John Mills Van Osdel, Architect, and his Chicago
The Story of His Life, 1811 to 1891
by Burtram Collver Hopkins II

---

There is no question that Chicago is an architecturally significant city. But before Louis Henry Sullivan, John Wellborn Root, and Frank Lloyd Wright, before modernism, there lived a man whose designs built it from the ground up. Written by his descendant, retired architect Burtram C. Hopkins II, more than a century later, this book traces the incredible mark left on Chicago by architect John Mills Van Osdel—a mark tragically largely wiped out by the Great Fire of 1871. From the time he arrived in 1837 to his death in 1891, Van Osdel watched the city swell from a village of around a thousand people to a bustling metropolis of hundreds of thousands. Though his name is little known today, he played a crucial role in establishing architecture as a discipline in Chicago, drafting the Chicago Architect's Code (one of the first of its kind), laying the groundwork for the skyscrapers that would become the hallmark of the First Chicago School of Architecture, and contributing hundreds of architecturally significant structures to the growing urban landscape—as well as countless more (some still surviving) in other parts of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, and Arkansas. Van Osdel's impact would reverberate in large part through his family, many of whom themselves pursued architectural and artistic careers—including his nephew and business partner, John Mills Van Osdel II. This truly encyclopedic book traces this inheritance, with a section on Van Osdel II, doubling as both an architectural history and a work of family genealogy. Vast in scope and exhaustively detailed, it is sure to make an invaluable addition to the shelves of anyone interested in this powerhouse of American architecture and his influential family, who helped transform Chicago from a frontier town on Lake Michigan to the capital of industry it is today.

www.johnmillsvanosdel.com

---

Burtram Collver Hopkins II, known as “Bud” to his family and friends, was born in 1936 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Although raised in Ohio before WWII and Iowa after WWII, his home has been in Texas for the past sixty years. His interest in history, both architectural and familial, led him to write and publish three genealogy books about his paternal grandparents’ ancestors and descendants. Knowledge of his great-great- granduncle, on his maternal side of the family, John Mills Van Osdel, did not come to him until college. Bud attended Iowa State College and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. After working for the university architect in Norman, Oklahoma, he was accepted to the graduate program of the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, and graduated with a master’s degree in urban design. He became a licensed architect and practiced for about thirty years in Dallas, becoming a partner and then president of a regional architectural and planning firm. Professionally, he was a member of the American Institute of Architects and the Dallas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, of which he was president in 1989. He also was a director of the Texas Society of Architects, served on the Board of Visitors for the College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma for eight years, was a member of the National AIA Urban Design and Planning Committee, and director and treasurer of the American Society of Consulting Planners in the 1970s. He had a second career spanning about twenty-five years as a real estate consultant serving a variety of building types and both vacant and undeveloped land. Bud, now retired, is an Emeritus member of the American Institute of Architects, and member of the Society of Architectural Historians, and Biographers International Organization. He now lives in Plano, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, with his wife Suzanne of forty-four years, and their cocker spaniel, Siri.

---

Contributors

Author

Burtram Collver Hopkins II