page_title: Edward H. Bennett
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Edward H. Bennett / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Edward H. Bennett House, Lake Forest, IL
context_page_description: Edward Herbert Bennett was an architect and city planner best known for his co-authorship of the 1909 Plan of Chicago.
context_section_description: Bennett was born in Bristol, England in 1874, and later moved to San Francisco with his family. An employee of Robert White, he was encouraged by famous architect Bernard Maybeck to pursue his education at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and was a student there  from 1895 to 1902, thanks to the generosity of Phoebe Apperson Hearst. The training and friendships he made at the École shaped his entire career.
  After graduating, he spent a short time in New York City with prominent architect George B. Post, who sent him to Chicago to assist architect Daniel H. Burnham in preparing a plan for the military academy at West Point. Burnham found Bennett's work highly satisfactory and in 1903 invited him to move to Chicago to collaborate on the comprehensive plan for San Francisco, and afterwards, the Plan of Chicago. The completed San Francisco plan was not implemented in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, but Bennett became well known for his design work and co-authorship of the 1909 Plan of Chicago. While Burnham raised money and visibility for the Chicago Plan, Bennett created the actual layouts and drawings which are so well known today.
  Bennett also trained with Chicago's then leading country house architect Howard Van Doren Shaw.
  Bennett made Chicago his personal and professional headquarters for the rest of his career. He served on the Chicago Plan Commission in various capacities into the 1930s and developed a substantial private practice and a national reputation as a city planner. Burnham, who largely retired from active practice after 1905, other than for his work in Chicago, directed applicants to Bennett, who, with partners William E. Parsons (1872–1939) and Harry T. Frost (1886–1943), served as a planning consultant to many cities large and small. In the plan for Chicago, Burnham and Bennett created a working document giving substance to the City Beautiful philosophy. From this prototype Bennett developed comparable plans for numerous American cities, including Minneapolis, Detroit, and Portland, Oregon.
  Bennett married Catherine Jones from the prominent Lake Forest Jones family. They had one son, E. H. Bennett Jr., who was also an architect. In 1916 Bennett designed and built their estate, Bagatelle, on the northeast corner of the original Jones estate. The house still stands at the corner of Deerpath and Green Bay Roads in Lake Forest. Bagatelle is an interpretation of the Château de Bagatelle in Paris's Bois de Boulogne. Its classical garden with central fountain echos the design of Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain on Chicago's lakefront. He also owned Deerpath Farm, a dairy farm and country retreat on 160 acres (0.65 km²) just west of Lake Forest which he gave to his son, and which now remains intact as the Deerpath Farm conservation community.
  For many years, Bennett's office was located in the penthouse of the Sante Fe building at 80 E. Jackson in Chicago. From this vantage point he could supervise the construction of Grant Park, which he designed as part of the Plan of Chicago, and its structures including Buckingham Fountain and the original Peristyle in today's Millennium Park. His son E. H. Bennett Jr. later occupied this same office through the late-1960s.
  Bennett's firm was a pioneer in the creation of zoning ordinances and the study of transportation and regional planning as urban design tools. He usually served on a consultant basis, frequently for quasi-public or commercial interests such as the Commercial Club of Chicago.  His vision of the city was formed in the application of Beaux-Arts design principles of axiality and the incorporation of monumental public buildings as civic markers, coupled with a systematic ordering of functions for efficiency. Bennett's ideas about the marriage of technical and aesthetic ideals are important examples of urban utility and beauty in a democratic society. Bennett was concerned with both the regional organization of a city's services and the individual citizen's enjoyment of his city. He realized the importance of transportation planning, the placement of g
caption: Bennett's house in Lake Forest, Illinois
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