Charles Banks in South America

[T_MacWood]

Charles Banks is credited with the design of four courses in S.America--two in Venezuela; one each in Colombia and Chile. Does anyone know if these courses exhibit the typical Banks characteristics? Did Banks travel to these places or were these all paper jobs?

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Tom,
It amazes me how many architects in the 20's were mentioned in many publications to be doing work down in South America.

Mackenzie & Thompson I know for sure, and Ross, Tillinghast and NOW Steamshovel?

Wow!

[George_Bahto]

Tom - they all had the usual characteristics of "their" design philosophies.

I had a member join the Knoll a few years ago and was amazed at similarity of 14 holes to The Knoll. He belonged to Prince of Wales CC in Chile.

The most prestigious, of course, was the elite Caracas CC in Venezuela.

I've contacted all the courses/clubs as well as the Ven. Tourism people......... unfortunately So America moves very slow.

All the courses have been altered dramatically with the possible exception of the P 0f Wales in Chile - apparently they hold a lot of tourneys there.

I was sent a ton of material from the Junko CC  but it was in Spanish - duh!

I actually pulled up from a NY Times a couple listings of Banks listed on steamships leaving NY for So America which help me verify some dates.

The great clubhouse at Caracas was built by the great clubhouse archie, Cliff Wendehack who did a lot of work with Raynor and Banks as well as many others (Winged Foot clubhouse, his work).   boy, what a great book he published!!!!

Caracas

[T_MacWood]

George
Thanks for the info. It sounds like Caracus might have been the cream of the crop. Did Banks make a single trip to S.America or multiple trips?

[Tom_Doak]

Tommy N:  The South American connection should not be surprising at all.  When the Depression hit in the USA, the South American economy [which is based on commodities and agriculture] was one of the few places in the world which was relatively unaffected.  Those architects were going down there because they were following the money.

Eighty years from now, someone might wonder why so many US architects did work in Japan in the late 1980's, or in China today ... same reason.

But I didn't know Charles Banks had done anything down there.  Makes sense, though.  Raynor was dead by then and Banks was the only one left to carry on the brand.

[George_Bahto]

Tom Mc: I've only found that one entry so far and have nothing elsewhere except notations in C & W's book.

I thought Banks went there when the work in the US dried up after the Depression hit, as Tom stated ..... and that may still be most of the story.

Yes, Caracas was certainly the cream of the crop and the copurse he built in Ven followed, Junko CC (now a different course)

Banks had to have gone there often, I'd guess.  I've got to do more searching the NY Times site.

[T_MacWood]

That photograph of the clubhouse shows Wendehack's ability to stretch himself architecturally...hard to believe the same man designed this and the clubhouse as Winged Foot.

[George_Bahto]

have you seen his book - it has many clubhouse sketches and photos .... Maistone ..... too many to mention. he wrote a lote of articles in G/Ill