Viehe-Naess, Ivar

Ivar Viehe-Naess, architect.

Designed

Rogers Park Presbyterian Church

Unity Lutheran Church, 5401 W. Magnolia Avenue

Write up by Edgewater Historical Society

Born in Nord-Osen in Oesterdalen, Norway in 1870, Viehe-Naess grew up in close proximity to church architecture. The parish church and school were located on the Naess farm. His mother’s brother was a prosperous builder in Oslo and, as a young man, he came to admire the prosperity of his uncle’s home and summer cottage. He heard of the plans for the great Columbian Exposition and decided to go to Chicago in 1891 in order, he said, “that I might be well acquainted with the place before the great celebration.”

In the fall of 1892, Viehe-Naess entered the Chicago School of Architecture. After three years of study he went to work as a draftsman and continued designing interiors until 1897, when he went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1900, Viehe-Naess joined the firm of Daniel Burnham, where he remained until 1912. During that period he worked on several of Burnham’s larger projects, including the Flat Iron building in New York.

Viehe-Naess’s American churches are all in the same neo-gothic style as Unity. Among his other church designs were Buena Presbyterian, Rogers Park Presbyterian, North Austin Lutheran Church and Christ Lutheran Church (Wilson at Spaulding). Other buildings designed by Viehe-Naess include the Lakeview and South Chicago Banks, the Lutheran Deaconess Home and Hospital and the Elmhurst Hospital.