Architecture of Chicago

The buildings and architecture of Chicago have influenced and reflected the history of American architecture. The built environment of Chicago is reflective of the city's history and multicultural heritage, featuring prominent buildings in a variety of styles by many important architects. Since most structures within the downtown area were destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 (the most famous exception being the Water Tower)[1] Chicago buildings are noted for their originality rather than their antiquity.

Willis Tower

Chicago is world-famous for its plethora of unique architectural styles, from Chicago Bungalows and Two-Flats to the grand Graystones along Logan Boulevard and Lawndale Avenue, from the skyscrapers of the Loop as well as a wealth of sacred architecture such as the city's ornate "Polish Cathedrals".

Skyscrapers
Willis TowerChicago Board of TradeFranklin Center North TowerAuditorium BuildingJay Pritzker PavilionTrump Tower ChicagoJohn Hancock Center
The 2010 Chicago skyline as seen from the Adler Planetarium (Use cursor to identify buildings)
Main article: List of tallest buildings in Chicago
The Chicago Building is a prime example of Chicago School architecture.

Beginning in the early 1880s, architectural pioneers of the Chicago School explored steel-frame construction and, in the 1890s, the use of large areas of plate glass. These were among the first modern skyscrapers. William LeBaron Jenney's Home Insurance Building was completed in 1885 and is considered to be the first to use steel in its structural frame instead of cast iron. However, this building was still clad in heavy brick and stone. The Montauk Building,[2] designed by John Wellborn Root Sr. and Daniel Burnham, was built from 1882 to 1883 using structural steel. Daniel Burnham and his partners, John Welborn Root and Charles Atwood, designed technically advanced steel frames with glass and terra cotta skins in the mid-1890s, in particular the Reliance Building;[3] these were made possible by professional engineers, in particular E. C. Shankland, and modern contractors, in particular George A. Fuller.

Louis Sullivan was perhaps the city's most philosophical architect. Realizing that the skyscraper represented a new form of architecture, he discarded historical precedent and designed buildings that emphasized their vertical nature. This new form of architecture, by Jenney, Burnham, Sullivan, and others, became known as the "Commercial Style," but it was called the "Chicago School" by later historians.

In 1892, the Masonic Temple surpassed the New York World Building, breaking its two-year reign as the tallest skyscraper, only to be surpassed itself two years later by another New York building.

Since 1963, a "Second Chicago School" emerged from the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. The ideas of structural engineer Fazlur Khan were also influential in this movement,[4] in particular his introduction of a new structural system of framed tubes in skyscraper design and construction. The first building to apply the tube-frame construction was the DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building which Khan designed and was completed in Chicago by 1966.[5] This laid the foundations for the tube structures of many other later skyscrapers, including his own constructions of the John Hancock Center[6] and Willis Tower (then named the Sears Tower)[7] in Chicago and can be seen in the construction of the World Trade Center, Petronas Towers, Jin Mao Building, and most other supertall skyscrapers since the 1960s.[8] Willis Tower would be the world's tallest building from its construction in 1974 until 1998 (when the Petronas Towers was built) and would remain the tallest for some categories of buildings until the Burj Khalifa was completed in early 2010.

Landmarks, monuments and public places
Chicago Avenue Pumping Station in the Old Chicago Water Tower District along the Magnificent Mile
St. John Cantius, one of Chicago's 'Polish Cathedrals'
Further information: List of Chicago Landmarks

Numerous architects have constructed landmark buildings of varying styles in Chicago. Among them are the so-called "Chicago seven": James Ingo Freed, Tom Beeby, Larry Booth, Stuart Cohen, James Nagle, Stanley Tigerman, and Ben Weese. Daniel Burnham led the design of the "White City" of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition which some historians claim led to a revival of Neo-Classical architecture throughout Chicago and the entire United States. It is true that the "White City" represented anything other than its host city's architecture. While Burnham did develop the 1909 "Plan for Chicago", perhaps the first comprehensive city plan in the U.S, in a Neo-Classical style, many of Chicago's most progressive skyscrapers occurred after the Exposition closed, between 1894 and 1899. Louis Sullivan said that the fair set the course of American architecture back by two decades, but even his finest Chicago work, the Schlesinger and Meyer (later Carson, Pirie, Scott) store, was built in 1899[9]—five years after the "White City" and ten years before Burnham's Plan.

Sullivan's comments should be viewed in the context of his complicated relationship with Burnham. Erik Larson's history of the Columbian Exposition, The Devil in the White City, correctly points out that the building techniques developed during the construction of the many buildings of the fair were entirely modern, even if they were adorned in a way Sullivan found aesthetically distasteful.[10]

Chicago is well known for its wealth of public art, including works by such artistic heavyweights as Chagall, Picasso, Miró and Abakanowicz that are all to be found outdoors.

