In Oak Park and River Forest, there are plenty of people who profess a love of architecture. We bring out out-of-town guests to the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio and walk the historic district. Like plenty of people, we feed our architectural appetite with houswalks that allow voyeuristic license to peek into historic homes.
But Pat Cannon is not plenty of people. Not content to let his interest in architecture be satisfied by mere voyeurism, he took his lifelong interest and turned it into volunteerism and now a second act as an author.
Cannon has lived and worked in Chicago and Oak Park for more than 60 years. He was one of the original volunteers who worked to restore Wright’s Home & Studio in the mid-’70s. His years of dedication to what is now the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust and his interest in local architecture led him to a late career as an author, documenting the architectural treasures of the area. Cannon recently published his fifth book on area architecture with photographer Jim Caulfield, The Space Within: Inside Great Chicago Buildings.
Initial spark
Cannon moved to Oak Park in 1974 and recalled the group of dedicated volunteers working at that time to negotiate the purchase of the Home & Studio, then a private residence, from Mrs. Nooker.
“I’d been an art history major at Northwestern,” Cannon recalled, “and always maintained an interest in architecture after taking a course with an expert in the Chicago School.”
He jumped into the group and received training to become a volunteer for the organization that became the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. Cannon first led tours at Unity Temple and walking tours of the area. He later began leading regular tours of the Home & Studio and Wright Around Chicago.
A calling
When Cannon retired from his career as a publicist, journalist and editor, he found himself with some time on his hands and a desire to further his interest in local architecture. He approached the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust about writing a book.
“I was looking for something to do, and I knew there was no book that covered Frank Lloyd Wright’s work in Oak Park and River Forest, other than a guide book. I thought it would be a good idea to get into his buildings and get good photos.”
Jim Caulfield, a Chicago photographer whose day job was primarily working as a fashion and advertising photographer, had offered to take photos for the Trust as a volunteer and was happy to receive a call to partner with Cannon.
“I was working in advertising full time,” Caulfield said, “so this was more of a side hobby for me. I’ve always had an interest in architecture and been a frustrated architect myself. Since 1984, I’ve designed and built 11 studios and also bought and restored quite a few homes in the area.”
The duo’s first collaboration, Hometown Architect, was a survey of buildings Wright designed in Oak Park and River Forest while he lived in Oak Park. The book was published in 2006, and Cannon and Caulfield paired up for several more projects over the years.
‘The Space Within’
For their fifth collaboration, The Space Within: Inside Great Chicago Buildings, Cannon thought about what the market was lacking. He noticed that no one else had published a wide survey of local architectural interiors.
“For this book, we focus on interior architecture,” he explained. “Looking at the market, the only books with a selection of different kinds of buildings were guidebooks that had very limited illustrations. The idea was to do a thorough job of documenting the interiors of Chicago-area buildings. We ended with upwards of 320 pages and 45 buildings.”
The book’s title derives from a famous Wright quote: “The space within becomes the reality of the building.”
The choices range from Chicago’s 1836 Clarke House to more contemporary specimens such as Ludwig van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. Cannon and Caulfield documented grand buildings such as Louis Bourgeois’ Baha’i Temple and Adler & Sullivan’s Auditorium as well as more modest personal homes. Some of the buildings are open to the public, but many are private residences.
Cannon noted that he started with a wish list of buildings and narrowed it down based on which buildings he was able to gain access to.
“There are some obvious choices,” he said, “like the Cultural Center, the Art Institute and Trust properties like the Home & Studio, Unity Temple and the Robie House. We included some private homes on the North Shore and some churches like St. Mary of the Angels and St. Procopius.”
A few of Cannon’s favorite selections are Chicago treasures like the Elks Memorial, the Driehaus Museum and the Mansueto Library at the University of Chicago.
“An unexpected treasure,” he noted, “was a farm in Lake Bluff called Crabtree Farm. It’s a former dairy farm recently owned by the chairman of Sarah Lee. There was a huge collection of Arts & Crafts furniture and collections, and a more recent guest house.”
Cannon and Caulfield recently presented the book, signed copies and shared selected images at the Oak Park Main Library. Both admit that creating coffee table books may not make them rich, but the partnership is a fruitful one.
Caulfield enjoys the creative process.
“This is an association that’s lasted 10 years. The kind of books we do, we drive the content ourselves. We’ve created our own works based on our taste. Pat defers to me on the visuals, and when it comes to the text, I leave it to him.”
For his part, Cannon said, “This is more or less a labor of love. We’re not going to get rich doing this.”
Lovers of architecture and architectural photography hope their labor of love will lead to a sixth book in the future.