Zantzinger, Borie & Medary

Zantzinger, Borie and Medary was American architecture firm that operated from 1905 to 1950 in Philadelphia. It specialized in institutional and civic projects.

For most of its existence, the partners were Clarence C. Zantzinger,^[1] Charles Louis Borie Jr.^[2] and Milton Bennett Medary,^[3] all Philadelphians.

The firm was a launching pad for numerous architects of note, including Dominique Berninger (1898 – 1949) and Louis Kahn (1901/2 – 1974).

History

The firm was established in 1905 as Zantzinger & Borie. Zantzinger and Borie were involved in years of preliminary design work on the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The 1911 commission was shared between Z&B and Horace Trumbauer. Most of the credit for the final building, completed in 1928, is given to architects Julian Abele and Howell Lewis Shay from Trumbauer's firm.^[4]

After Medary joined in 1910, the firm was renamed Zantzinger, Borie & Medary.

The firm collaborated with Paul Philippe Cret for the completed buildings listed below, and on proposals for the Nebraska State Capitol and the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City.

When Medary died in 1929, the firm returned to its original name.

The firm was the first recorded American employer of French-born American architect, who worked there from 1925 to 1932.^[5] During this time he served as job captain for their design project of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, a project that cost around $1,250,000.^[5] Kahn and Berninger had met while working at the firm and went on to form the Architectural Research Group (ARG) in Philadelphia, a short-lived collaborative society from 1932 to 1935 before Kahn took a job with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, while Berninger commenced his own practice in 1933 and later formed the partnership of Berninger & Bower (fl.1935 – 1945), the predecessor firm of Haag & d'Entremont (fl.1946 – 1988).^[5]

As a young man in 1930 through 1932, Louis Kahn worked for both Cret and for Z&B. The firm also worked with former Bertram Goodhue collaborators sculptor Lee Lawrie and iconographer Hartley Burr Alexander, among others.

The firm dissolved in 1950.

Works

• 1912: "Chanticleer" (Adolph Rosengarten Estate), Wayne, Pennsylvania. Now a public garden.
• 1916: Indianapolis Central Public Library, Indianapolis, with Paul Philippe Cret.^[6]
• 1917: Washington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge National Historical Park, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
• 1918: Federal Ordnance Plant Housing, Neville Island, Ohio River, Pennsylvania.^[7] The $50,000,000 commission was for 15,000 homes to house 20-25,000 workers.
• 1921-24: Henry Hall and Foulke Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.^[8]
• 1926-27: Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company Building, Philadelphia. Now part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.^[9]
• 1927-28: Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, with Paul Philippe Cret.^[10]
• 1927-29: Bok Singing Tower, Lake Wales, Florida.^[11]
• 1929-31: Burton-Judson Courts, Hyde Park, Chicago.^[12]
• 1931: Strathcona Hall, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.^[13] This probably refers to the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, a project that cost around $1,250,000, on which Berninger served as job captain.^[5]
• 1932-35: Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C., (on which Kahn worked).^[14]

See also

• List of Art Deco architecture

Gallery

• 

  Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge National Historical Park, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania (1917)

• 

  Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company Building, Philadelphia (1926–27). Now Ruth & Raymond G. Perelman Building, Philadelphia Museum of Art

• 

  Bok Singing Tower, Lake Wales, Florida (1927–29)

• 

  Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C. (1932–35)

External links

• brief history of ZBM at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
• brief history of Z&B at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
• history of the Department of Justice building

References

1. Zantzinger biography at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
2. Borie biography at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
3. Medary biography at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
4. David B. Brownlee, Making a Modern Classic: The Architecture of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997), pp. 60-77.
5. "Questionnaire for Architects’ Roster and/or Register of Architects Qualified for Federal Public Works "Dominique Berninger - G. Harold W. Haag - Paul d/Entremont (firm)" June 25, 1946.
6. Indianapolis Architecture, Indiana Architectural Foundation, 1975.
7. "Among the Plumbing and Heating Contractors: Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh & Vicinity" Domestic Engineering, October 12, 1918, p.65-65 (Collected in Volume 85, October 5 – December 28, 1918). Excerpt: "...Announcement has just been made by the Government that Zantzinger, Borie & Medery, architects of Philadelphia, have been selected to design and supervise the...."
8. Maynard, William Barksdale, Princeton: America's Campus, (Penn State Press, 2012), 248.
9. Fairmount Park Association, Sculpture of a City – Philadelphia’s Treasures in Bronze and Stone, Fairmount Park Association, Walker Publishing Co., Inc, NY. NY, 1974.
10. "The Detroit Institute of Arts: The Architecture, Published for The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1928
11. Bok, Edward W., America's Taj Mahal; The Singing Tower of Florida, The Georgia Marble Company, Tate, Georgia, 1929
12. Block, Jean. "The uses of Gothic: planning and building the campus of the University of Chicago, 1892-1932", The University of Chicago Library, Chicago, 1983.
13. Elizabeth Mills Brown, New Haven: A Guide to Architecture and Urban Design, (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1976).
14. George Gurney, Sculpture and the Federal Triangle, (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985)