Edwin Hill Clark

He designed numerous luxurious residences, primarily in Winnetka and Lake Forest, Illinois.[6][11] However, his most palatial residences were Montejoli, an estate with a 10,000-square-foot (930 m²) mansion, that he designed for the James Ward Thorne family (Montgomery Ward heirs) overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, California, and Knollwood, a 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m²) mansion designed for Marjorie Montgomery Ward in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.[12] As an example of his practical innovative design, he designed some of the first houses with zoned heating in order to reduce heating costs.[13]

Aside from his zoos, his best known public buildings are the Winnetka Village Hall and the Lake Forest Library.[14][15] However, other examples include the Waveland Field House, headquarter offices (now the Cultural Center),[16][17] and Woolford Tower in Lincoln Park,[18] the Hinsdale Memorial Building,[19] the Chicago Tuberculosis Sanatorium,[20][21] a tuberculosis preventorium near Lake Forest,[22][23] and an Eleanor residential hotel for women in Chicago. During the First World War he was responsible for designing and overseeing the substantial expansion of the Great Lakes Naval Station.

He designed buildings for several schools in Chicago and along the North Shore. These include the Latin School of Chicago,[24][25] the North Shore Country Day School,[26] Ferry Hall School (now merged with Lake Forest Academy),[27] and the Greeley school in Winnetka. All are still in operation. The Greeley School (designed while he was a partner with William Otis) was innovative in terms of being designed so that it could be easily expanded (which has occurred several times) and is now the oldest public school in Winnetka.[28]

His major zoo project was the Brookfield Zoo, operated by the Chicago Zoological Society in the suburb of Brookfield. This was the first zoo in the United States to display animals in simulated natural environments rather than behind bars.[1] He traveled to Europe and studied a number of zoos there to gain inspiration and study the practical aspects of this innovative design approach (for instance how deep the moats had to be and what slope had to be applied to the floors of the enclosures to keep the animals from leaping out). He also designed buildings at the National Zoological Park in Washington, DC, and at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.[29][30]

He did not design many commercial buildings, but one of his most successful projects was the Spanish Court, now called the Plaza del Lago, on the north side of Wilmette, Illinois.[31] This was the second shopping center built in the United States designed for cars, with the shops clustered around compact parking areas. It included an ornate classic movie theater that could seat 1,300 people, with a large organ to accompany silent films.[32] This theater has since been demolished, but the rest of the plaza has been refurbished and continues to be successful.[33]

He was at loose ends during the 1930s because of the severe downturn in housing and other construction.[34] During this period, Narcissa Niblack Thorne hired him to design some of the original Thorne box rooms, a collection of 68 miniature rooms reflecting a wide range of different architectural styles, that are now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago and several other locations. The rooms and all of their contents were meticulously designed and built at a scale of one inch to one foot.[35]