Robert von Ezdorf was an American architect and composer. He specialized in high-rise office buildings and also designed the interiors of the Commodore Hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria and Hotel Hershey

Hotel Hershey

The Hotel Hershey, built in the 1930s, is a historical landmark, four-star hotel located on a hilltop overlooking Hershey, Pennsylvania. It has 232 guest rooms and of event space....

 as well as the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

The Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton was the world’s first collegiate business school and the first business school in the United States...

. He worked for the firm of Cross and Cross

Cross and Cross (Architects)

Cross and Cross was a New York City based architectural firm founded by brothers John Walter Cross and Eliot Cross.-History:Cross and Cross was known as Old New York City Society's architectural firm of choice...

 where he served as chief designer. He also worked at McKim, Mead, and White

McKim, Mead, and White

McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...

. Von Ezdorf also designed much of Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...

's Secret City, including the reactor used in developing the atomic bomb.

Von Ezdorf served in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 as a 31st Aero Squadron lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 and was the first officer of that rank from Queens

Queens

Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

 to be sent abroad. He later served as a colonel

Colonel (United States)

In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, colonel is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general...

 in the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.