City sculptures additionally honor the many people and topics reflecting the rich history of Chicago. There are monuments to:

  • Tadeusz Kościuszko by Kazimierz Chodzinski
  • Nicholas Copernicus by Bertel Thorvaldsen
  • Karel Havlíček Borovský by Joseph Strachovsky
  • Pope John Paul II, several different monuments (including by Czesław Dźwigaj)
  • Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk by Albin Polasek
  • Irv Kupcinet by Preston Jackson
  • Abraham Lincoln by Augustus Saint Gaudens
  • The Heald Square Monument featuring George Washington, Haym Salomon, and Robert Morris by Lorado Taft, (completed by Leonard Crunelle)
  • Christopher Columbus by Carl Brioschi
  • General John A. Logan by Augustus Saint Gaudens
  • Harry Caray by Omri Amrany and Lou Cella
  • Jack Brickhouse by Jerry McKenna
  • A memorial to the Haymarket affair by Mary Brogger
  • A memorial to the Great Northern Migration by Alison Saar

There are also plans to erect a 1:1-scale replica of Wacław Szymanowski's statue of Frédéric Chopin along Chicago's lakefront.[11] in addition to a different sculpture commemorating the artist in Chopin Park.

In the 21st century, Chicago has become a leading urban focus for landscape architecture, and the architecture of public places. Building on 19th-20th century legacies of architects such as, Burnham, Frederick Olmsted, Jens Jensen and Alfred Caldwell, modern projects include Millennium Park, Northerly Island, the 606, the Chicago Riverwalk, Maggie Daley Park, and proposals in Jackson Park.[12]

Residential architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School influenced both building design and the design of furnishings. In the early half of the 20th century, popular residential neighborhoods were developed with Chicago Bungalow style houses, many of which still exist. The two-flat apartment building, along with the larger three- and six-flat buildings, make up 30% of Chicago's housing stock.[13] A two-flat includes two apartments, each of which occupies a full floor, usually with a large bay window and with a grey stone or red brick facade. The apartments typically have the same layout with a large living and dining room area at the front, the kitchen at the back and the bedrooms running down one side of the unit.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Illinois Institute of Technology[14] campus in Chicago influenced the later Modern or International style. Van der Rohe's work is sometimes called the Second Chicago School.

Preservation

Many organizations, notably Preservation Chicago and Landmarks Illinois are devoted to promoting the preservation of historic neighborhoods and buildings in Chicago. Chicago has suffered from the same problems with sinking property values and urban decline as other major cities. Many historic structures have been threatened with demolition.

Timeline of notable buildings

Before 1900:

Chicago Avenue Pumping Station
Chicago's Home Insurance Building is regarded as the world's first modern steel–framed skyscraper.
The Manhattan Building (right) on South Dearborn Street
The Chicago Merchandise Mart
Marina City from across the river
John Hancock Center, with the Water Tower on the left
Chicago Board of Trade Building
Buckingham Fountain.
  • 1836 Henry B. Clarke House
  • 1869 Chicago Water Tower, William W. Boyington
  • 1872 Second Presbyterian Church 1936 S. Michigan, James Renwick 1900 Howard Van Doren Shaw
  • 1877 St. Stanislaus Kostka Church 1327 N. Noble, Patrick Keely
  • 1882–1883 Montauk Building, Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root. First building to be called a "skyscraper." (Demolished, 1902)
  • 1885 Home Insurance Building, Chicago School, William Le Baron Jenney (Demolished, 1931)
  • 1885 Palmer Mansion, early Romanesque and Norman Gothic, Henry Ives Cobb and Charles Sumner Frost (Demolished, 1950)
  • 1886 John J. Glessner House, Henry Hobson Richardson
  • 1887 Marshall Field Warehouse, Henry Hobson Richardson (Demolished, 1930)
  • 1888 Rookery Building, Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root, 1905 lobby redesign by Frank Lloyd Wright
  • 1889 Monadnock Building, Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root
  • 1889 Auditorium Building, Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler.
  • 1889 St. Mary of Perpetual Help Church, Henry Englebert
  • 1890 and 1894–1895 Reliance Building, Charles B. Atwood of Burnham & Root
  • 1890–1899 Gage Group Buildings, Holabird & Roche with Louis Sullivan
  • 1891 Manhattan Building, William Le Baron Jenney
  • 1892 Masonic Temple, Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root (Demolished, 1939)
  • 1892–1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Daniel Burnham, director of Works
  • 1893 Palace of Fine Arts, later Museum of Science and Industry, Beaux-Arts, Charles B. Atwood
  • 1893-1898 St. John Cantius Church, Alphonsus Druiding
  • 1894 Tree Studio Building and Annexes, Judge Lambert & Anne Tree via Parfitt Brothers; 1912 annex: Hill and Woltersdorf
  • 1895–1896 Fisher Building (Chicago), D.H. Burnham & Company, Charles B. Atwood
  • 1897 St. Paul Church 2234 S. Hoyne, Henry Schlacks
  • 1897 Chicago Library (now Chicago Cultural Center), Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
  • 1899 Sullivan Center, Louis Sullivan; 1905–1906, twelve-story south addition, D.H. Burnham & Company

