Karl M. Vitzthum

Karl Martin Vitzthum (1880-1967)[1] was an American architect.

He was born in Tutzing, near Munich, in Germany[2] and attended Munich's Royal School of Architecture (Technical University of Munich or University of Munich?). He came to the U.S. in 1902 and to Chicago in 1914.[3] He worked at Burnham & Co., at that firm's successor Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, and at Jarvis Hunt. He also worked with Fredrick J. Teich before partnering with John J. Burns (1886-1956) in 1919 in firm Karl M. Vitzthum & Co.[4] Burns was the junior partner.[5] At some point Vitzthum & Burns became the firm name.[2] After Burns died the firm became Vitzthum & Kill, and specialized in churches, schools, high-rise residential, and penal institutions.[3]

He designed more than 50 bank buildings.[5][3]

He self-reportedly proposed that Comiskey Park be built with cantilevering, avoiding use of posts and allowing unobstructed views, but Comiskey balked at the extra cost.[6]

He served on the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals from 1958 until his death in 1967.[5]

Several of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

Works

Works by Vitzthum or the firms include:

References
  1. "Karl Martin Vitzthum". Art Institute of Chicago. 1880.
  2. "Vitzthum & Burns". TheChicagoLoop.Org.
  3. Peters, Linda (July 27, 2006). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Home Bank and Trust Company Building" (PDF). Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 25, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  4. https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Steuben_Club_Building.pdf
  5. "Rogers Park National Bank".
  6. George W. Hilton. "Comiskey Park". An elderly Chicago architect, Karl Vitzthum, in an interview with Dick Hackenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1965, reported a further consequence of Comiskey's habitual nickel-nursing. Vitzthum, then a young architect on Burnham's staff, was apparently engaged to work out some of the engineering details of the stadium. He stated that it was he, rather than Davis, who made a tour of the ball parks in Cleveland, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh in preparation for executing the design. He reported that Ed Walsh, the White Sox leading pitcher, accompanied him, and was responsible for the park's generous outfield dimensions. Vitzthum reported that on his return he endeavored to interest Comiskey in a cantilevered grandstand, free of posts. Such a design would have been a pioneer among ball parks, but Comiskey upon discovering that cantilevering could add as much as $350,000 to the cost of the park, vetoed the idea, and ordered the architects to proceed with a conventional design of vertical steel beam supports.


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