900 North Michigan Avenue Building Collection, 1925-1938

This small collection of plans, drawings, specifications and miscellaneous brochures documents the 900 North Michigan Avenue Building in Chicago. Designed by the Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt, the apartment building at 900 North Michigan Avenue was constructed in 1926. High-quality shops were located on the ground floor, with thirty-three rental apartments on the second and third floors. The remaining six floors were divided into thirty-six units for the owners of the cooperative apartment building. These apartments ranged in size from four to twelve rooms and some were duplexed. The U-shaped courtyard building was clad in stone on the lower levels and in brick on the upper levels. An effort to place the building on the Illinois Register of Historic Places failed in the early 1980s and demolition of the structure began in June, 1984. A new multi-use building designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and Perkins & Will was constructed on the site.

Jarvis Hunt, a nephew of Richard M. Hunt and William Morris Hunt, was born in Wethersfield, Vermont, in 1859 (or 1861?). After attending Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he came to Chicago as architect for the State of Vermont Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, which opened in Chicago in 1893. Establishing his practice in Chicago, Hunt designed the original complex of buildings for the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois; the Boulevard Building at 30 N. Michigan Avenue; the Lake Shore Athletic Club; several residences in Lake Forest, Illinois, and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; and railroad terminals for Kansas City, Missouri, and Oakland, California. Before his retirement in 1927 Hunt practiced in partnership with Charles Bohasseck, also a resident co-owner of the 900 North Michigan Avenue Building. Hunt died in St. Petersburg, Florida, on June 16, 1941.

The specifications, dated 1925, document the initial construction of the building. One group of plans, the final outline of apartments for floor 4-9, appears to be for the original occupants, dating to 1927. Two plans from 1938 record alterations made to the interior spaces.

This collection is organized in one series, with leasing information about the building listed first, followed by architectural plans in chronological sequence. Construction specifications and specification addenda are listed in chronological sequence at the end of the series.

• Names
  • 900 North Michigan Avenue Building (Chicago, Ill.)--Design and construction--Archives.
  • Hunt, Jarvis.
• Subject
  • Construction--Specifications--Illinois--Chicago--History--Sources.
  • Chicago (Ill.)--Buildings, structures, etc.--History--Sources.

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900 North Michigan Avenue Building Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago.

This collection was donated to the Ryerson and Burnham Archives by Ward A. Miller in 1986.

The collection was processed by staff of the Ryerson and Burnham Archives in 1996. This finding aid was revised and expanded by Annemarie van Roessel in 2003.