1900-1939:

  • 1902 Marshall Field and Company Building, north State Street building D.H. Burnham & Company, Charles B. Atwood
  • 1903 Holy Trinity Cathedral, Chicago
  • 1905-1906 Holy Trinity Polish Mission, Herman Olszewski and William G. Krieg,
  • 1905 Chicago Federal Building
  • 1906 Sears Merchandise Building Tower, George G. Nimmons - William K. Fellows
  • 1907 Marshall Field and Company Building, south State Street building D.H. Burnham & Company, Charles B. Atwood
  • 1909 Robie House, Prairie School, Frank Lloyd Wright
  • 1912-1914 St. Adalbert's Church 1650 W.17th street, Henry Schlacks
  • 1912 Medina Temple North Wabash Avenue
  • 1912 Pulaski Park fieldhouse by Jens Jensen
  • 1914 Navy Pier
  • 1914-1920 St. Mary of the Angels Church 1850 N. Hermitage Ave, Worthmann and Steinbach
  • 1915 Holy Cross Church, Joseph Molitor
  • 1916 Navy Pier Auditorium, Charles Sumner Frost
  • 1917–1920 Michigan Avenue Bridge, Edward H. Bennett
  • 1917-1921 Basilica of St. Hyacinth 3636 West Wolfram Avenue, Worthmann & Steinbach
  • 1919-1924 Wrigley Building, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
  • 1921 Chicago Theatre, Beaux-Arts, Cornelius W. Rapp and George L. Rapp
  • 1921 Old Chicago Main Post Office, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
  • 1922 Tribune Tower, neo-Gothic, John Mead Howells and Raymond M. Hood
  • 1924 Soldier Field, Holabird & Roche; extensive renovation 2003, Ben Wood and Carlos Zapata
  • 1925 Uptown Theatre, Cornelius W. Rapp and George L. Rapp
  • 1927 Pittsfield Building, Graham, Anderson, Probst and White
  • 1929 Carbide & Carbon Building, Daniel and Hubert Burnham, sons of Daniel Burnham
  • 1929 Palmolive Building, Art Deco, Holabird & Root
  • 1929 John G. Shedd Aquarium, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
  • 1930 Chicago Board of Trade Building, Holabird & Root
  • 1930 All Saints Cathedral, J. G. Steinbach
  • 1930 Gateway Theatre Mason Rapp of Rapp & Rapp; extensive renovation 1979-1984, "Solidarity Tower" addition in 1985
  • 1930 Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, Ernest A. Grunsfeld, Jr.
  • 1931 Merchandise Mart, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
  • 1930s-1960s Illinois Institute of Technology, including S.R. Crown Hall, Second Chicago School, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
  • 1934 Field Building, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White

1940 to the present:

Styles and schools

Chicago architects used many design styles and belonged to a variety of architectural schools. Below is a list of those styles and schools.

Buildings - a "Top Forty" List

In 2010, Chicago Magazine selected 40 still existing properties for their historical and architectural importance,[19] opening an on-line forum for debate. The top ten chosen were:

See also

Notes
  1. Bach, IraJ. (1980). Chicago's Famous Buildings. The University of Chicago Press. pp. 106–107. ISBN 0-226-03396-1. LCCN 79-23365.
  2. Bach (1980), pp. 15.
  3. Bach (1980), pp. 27-28.
  4. Billington 1985, pp 234-235
  5. Alfred Swenson & Pao-Chi Chang (2008). "building construction". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  6. Bach (1980), pp. 146-147.
  7. Bach (1980), pp. 97-98.
  8. Ali, Mir M. (2001). "Evolution of Concrete Skyscrapers: from Ingalls to Jin mao". Electronic Journal of Structural Engineering. 1 (1): 2–14. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
  9. Bach (1980), pp. 34-37.
  10. Devil in the White City.
  11. "?".
  12. Kamin, Blair (July 19, 2015) "Landscape Design Takes Cemter Stage: Chicago leads way in architecture trend focus on public spaces" Sec 1. p 7.
  13. Chicago Architecture Center
  14. Bach (1980), pp. 182-183.
  15. "Chicago Landmarks - Style Guide". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
  16. Janet L. Whitmore. "Chicago as an Art Nouveau City - Strand 1: Art Nouveau Cities: between cosmopolitanism and local tradition" (PDF). Art Nouveau European Route : Congress. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
  17. "Chicago Landmarks - Craftsman". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Archived from the original on 24 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
  18. "15 Buildings That Embody Chicago's Postmodern Moment". Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  19. Chicago Magazine Top 40 Buildings in Chicago

References

Further reading
  • Pridmore, Jay and George A. Larson, Chicago Architecture and Design : Revised and expanded, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 2005. ISBN 0-8109-5892-9.
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