David Swan - "The Autobiography of Irving K. Pond" and Pond & Pond Work in Hyde Park

Irving Kane Pond (1858-1939) was a partner with his brother Allen in Pond & Pond, an important architectural firm in Chicago from 1890 through 1929. Their buildings are among the best Chicago examples of the Arts and Crafts style. Among their best known structures are the Hull House dining halls, the American School of Correspondence Building (850 E 58th), the Lillie House (5801 S Kenwood) and several other buildings near the University of Chicago campus. Irving Pond was a distinguished Chicago architect, author, gifted storyteller, and national president of the American Institute of Architects. His richly anecdotal autobiography, published for the first time in 2009, gives us an irreverent account of Chicago architecture and its architects at the turn of the last century. It should be read alongside the autobiographies of Sullivan and Wright to remind us that seminal developments in architecture, like those of the Italian Renaissance, emerge from a collaborative environment, and are not the product of an individual genius working alone.

Irving Pond wrote his autobiography between 1937 and 1939. The handwritten manuscript was given to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1939 where it has been kept since. The lecture is presented by Chicago architect David Swan, who along with Terry Tatum (Supervising Historian and Director of Research for the Landmarks Division, City of Chicago) edited the text of the autobiography and gathered the several hundred photos and line drawings that accompany it. David Swan is a Chicago architect who studied architecture and city planning at IIT. In 2008, David edited and published the facsimile edition of The Book of the Fine Arts Building. His own architecture is listed in the 2004 edition of the AIA Guide to Chicago.

The lecture will be followed by Pond & Pond Walking Tour at 2.00pm. On the tour, Mr. Swan will be accompanied by Tim Samuelson, Sam Guard and Jack Spicer.