Parker N. Berry succeeded George Grant Elmslie in the Chicago office of Louis H. Sullivan in the years after 1909. Before opening his own office in 1917, Berry designed a few buildings on his own while working for Sullivan, one of which was the Summit Apartment building. A gifted designer in the Prairie mode, Berry died in 1918 at the age of thirty. The Summit Apartments were commissioned by Dr. Frank C. Titzell, who wished them to be as up-to-date and modern as possible. Berry provided a design in many ways identical to what could be found in and around Chicago. The plan was U-shaped, with the entrance within the “U.” The four floors of 14 apartments of five rooms each were all well lighted by wide windows. Within they contained such amenities as Murphy beds and a built-in vacuum cleaner system. The most distinguishing feature of the exterior is the stuccoing of the walls, and the suggestion of pairs of engaged piers at ground level.