The Stevens Hotel was designed by William Holabird (1854-1923) and Martin Roche (1855-1927), an architectural design team that formed in the 1880s after meeting at the architectural firm of William Le Baron Jenney, who is commonly considered the “father of the skyscraper” as he built the first 10 story building (a Chicago home insurance office) in the United States.

William Holabird was born in New York on September 11th, 1851. Holabird spent his childhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, as his family traveled often as his father moved up the ranks in the army.  Holabird later attended West Point Military Academy for two years, resigning in 1875, however still bringing with him an engineering and design background. He ventured to Chicago, an idolized location for post-Chicago Fire ambitious young engineers and architects. Holabird's engineering experience qualified him for a job with Chicago architect William LeBaron Jenney, where he then met future partners Ossian Simonds and Martin Roche. 

Simonds was born on November 11th, 1855 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, raised on his family farm. He later went to study civil engineering at the University of Michigan beginning in 1874, however he switched to architecture 2 years later when Jenney taught there. After graduating in 1878, Simonds moved to Chicago where he worked for Jenney. After a couple years, Holabird partnered with Simonds, leaving Jenney’s firm, and a year later in 1881 a man by the name Martin Roche joined the team. 

Roche was born in 1853 in Cleveland, Ohio, where he grew up learning handiwork skills and was an apprentice under a carpenter. At the age of 17 Roche found a spot working for Jenney, and he met Holabird and Simonds down the road at the firm. Roche joined the two others in their own architectural design company and while Simonds left after just 1 year with the three of them together, Holabird and Roche became lifelong partners. After just a decade together, they employed over 100 workers and their firm launched to great heights as they designed some of Chicago’s most iconic structures at the time from the 1890s to the 1910s, including Soldier Field, City Hall, The Palmer House, and the Marquette Building. The two men worked well together as Holabird was the true designer and businessman and Roche was the true artist and architect.

Image of William Holabird (above) and Martin Roche (below), the Stevens Hotel architects (“Image of Holabird and Roche.” Holabird & Roche, www.thechicagoloop.org/arch.hroc.00000.html)