Biography
Bertrand Goldberg was a creative architect who built a sizable architectural and engineering practice. He also was involved in development and other entrepeneurial activities.
Learn more about Goldberg's architectural practice, his firm Bertrand Goldberg Associates, or his other business ventures:
Abridged Chronology
| 1913 | born, Chicago, IL |
| 1930- 1932 |
attends Harvard College, Cambridge, MA |
| 1932- 1933 |
attends Bauhaus (Berlin), works in Mies' office |
| 1934- 1937 |
works in Chicago architectural offices of George and Fred Keck, Paul Schweiker, and Howard Fisher |
| 1937 | opens his own office, starts single family residences - Abrams, Mullins, Ancell. |
| 1938 | North Pole Ice Cream Store, Clark Maple Gasoline Station, Jacobs residence |
| 1939- 1943 |
Standard Houses in Maryland and Illinois with Gilmer Black |
| 1946 | Marries Nancy Florsheim. Prefab bathrooms. Establishes Standard Fabrication Co. |
| 1950- 1953 |
Consulting architect to Pressed Steel Car Co. for Unicel and Unishelter |
| 1952 | Snyder House, NY |
| 1954 | Kansas City Apartment Project Award, Progressive Architecture |
| 1954- 1955 |
Drexel Gardens, IL |
| 1956- 1967 |
Michael Todd's Cinestage Theatre, IL |
| 1960 | Marina City construction starts |
| 1963 | Astor Tower completed. Maxim's de Paris opens. Brenneman School, IL. ABC Tower proposal, NY. |
| 1964 | Marina City Office Building completed |
| 1965- 1976 |
Health Science Center, Stonybrook, NY |
| 1966 | Master plan, Affiliated Hospital Center, MA. |
| 1967 | Hilliard Center, public housing, IL. Elgin Hospital, IL. West Palm Beach Auditorium, FL. Marina City Theater completed. |
| 1969 | San Diego Theater proposal, CA |
| 1969- 1974 |
St. Joseph Hospital, WA |
| 1970 | Trinidad Master Plan, Venezuela |
| 1974 | Prentice Women's Hospital, IL, and Dana Cancer Center, MA |
| 1979 | Night World proposal, FL |
| 1982 | Good Samaritan Hospital, AZ |
| 1982- 1987 |
Providence Hospital, AL |
| 1983 | Brigham and Women's Hospital, MA |
| 1984 | Floating Worlds's Fair, Chicago, IL |
| 1986 | River City, IL |
| 1992 | Wright College, IL |
| 1997 | deceased, Chicago, IL |
Bertrand Goldberg was born in Chicago in 1913. He grew up in Chicago and attended Harvard College in 1930 for two years before leaving for The Bauhaus in Germany. He worked briefly in the office of Mies van der Rohe.
Goldberg returned to Chicago in 1933, and worked for the Keck brothers. In 1937, Goldberg opened his own office.
During World War II, Goldberg worked for the government and developed portable medical labs and gun crates. After the war, he formed a partnership with Leland Atwood, which lasted through the early 1950’s, when Goldberg started the firm of Bertrand Goldberg Associates.
A young Bertrand Goldberg in his Chicago office, 1950s.
Early in his career Goldberg focused on single family residences and industrial design work. His last single family residence was completed in the 1950′s. Throughout the 1950′s, his design proposals covered a broad spectrum: union halls, art centers, office buildings, and residential developments. In 1957, Goldberg built Drexel Gardens on the south side of Chicago, an award winning project.
In 1959, Goldberg started work on Marina City. This project, the seminal work of his career, was finished in 1967. At the same time, another major commission, Astor Tower Hotel, was started.
Throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s, the office of Bertrand Goldberg Associates grew significantly – including in-house engineering and computer software development. Design work focused on numerous large scale hospitals and other major institutional projects up until 1992. Parallel work on urban projects was more exploratory and speculative, and culminated in River City, a successful mixed use development on the Chicago River completed in 1986. The office’s last major built work was Wright College, completed in 1992. Bertrand Goldberg died in 1997.
An aerial rendering of River City
At top: Bertrand Goldberg poses with a model of the original River City towers