Proudfoot and Bird, campus architects: Building facilities for professional education at the University of Iowa, 1898-191

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the placement and appearance of buildings constructed by the University of Iowa to house its three professional colleges, medicine, engineering and law, between 1898 and 1910. Three different contemporary developments affected the buildings' appearance; professional educational methods, Midwestern architecture, and the personal style of the architects, Proudfoot and Bird.;Professional educational practice in America is examined to determining how these disciplines were fitted into the university curriculum and the physical campus. Specialized facilities and traditional formats for teaching the various professions are identified. The history of the professional colleges at the University of Iowa and their facilities are also examined to determine local practices and traditions.;Architecture in Iowa and the Midwest and special events like the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 are examined for their effects on architecture in Iowa. The history of the University of Iowa campus is also studied to determine how the professional colleges were housed before 1898, and how their needs were met between 1898 and 1910.;The development of the personal style of the architects, Proudfoot and Bird, is examined in order to place their efforts to design professional facilities for the University of Iowa in the context of their architectural practice. The facilities themselves and their design and construction history are examined in detail.;The professional facilities constructed between 1898 and 1910 reveal the great importance and prestige the professional colleges had achieved in the university curriculum. The buildings are conceived as major works of architecture in tune with the architecture of the period. They reveal the architects' personal stylistic preferences for educational buildings of Beaux-Arts classical design and reflect European and American developments in architecture at the turn of the century.