Woman's Athletic Club
Philip Brooks Maher
626 North Michigan Avenue
1926
Familiar with a range of historical styles and skilled at using them effectively, architect Philip Brooks Maher adapted French Second Empire forms for this building, contributing to the Parisian- influenced development of North Michigan Avenue in the 1920s. Maher (1894-1981), the son of Prairie School architect George W. Maher, designed more buildings on North Michigan Avenue than anyone but the large firm of Holabird and Root. Many of these structures have been demolished, but the Farwell (664 North Michigan Avenue, 1926) and the Decorative Arts (620 North Michigan Avenue, 1927-8) buildings remain. In this 9-story structure, home to the country's oldest women's athletic facility, a number of non-athletic functions were accommodated. The first floor was devoted to swank retail shops; the second, or "piano nobile", was reserved for public occasions; the crowning 7th and 8th floors were designed for a grand ballroom in which large social gatherings were held. The window treatments mark these special uses: a Palladian window heralds the second floor on Ontario Street, while on the upper stories niches housing winged griffins flank large windows decorated with swags and bucrania (ox skulls with garland-festooned horns). Other ornamental details include bands of anthemion and acanthus leaves, favorite classical motifs.
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