firm active: 1907-1921 minneapolis, minnesota :: chicago, illinois philadelphia, pennsylvania :: portland, oregon

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Navigation :: Home :: The Team :: George Grant Elmslie

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George Grant Elmslie
Architect
1869 - 1952

Writings and Publications

Note: Sorting through the uncertainties of publications by Elmslie will take some time.  The surviving records are sometimes only manuscripts or clippings with uncertain attribution; other pieces are typescripts or mimeographs whose date or actual publication is unknown.  The earliest written expressions by Elmslie were issued jointly with William Gray Purcell during the period of their partnership (1910-1921).  Most printed articles by Elmslie during the 1920s were efforts to promote the construction of progressive small town banks.  The most complete sortage of pieces from this era, together with an account of their questionable citations, can be found in the bibliography of "George Grant Elmslie: Turning the Jewel Box into a Bank Home," by Craig Zabel, which appears American Public Architecture: European Roots and Native Expressions (Papers in Art History from the Pennsylvania State University [Volume 5]).  Most of Elmslie's essays in the 1940s appeared in the Monthly Bulletin of the Illinois Society of Architects.

• "The Statics and Dynamics of Architecture"
• "The American Renaissance"
• "Economy in Bank Building Construction"
• "Sullivan Ornamentation"
• "Reflections on Rhythm"
• "Do Principles of Architecture Change?"
• "The Garrick Theatre Addition: A Criticism"
• "Totalitarianism and the Arts: A Commentary"
• "Modern Architecture: Our Fatuous Obeisance to Things Ancient and European"
• "Organic Life and Architecture"
• "Art in American Life"
• "The Chicago School of Architecture: Its Inheritances and Bequest"