Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
1894--1913
During the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, philanthropist Judge Lambert Tree commissioned these namesake studios to entice visiting artists to settle in the city. They are the oldest existing artists studios in the country. More than 500 artists have worked and lived in the three studio buildings (49 individual studios), including John Singer Sargent, Tarzan illustrator J. Allen St. John, Pauline Palmer, John Warner Norton, and Albin Polasek. The small-scale buildings, centered on a garden courtyard, meld European Modernism, Arts and Crafts, and Art Nouveau. Also on this square block-site in Chicago's fashionable near north side is the Medinah Temple (1912), an auditorium and headquarters for the Chicago chapter of the Shriners. This group, which owns the block, is eager to sell the studios and temple to a developer who wants to build a highrise tower on the block. Most of the structures would have to be either greatly altered or demolished. A concerned group of citizens has lobbied the Chicago Landmark Commission to designate the buildings as official city landmarks. However, no definitive action has been taken and loss of the structures looms ever closer.
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