William Carbys Zimmerman


William Carbys Zimmerman was an American architect. He was the Illinois State Architect from 1905 to 1915, designing many state-funded buildings, especially at the University of Illinois.

Biography

Zimmerman was born in 1856 in Thiensville, Wisconsin, and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon graduation in 1880s he moved to Chicago, Illinois. He was admitted as a junior partner in John J. Flanders' architectural firm in 1886. There, Zimmerman gained a reputation as an able designer of residences in popular revival styles. He became a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and opened an independent practice in Steinway Hall in 1898. Zimmerman at first continued to design houses, largely in the Chicago neighborhoods of Rogers Park, Kenwood, and Edgewater.
Zimmerman was appointed Illinois State Architect in 1905, a role he held for ten years. This presented Zimmerman with the opportunity to design major works on behalf of the state government. He was also named the architect to Chicago's West Park Commission in 1907. During this period, Zimmerman began to shift to a style more influenced by the Prairie School. He later admitted his son and son-in-law as partners of Zimmerman, Saxe, and Zimmerman.

List of works

All buildings in Illinois unless otherwise noted