Irving Kane Pond Irving Kane Pond ( May 1 , 1857 – September 29 , 1939 ) was an American architect , college athlete , and author . Born in Ann Arbor , Michigan , Pond attended the University of Michigan and received a degree in civil engineering in 1879 . He was a member of the first University of Michigan football team and scored the first touchdown in the school ' s history in May 1879 . After graduating from Michigan , Pond moved to Chicago where he worked as an architect from 1879 to 1939 . He began his architectural career as a draftsman in the offices of William LeBaron Jenney and worked as the head draftsman in the office of Solon Spencer Beman during the construction of the planned Pullman community . In 1886 , Pond formed the Chicago architectural firm Pond and Pond in partnership with his brother Allen Bartlitt Pond . The Pond brothers worked together for more than 40 years , and their buildings are considered to be among the best examples of Arts and Crafts architecture in Chicago . The Ponds gained acclaim as the architects of Jane Addams ' Hull House , and three of their buildings have been declared National Historic Landmark s - - the Hull House dining hall , the Lorado Taft Midway Studios , and the Frank R . Lillie House . Pond became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1900 and served as president of the American Institute of Architects from 1910 to 1911 . Pond was also a leader in the Chicago arts community in the late 19th and early 20th century . He was one of the founders of the Eagle ' s Nest Art Colony and a member of the Chicago Literary Club from 1888 to 1939 . Pond was also a published author of fiction , poetry , and essays on art and architecture . He was also a frequent contributor to architectural journals and wrote for " The Dial " and Gustav Stickley ' s " The Craftsman " . In 1918 , he published the book " The Meaning of Architecture " summarizing his views on the role of architecture in the broader spectrum of the arts . Early years and education . Pond was born in Ann Arbor , Michigan in 1857 . He was the son of Elihu Pond and Mary Barlow ( Allen ) Pond . His father was a member of the Michigan State Senate , warden of the Michigan state prison for two years , the first president of the Michigan Press Association and the editor and publisher of the weekly newspaper , the " Argus " of Ann Arbor . Growing up in Ann Arbor , Pond lived in a house on the current site of the Michigan Union , a building he later designed . His next door neighbor as a child was the noted legal scholar , Thomas M . Cooley . Cooley encouraged the young Pond , who aspired to be an artist , by presenting him with his first art book and by commissioning Pond to draw a set of cartoons of the Cooley family . Pond attended the public schools in Ann Arbor before enrolling at the University of Michigan . Pond was an engineering student at the University of Michigan from 1875 to 1879 and took architecture classes taught by Chicago architect William LeBaron Jenney . Six years later , Jenney gained fame for designing Chicago ' s metal - framed Home Insurance Building . In 1934 , Pond wrote an article challenging the popular assertion that the Home Insurance Building was the first steel - framed skyscraper . While attending the University of Michigan , Pond was a member of the first Michigan Wolverines football team . On May 30 , 1879 , the team played its first intercollegiate football game against Racine College at White Stocking Park in Chicago . The " Chicago Tribune " called it " the first rugby - football game to be played west of the Alleghenies . " Pond scored the first touchdown in University of Michigan history in the match . He scored the touchdown midway through " the first ' inning ' . " According to Will Perry ' s history of Michigan football , the crowd responded to Pond ' s plays with cheers of " Pond Forever . " Pond graduated from Michigan in 1879 with a degree in civil engineering . Architect . Early career . In 1879 , Pond moved to Chicago to pursue a career as an architect . He worked as a draftsman in the offices of his former teacher , William LeBaron Jenney , and worked as the head draftsman in the office of Solon Spencer Beman during the construction of the planned Pullman community . While working with Beman , Pond was an ardent supporter of the Pullman planned community , he later acknowledged the resentment of Pullman residents that the town was anachronistic and represented some form of medieval barony . Some of Pond ' s earliest works as an independent architect were for clients in his home town of Ann Arbor and nearby Detroit . As early as 1882 , he designed " a modest but commodious home of stone and brick " on South State Street for Dr . Victor C . Vaughan . Pond later pointed to the designs of the old mantels in the Vaughan house which " foreshadowed his future works . " He also designed Ann Arbor ' s Ladies Library Association Building ( 1885 ) and the West Physics Building for the University of Michigan , built in 1887 and destroyed by fire in 1967 . In 1887 , he renovated the Detroit