Walter Netsch

Northwestern University Library Exhibit Labels

Walter Netsch, Rendering of Northwestern University Library, 1964

Anthony Bridwell, former Director of Development, donated this drawing to the University Archives in 2003. He recalled the unusual circumstances of its creation for the 1964 press conference in Chicago where the design for the new library building was unveiled: "With less than two hours to go, [NU Director of Public Relations] Sam Saran sent up a flare to Walter Netsch, the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architect for the new library [that the presentation charts had not arrived from New York]. And a few minutes before noon, as we waited on pins and needles at the Chicago Club, there burst into the room a cavalcade of young SOM acolytes bearing slap-dash charts including a rendering of the library hastily inked by Walter Netsch.”

Walter Netsch, Architect of the Northwestern University Library

This portrait shows Mr. Netsch at home. An object from his art collection is visible in the background, and he is wearing a campaign button for his wife, Dawn Clark Netsch.

Walter Netsch, Architect of theNorthwestern University Library

Acclaimed architect Walter Netsch was born February 23, 1920, in Chicago. He studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and upon receiving his degree in 1943, he enlisted in the United States Corps of Engineers and was stationed in the North Pacific. Mr. Netsch began his career as an architect working for L. Morgan Yost in Kenilworth. He joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1947 and was a Partner for Design at SOM from 1955-79. In 1967, he was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

In 1963, Mr. Netsch married Dawn Clark, a Northwestern graduate. Mrs. Netsch taught at the Northwestern School of Law from 1965-92, practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, and was active in state government.

Mr. Netsch has held teaching positions at several Big Ten universities, where he has also received honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Northwestern in 1980. He served as Commissioner of the Chicago Park District from 1986-89. Mr. Netsch was inducted as a life member of the Northwestern University Library Board of Governors in October 2004.

Field Theory

Mr. Netsch developed his signature architectural aesthetic known as Field Theory by rotating basic squares into complex geometric shapes. Field Theory allowed Mr. Netsch to design buildings that break away from the box forms associated with Mies van der Rohe’s architecture. In Field Theory buildings, open spaces are defined by both horizontal and vertical planes, radiate out from cores containing utilities and stairwells, and are accessible via multiple levels. The University Library design incorporated many of these ideas and is considered a precursor to Mr. Netsch’s Field Theory buildings.

Northwestern University Buildings

Other Evanston campus facilities designed by Mr. Netsch include the Lakefill project (1962-68); Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center (1966; razed 1995); Rebecca Crown Center (1968); O. T. Hogan Biological Sciences Building (1970); Frances Searle Building (1972); Regenstein Music Building (1977); and Seeley G. Mudd Library for Science and Engineering (1977).

Academic Architecture

Beginning with the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, in the 1950s, Mr. Netsch designed a variety of academic structures in the United States, Japan, and North Africa. His designs include libraries and buildings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Texas Christian University, the University of Iowa, Grinnell College (Grinnell, Iowa), Wells College (Aurora, New York), and the original concept for the library at Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan). He designed a total of fifteen libraries.

In addition to designing buildings for academic institutions, Mr. Netsch has taught at several universities, including the Rhode Island School of Design. Items in this case include a model used in teaching Field Theory, concept drawings, and a plan for student housing in Algeria.

United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1954-62

Construction of the United States Air Force Academy required over two million square feet on a mesa of the Rocky Mountains outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Its campus includes living space for cadets, spaces for academic instruction, a library and museum, administration, a chapel for religious services, and spaces for recreation. The Air Force Academy has been recognized as one of the most distinguished projects of SOM and of modern architecture in America. It was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark on its fiftieth anniversary in 2004. The Academy Cadet Chapel, completed in 1962, gained Mr. Netsch and SOM international recognition, including the American Institute of Architects’ 25-Year Award in 1996.

Walter Netsch, Architect of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

This drawing by an unknown artist appeared in the June 1960 issue of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects.

