Property transfers p. B11
Homes October 13, 2021
Architect spotlight on Charles Kristen
Austrian immigrant designed more than 100 homes in Oak Park By LACEY SIKORA
T
Contributing Reporter
he big names get a lot of attention in the near west suburbs: Frank Lloyd Wright, William Drummond, E.E. Roberts. Local architecture aficionados and amateurs alike are familiar with their designs, and the mother of all housewalks, Wright Plus, features their oeuvre every year. Less well-known, but widely prolific, Charles Kristen is another architect who left a mark on the village that is quite substantial. Kristen was born in Austria in 1890 and came to the United States as a teenager. He studied at the Ohio Mechanical Institute, now part of the University of Cincinnati. In his twenties, he moved to Chicago, where he worked as an architectural draftsman for the firm Marshall & Fox.
ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer
CHARLES KRISTEN
In 1927, developer Joseph Wassell hired architect Charles Kristen to design the 20 homes he was planning to building on the east side of Fair Oaks Avenue between Greenfield Street and North Avenue. Above are photos taken last week of two homes pictured in a Chicago Tribune illustration of the planned development (the two on the right) from 1927. PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS: CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Frank Lipo, executive director of the Oak Park River Forest Historical Society says Marshall & Fox were one of the preeminent firms in the city. They designed hotels such as the Drake and Blackstone and buildings such as the South Shore Country Club, now the South Shore Cultural Center. While many architects were not formally trained at this time, Lipo said that Kristen was the real deal. He had education, training and was a member of architectural associations. Lipo calls him “a serious architect.” Marshall & Fox closed in 1926 when Fox died. Shortly thereafter, Kristen took on See KRISTEN on page B4
October 13, 2021 ■ Wednesday Journal/Forest Park Review
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