death_date death_place birth_place image_size nationality birth_date significant_buildings image article_title significant_projects name
1 march 1950 highland park , illinois u.s.a. blue island , illinois , u.s.a. 300px american 13 april 1878 see `` significant works '' list below . florentine.jpg robert seyfarth
 plan '' - the arkansas soft pine bureau , 1918 portfolio - '' the home you longed for robert edward seyfarth
robert seyfarth

robert seyfarth -lrb- -rrb- was an american architect based in chicago , illinois .
having spent the formative years of his professional career working for the noted prairie school architect george washington maher , and having been a member of the influential chicago architectural club , seyfarth was a product of the chicago school of architecture .
although his early independent projects directly reflected maher 's stylistic influences , as his own style developed seyfarth 's work became distinguished more as a distillation of prevailing revivalist architecture , characterized not by the frequent devotion to detail that typified the movement but by strong geometry , a highly refined sense of proportion , and the selective , discriminating use of historical references .
although any use of these references was condemned by many of the proponents of what was seen as `` modern '' architecture in the ensuing years , `` the neoclassical impulse ... was an effort to purge american architecture of the wilder excesses of historical revivalism the nineteenth century by returning to fundamental architectural principles .
the ideals this architecture sought to express were the very ones the most inventive chicago architects were trying to embody in their own work - order , harmony , and repose ... '' .
as a result , the conception of modern architecture was anything but a static event .
`` architects and critics engaged in lively debates concerning the definition of modern architecture and the future direction of building design .
this discourse reflected the development of diverse architectural ideologies and forms that ranged from beaux-arts classicism to streamlining . '' .
the case for the use of historic references in modern architecture was made by no less than william adams delano -lrb- 1874-1960 -rrb- , who was considered to be one among the `` new generation of architects shaped and developed american taste , producing a style leavened with erudite abstraction and sparing composition '' .
delano argued that if a project was `` handled with freedom and ... answered the needs of our present day clients , it will be really expressive of our own time '' .
seyfarth opted to take his career down this divergent path , and in doing so created a legacy of architecture that `` speaks of good breeding with an independent spirit . ''