Living with Art: Walter and Dawn Clark Netsch’s Art Collection

In the 1950s, Mr. Netsch began collecting art, and has continued to collect with his wife, Dawn Clark Netsch, often supporting contemporary artists early in their careers. Their home is filled with works by artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Motherwell, and Robert Indiana. The collection has been exhibited several times, most notably at Miami University Art Museum in Oxford, Ohio, in a building Mr. Netsch designed.

Mr. Netsch recalled: "Gordon [Bunshaft, SOM Partner in Charge of Design] taught me to go to art galleries when we were working on the Air Force Academy . Gordon took me around to all the marvelous, very fancy galleries. He had a very fine collection, and he could afford it…the first thing he did was to march through the gallery and move gradually, very carefully – seeing what was on exhibit – into the back room. He’d sit down, pull out his pipe, and say to the gallery director, ‘What’s good today?” And they would haul out the Picassos, the Mirós and the Dubuffets, and the things that he liked….Later, I would go on visual binges myself, after I got a bonus, and I’d spend twice what I had, hoping that another bonus would make up for it later."

Louis Jefferson Long Library, Wells College

According to Mr. Netsch, Wells College's Louis Jefferson Long Library (Aurora, New York, 1968) was the best building he designed: "I wanted to work with the environment, so I made it fit the site. In fact, the first design fit the site so well that I had to do the roof over again. I went to a meeting of trustees and was so excited when I explained that students could ski down the roof of this building. Afterward, the president said, ‘Walter, you better change the roof. The trustees were scared to death that the students will actually do that.’ So I changed the geometry, but it’s still a very good building."

"It also fit the concept of what a library should be – a place where you study, put the book on the floor, and read on the floor or on pillows. It’s not regimented. It has volume, it has space and perception. It has small rooms that you can go to, especially on the bridge. And it has native materials. It has brick and wood. It’s the first time we took three rotated squares and made them work together as a triad. The design of the building is different than any other Field Theory building because it’s based on that triad." –SOM Journal, 2001

Netsch's Chicago Projects

As a young man, Mr. Netsch was inspired by iconic Chicago architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium Building and Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, and the modern architecture he saw at the Century of Progress International Exposition in 1939.

Mr. Netsch transferred to SOM’s Chicago office in 1951. He worked on a variety of important Chicago projects, including the landmark Inland Steel Building (1954-58), the first skyscraper to be built in Chicago ’s Loop following the Great Depression. The design was completed by Bruce Graham. The photographs shown here depict a model of Mr. Netsch’s original design (housed at the Art Institute of Chicago) and the building as it was constructed.

SOM replaced Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as campus architect of the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1958. The Paul V. Galvin Library (1962) at IIT was Mr. Netsch’s first completed academic library.

In 1961, Mr. Netsch and SOM presented a master plan for Circle Campus at the University of Illinois at Chicago . Construction began two years later, and the University opened in February 1965. UIC’s Architecture & Art Building (1967) is an excellent example of Field Theory.

Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago was completed in 1970. Two of its seven stories are underground. Collections are arranged by subject floors, and the design includes a west wing with book stacks, a central section with reading rooms, and an east wing for faculty and group study rooms, as well as staff offices.

Mr. Netsch also designed the Art Institute of Chicago’s 1977 east addition at Columbus Drive . An entrance for groups of visitors and additional second-floor galleries around McKinlock Court were constructed. The 110,000 square-foot addition to The School of the Art Institute was designed to accommodate 1,000 full-time students as well as student enrichment and adult education programs. The addition also incorporates the restored 1893 Adler and Sullivan Stock Exchange Trading Room.

Northwestern University Library

In 1962, Mr. Netsch was selected to design a new library for Northwestern. His design, created in consultation with members of the faculty and staff, had seven major objectives:

Mr. Netsch summarized his design by saying: "The new library is therefore conceived as three connecting research pavilions above the unusually large ground floor reference and staff areas. The pavilions permit access from all directions from the campus and provide an intimate, private single reader-book relation and an architectural scale relating to the existing campus structure."

Walter Netsch, Northwestern University Library Floor Plans, 1966

These hand-inked presentation drawings were made to show architectural details of the research towers and levels 1 and 2 of University Library.

Drawings courtesy of Walter Netsch

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Photographs courtesy Northwestern University Archives