Biography

Richard Ernest Schmidt was a German-born American architect, a member of the so-called first Chicago School, and a near-contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan. Schmidt was born in Ebern, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, and brought to America by his parents at the age of one. In 1883 he enrolled in the architecture school at MIT, but left to begin practicing before completing the program, working for such architects as Adolph Cudell and Charles Sumner Frost before eventually settling in Chicago in 1887.

Eight years later, he asked Hugh M.G. Garden, who was also an extremely skilled structural engineer, to join him as chief designer. Although known primarily for their commercial and industrial designs, the firm also designed more than 300 hospitals, as well as many other public structures, all in a progressive style, similar to Wright and Sullivan.

Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Schmidt)