John Wellborn Root Jr. (July 14, 1887 – October 24, 1963) was a significant United States architect based in Chicago. He was the son of architect John Wellborn Root. As a young man, he graduated from Cornell University and studied architecture at Paris' École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, where he became friends with John Augur Holabird, the son of another famous Chicago architect. Root returned to the States and joined his friend on the architectural staff at Holabird & Roche in 1919. After the deaths of William Holabird in 1923 and Martin Roche in 1927, the firm was reorganized under the new partnership of Holabird & Root. They worked on many dazzling projects in the late 1920s and early 1930s, before the Great Depression slowed new construction. These years are notable for the firm's many impressive Art Deco buildings. The firm weathered the Depression and Root remained an active partner into old age. Significant buildings Palmolive Building, 1929 333 North Michigan Building, 1928 Chicago Board of Trade Building, 1930 Chicago Daily News Building, 1929 Chrysler Building at the Century of Progress 1933-34 World's Fair North Dakota State Capitol, 1934 References Bruegmann, Robert. Holabird & Roche/Holabird & Root: An Illustrated Catalog of Works, 1880-1940. New York: Garland Publishing, 1991. External links Holabird & Root's current website Holabird & Root Chicago Encyclopedia entry Holabird & Root Archive at the Chicago Historical Society 1887 births 1963 deaths Artists from Chicago Art Deco architects 20th-century American architects Cornell University alumni American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts Holabird & Root