Opera House , increasing the seating capacity to 2 , 100 and relocating the auditorium to the main floor . In 1886 , Pond and his brother Allen Bartlitt Pond ( 1858 – 1929 ) formed their own architectural firm in Chicago under the name Pond and Pond . The brothers continued to operate the firm for more than 40 years , and their buildings are considered to be among the best examples of Arts and Crafts architecture in Chicago . Hull House and settlement house movement . The Pond brothers gained their greatest acclaim as the architects for Jane Addams ' s Hull House . Their father ' s work as warden of the state prison had sparked an interest in social reform and the settlement house movement . Allen Bartlitt Pond was the assistant superintendent of the Armour Mission , an educational and healthcare center , when Jane Addams came to Chicago in January 1889 looking for a building in which to open a new settlement house . The two became friends and were riding in a carriage when Addams saw an old two - story brick house on Halsted Street . Addams took a lease on the house , which she named Hull House after its original owner , and hired the Ponds to put the old house into shape . Between 1890 and 1907 , the Ponds were the architects for the Hull House as the project expanded rapidly . The first building they designed for Hull House was the Butler Art Gallery . Built in 1891 , the Butler Gallery was situated on the same lot as Hull House . It consisted of a reading room , an exhibition hall that was " the last word in design and lighting for those days , " and a studio above . Numerous other building projects followed , including the original coffee house and gymnasium in 1893 , the Children ' s Building in 1895 , remodels and additions to the original building in 1895 and 1899 , the Jane Club in 1898 , a new Coffee House and Hull House Theater in 1899 , the Hull House Apartments and Men ' s Club in 1901 and 1902 , the Woman ' s Club ( Bowen Hall ) in 1904 , the Boys ' Club in 1906 and the Mary Crane Nursery in 1907 . The Pond brothers were affectionately known by residents of the Hull House complex as Allen the " deep Pond " and Irving the " wide pond . " One of Addams ' biographers wrote that the " Pond brothers did it all , harmonized everything , " and described the scene when Irving Pond attended Addams ' memorial service in 1935 : " Irving K . , at Jane Addams memorial services in the Hull House Court , when Doctor Gilkey said , ' if you seek her monument look around you , ' looked round also with tears in his eyes but pride in his heart ; the visible memorial to Jane Addams was also a visible memorial to the Ponds . " The only surviving building from the Ponds ' Hull House complex is the 1905 dining hall , a simple Craftsman style building that was designated as a National Historic Landmark in the 1960s . The Ponds also designed club houses and settlement houses for other social reform organizations , including the Chicago Commons settlement house building ( 1901 ) , the Northwestern University Settlement House ( 1901 ) , and the City Club of Chicago building ( 1910 ) . The City Club building , noted for its " gently curving limestone arch that ties together the windows of the second floor , " is today operated as the John Marshall Law School . When the City Club building opened in 1910 , its was considered a symbol of the reform movement : " The new building embodied the soaring expectations of the reform movement , as well as providing the material comforts of a middle - class social club . Its two - story dining - lecture hall , complete with balcony and private eating chambers , accommodated over two hundred for the weekly luncheon talks on social and political issues of the day . . . . Architect and club member Irving K . Pond declared that ' every line of the building illustrated some phase of the uplift movement . ' " Eagle ' s Nest and related activities . Pond was also a leading member of the Chicago arts community in the late 19th and early 20th Century . In 1898 , Pond was one of the founders of the Eagle ' s Nest Art Colony near Oregon , Illinois . Pond and eleven others , including his brother Allen Pond , Lorado Taft , Hamlin Garland , Ralph Clarkson , Horace Spencer Fiske , leased a plot of land on a steep ridge with " craggy rocks " and gnarled cedars overlooking the Rock River . The Pond brothers designed the home that was built for the colony , and the group spent their summers at the colony with other sculptors , painters , writers , architects , naturalists and kindred spirits . The artists colony became integrated with the Oregon community , and the Pond brothers undertook several significant architectural projects in the Oregon area : In 1907 , Pond was also one of the founders with Hamlin Garland of the " Cliff " Dwellers ( originally known as the Attic Club and later the Little Room ) , a private club in Chicago for professionals engaged in the fine arts and performing arts . In its early years as the Little Room , the group was described as " an exclusive organization consisting of creative individuals