los Angeles, California where he worked for the architect John H. Parkinson.
In 1905, he returned to Chicago as the chief designer for Marshall and Fox, the firm famous for The Drake Hotel commission. During his 10-year tenure at the firm, DeGolyer was in charge of the drafting room and was responsible for all planning and design. Examples of his work with Marshall and Fox include the South Shore Country Club, the Blackstone Hotel, the Edgewater Beach Hotel complex (Chicago), and the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Building (Milwaukee).
The architect married Eleanor Harris in June 11, 1911. As the sister of the President of Northwestern University, Eleanor was well known in social circles and contributed her talents to numerous Chicago institutions. The newly married couple traveled extensively and were active members of the Union League Club, the Cliff Dwellers, The Tavern, the Evanston Club, the University Club of Evanston, and the Westmoreland and Indian Hill Country Clubs.
DeGolyer opened his own practice in 1915. That same year, he became a member of the Illinois Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). By 1917, DeGolyer submitted his credentials to the national organization and was elected a member. During his firm’s first 15 years, there were numerous disruptions and partner changes. In 1919, he served as a U.S. Army Captain in the Construction Division during World War I. Afterwards, DeGolyer reopened his practice initially with A.L. Jackson, and then in 1924 started Robert S. DeGolyer & Co. with Walter T. Stockton.
The Barry Building, which celebrates its centennial this year
DeGolyer and his associates capitalized on the luxury apartment boom between the world wars. Their practice concentrated on Chicago’s lakefront where he designed over a dozen buildings that are still prized today. Some of his best known buildings built during this time include the Ambassador East Hotel, the Pearson Hotel (demolished), The Barry Apartments, the Powhatan Apartments, the Cornelia Apartments, and the Marlborough Apartments. By 1935, DeGolyer earned election as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), an honor bestowed on only three percent of those who apply for this designation.
During the Depression years, when commissions were scarce, DeGolyer served as chief architect for the Julia C. Lathrop Homes, a Federal Housing Project in Chicago in 1938. DeGolyer led the project’s “dream team” which included Hugh M.G. Garden, Thomas E. Tallmadge, Vernon Watson, E.E. Roberts, Charles White and Hubert Burnham, with landscaping by Jens Jensen.
At the outbreak of World War II, he again offered his services to the government. Closing his private practice, he moved to Washington D.C. where he served as assistant architect of the Pentagon Building from 1943-45 with the Defense Plant Corporation. Returning to Chicago, he reestablished his private practice which he operated until his death.
Robert DeGolyer suffered a number of illnesses beginning in 1951 limiting his practice. Recognizing his contributions, the national AIA chapter named him a Member Emeritus on December 31, 1951. He died of a heart attack at home in Evanston on October 11,1952 at the age of seventy-six. The AIA Chicago chapters’s obituary for DeGolyer stated:
“Robert DeGolyer’s precept by which his professional life was guided was “There’s always a better plan” and on more than one occasion his interest and desire for perfection caused him to work out a solution for a particular project even after it had been abandoned. His ever present optimism created a youthful enthusiasm which infected all those with whom he came in contact and carried him through his final years of sickness. When death overtook him, he was finishing the construction of a residence, the complete drawings for which had been made by his own hand. He will be greatly missed by his many friends including those in the profession and the entire building industry of Chicago to which he made such a valuable contribution over a period of many years.”
*The Barry Centennial Team is a group of building residents that, over the past year, have researched the architect, building history, and neighborhood history to celebrate The Barry’s 2025 Centennial.