of like temperament joined together for relaxation . " Pond served as president of the Cliff Dwellers from 1934 to 1935 . Professional organizations . In recognition of his contributions to architecture , Pond became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1900 and served as president of the American Institute of Architects from 1910 to 1911 . He also represented the U . S . government and the AIA at the International Congress of Architects at Rome and Venice in 1911 , delivering addresses at both . He was also a founder of the Chicago Architectural Club and served as president of the Illinois Society of Architects . Notable commissions . Pond ' s best known buildings include three National Historic Landmark structures located in Chicago — the Hull House dining hall the Lorado Taft Midway Studios , and the Frank R . Lillie House ( 1904 ) . Other notable Pond designs include the Freer House ( 1898 ) in Ann Arbor , the American School of Correspondence building ( 1906 – 1907 ) in Chicago , the federal building in Kankakee , Illinois , the Michigan Union ( 1919 ) built on the site of Pond ' s boyhood home in Ann Arbor , the Purdue Memorial Union ( 1924 ) at Purdue University , the MSU Union in East Lansing , Michigan , the Kansas Memorial Union at Kansas University , the Park Ridge Public Library , the Michigan League in Ann Arbor , the Omaha Apartments in Chicago , the Kent Building in Chicago ( 1902 ) , and the Toll Building in Chicago ( 1908 ) . Architectural style and philosophy . As early as 1892 , Pond became known as one of the " earliest modernizers in architecture . " The Art Institute of Chicago , where Pond ' s papers are housed , said of the firm : " While Pond and Pond were best known through their work for social service organizations , they designed a wide range of buildings — social , religious , educational / academic , residential , governmental , and civic — mainly in the Chicago area and the Midwest . They were known for detailed brickwork , asymmetrical massing , and distinctive decorative detail , producing fine examples of Arts and Crafts and early modern architecture . " In 1905 a 15 - page article in the " Architectural Record " by Pond and illustrated by his designs was published . Pond described his views in it about architecture as an art : " Architecture is an art , and as an art , it does not consist simply in piling up forms , old or new , but is a means of expression . . . . If architecture is an art and art consists in the expression of life , then that is neither architecture nor art which merely reproduces , even in new combinations , the old forms because they were once the accepted forms . That is a phase of archaeology and is unworthy of living architecture . . . . However , the old ideas are not to be spurned and the old forms are not altogether to be cast aside when they contain the spark of life . . . " Pond ' s article was viewed by some as a criticism of those in the Prairie School who overemphasized the horizontal over the vertical . In this regard , Pond wrote : " In architectural composition , as in music , order is comprehended in rhythm . Rhythm is expressed in the flow of part into part , of mass into mass , in the appearance and reappearance of certain proportions which are made to exist between the subordinate masses and between these masses and the dominant mass ; between all the parts of the perfect whole . Without order there is no architecture ; without rhythmic composition no vital architecture can be . That is the highest architecture in which rhythmic action of the structural forces becomes apparent . Vertical forces in action , by the law of gravity , tend to work in right lines ; horizontal forces , acted upon by this same law tend to work in curves . . . . It is not enough that the rhythmic movement be in horizontal direction only , but there must be a rhythmic flow vertically as well . The result of these combined movements should be that of unity - - simple in its effect though complex in its harmonies . " Role in the Chicago school . In the " AIA Guide to Chicago " , the Ponds are identified as part of the " circle of young architects " , including Frank Lloyd Wright , that was responsible for " transforming the concepts of the Arts & Crafts movement into the indigenous Prairie School . " Pond was a contemporary , and in some ways rival , of Wright in the Chicago architectural scene of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries . Both were members of the Chicago Architectural Club and served as judges and participants in the Club ' s annual competitions . One biographer of Wright noted that Wright was insulted when the American Institute of Architects in 1912 commissioned a study of midwestern " progressive architecture " and instructed the investigators to examine the work of Louis Sullivan and Pond , but not including Wright . In a letter to Lewis Mumford , Wright expressed his dislike for the " truly - old " Pond : " Yesterday someone told me that truly - old I . K . Pond took exception to your ' Sticks and Stones ' because you weren ' t a ' practicing architect . ' What ' practicing architects ' know anything at all of architecture anyway , - - even if they could write about it ? Certainly not he . He ' s a dried herring , hanging beneath the eaves or Architecture . " While progressive in his approach to architecture , Pond was not as revolutionary as others in the Chicago school of his day . Architect Stuart Cohen , FAIA , noted that , while the Pond brothers ' architecture departs from traditional architectural styles , they " did not break radically from such stylistic forms " but sought instead " to create a modern American architecture without rejecting architectural stylistic traditions , but simplifying them through the emphasis of geometry and the inherent quality of building materials and construction . " In 2009 , Pond ' s autobiography , written in the two years before his death , was published by Hyoogen Press through the efforts of Chicago architect David Swan . At the time of the autobiography ' s release , architecture historian Robert Bruegmann opined that the Pond brothers " have remained relatively obscure because they didn ' t fit in with narratives that wished to see Chicago architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a prelude to European modernism of the 1920s . " Nevertheless , Bruegmann noted that " Chicago architecture was always a great deal more than that " and expressed his satisfaction that the publication of Pond ' s autobiography " should go a long way toward bringing back into focus one of America ' s most interesting and important architectural practices . " Author . Pond was a noted author and member of the Chicago Literary Club from 1888 to 1939 . He was the club ' s president from 1922 to 1923 . Many of his works of fiction , poems and papers on art and architecture were published by the club , including " A Strange Fellow : A Story with an Immoral " ( 1889 ) , " The Mystery of the Light " ( 1891 ) , " The Pleasures of Travel ( 1894 ) , " Can Architecture Become Again a Living Art ? " ( 1895 ) , " The Whale - A Study : The Historic School of Jonah " ( 1897 ) , " The Poetry of Motion : and Other Matters " ( 1899 ) , " A Few Meloncholy Reflections and Lively Anticipations of Misdeeds to Come " ( 1905 ) , " A Side Light on Architecture " ( 1906 ) , " Art and the Expression of Individuality " ( 1911 ) , " Architecture : Its Origins and Illusions " ( 1914 ) , " Poems " ( 1917 ) , " Here Lies the Way " ( 1918 ) , " Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On . " " The Stones of Venice " ( 1919 ) , " A Day Under the Big Top : A Study in Life and Art " ( 1924 ) , " On Believing and Leaving " ( 1928 ) , " Toward an American Architecture " ( 1930 ) , " Hold Your Horses : The Elephants Are Coming ! " ( 1931 ) , " What Is Modern Architecture ? " ( 1933 ) , " Just One Thing After Another " ( 1934 ) , and " Do Children Think ? " ( 1938 ) . Pond was also a frequent contributor to architectural journals and wrote for " The Dial " . In 1910 , he published an essay in Gustav Stickley ' s " The Craftsman " , advocating an architectural style embodying the American spirit and idealism . In 1918 , he published the book " The Meaning of Architecture " . In 1908 , Pond ' s 13 - page article on the architecture of telephone exchange buildings , illustrated by the designs of Pond and Louis Sullivan , also appeared in " Architectural Record " . Later years . Pond was a bachelor until age 72 . Through most of his life , his closest friend was his brother Allen Pond . In 1918 , he wrote the following in the dedication to his book , " The Meaning of Architecture " : " This book is dedicated to my brother - - my lifelong companion and partner Allen Bartlit Pond . Through his sympathy and understanding , in the light of his clear thought , and under his inspiration I have been better able to follow those paths of individual , professional and civic endeavor in which a rare ancestry bade us walk . " After his brother died in 1929 , Pond married Katherine N . de Nancrede , who was 47 years old , at a ceremony in Ann Arbor . Pond said at the time , " It ' s the first time I ever did it , and I thought I ought to be pardoned because of my youth . " Pond was also an amateur acrobat and remained a physical fitness buff all of his life . At the time of his wedding in 1929 , the " Associated Press " reported that he is " almost as well known for his present athletic agility as for his architectural accomplishments . A part of his daily routine is to turn handsprings and flipflops and do other strenuous exercises . " He drew applause when , on his 80th birthday , he grabbed his bare knees with both hands and performed a backflip . A photograph of Pond ' s feat was published in " Life " magazine in June 1937 . Though he was some 25 years older than his wife , Pond outlived her . She died in 1935 , and Pond died four years later in September 1939 while traveling in Washington , D . C . . The cause of death was reported as a stomach ulcer . He was age 82 when he died , and he asked that his remains be cremated and sent to the University of Michigan .