Architecture of Chicago
The buildings and architecture of Chicago reflect the city's history and multicultural heritage, featuring prominent buildings in a variety of styles. Most structures downtown were destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 (an exception being the Water Tower).[1]
Chicago's architectural styles include the
Skyscrapers
Beginning in the early 1880s, architectural pioneers of the
Louis Sullivan 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 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 "
Landmarks, monuments and public places
Numerous architects have constructed landmark buildings of varying styles in Chicago. Among them are the so-called "Chicago seven":
Erik Larson's history of the Columbian Exposition, The Devil in the White City, says 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's
City sculptures additionally honor people and topics from the history of Chicago. There are monuments to:
- 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 Eugene Jackson
- 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
- 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
In the 21st century, Chicago has become an urban focus for
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.
Preservation
Many organizations, including
Timeline of notable buildings
1836–1900
- 1836 Henry B. Clarke House
- 1869 Chicago Water Tower, William W. Boyington
- 1874 Second Presbyterian Church 1936 S. Michigan, James Renwick 1900 Howard Van Doren Shaw(1874)
- 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 Engelbert
- 1890 and 1894–1895 Burnham & Root
- 1890–1899 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 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 D.H. Burnham & Company
1900–1939:
- 1902 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, Henry Ives Cobb
- 1906 Sears Merchandise Building Tower, George G. Nimmons - William K. Fellows
- 1907 D.H. Burnham & Company, Charles B. Atwood
- 1909 Robie House, Prairie School, Frank Lloyd Wright
- 1910–1911 Eighth Church of Christ, Scientist, Leon E. Stanhope. Designated a Chicago Landmark on June 9, 1993.[15]
- 1912–1914 St. Adalbert's Church 1650 W.17th street, Henry Schlacks
- 1912 Medinah Temple North Wabash Avenue
- 1912 Pulaski Park fieldhouse by Jens Jensen
- 1914 Navy Pier
- 1914-1920 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 Raymond M. Hood(1922)
- 1924 Holabird & Roche; extensive renovation 2003, Ben Wood and Carlos Zapata
- 1925 Uptown Theatre, Cornelius W. Rapp and George L. Rapp
- 1927 Graham, Anderson, Probst and White
- 1929 Carbide & Carbon Building, Daniel and Hubert Burnham, sons of Daniel Burnham
- 1929 Holabird & Root
- 1929 John G. Shedd Aquarium, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
- 1930 Holabird & Root
- 1930 All Saints Cathedral, J. G. Steinbach
- 1930 Rapp & Rapp; extensive renovation 1979 to 1984, "Solidarity Tower" addition in 1985
- 1930 Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, Ernest A. Grunsfeld Jr.
- 1931 Merchandise Mart, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
- 1930s-1960s 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:
- 1940–1942 St. Wenceslaus church, 3400 N. Monticello Ave, McCarthy, Smith and Eppig
- 1957 Inland Steel Building, Bruce Graham and Walter Netsch, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill,
- 1964 Marina City, Bertrand Goldberg
- 1968 John Heinrich and George Schipporeit
- 1968 Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist. Harry Weese
- 1969 John Hancock Center, Bruce Graham, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
- 1973 330 North Wabash, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- 1974 Willis Tower, Bruce Graham, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (previously the Sears Tower)
- 1974 Edward Durrell Stone(earlier names were Standard Oil Building and Amoco Building)
- 1977 St. Joseph the Betrothed Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
- 1979-85 James R. Thompson Center, Helmut Jahn
- 1989 NBC Tower, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
- 1990 Kenzo Tange
- 1990 Athletic Club Illinois Center, Kisho Kurokawa
- 1991 Thomas Beeby
- 1991 Guaranteed Rate Field, Home of the White Sox
- 1991 Museum of Contemporary Art, Josef Paul Kleihues
- 1992 77 West Wacker Drive, Ricardo Bofill
- 2004 Millennium Park, Frank Gehry, Kathryn Gustafson, Anish Kapoor, Jaume Plensa, and others, a showcase for 21st century modernism.
- 2009 155 North Wacker, Goettsch Partners
- 2009 Trump International Hotel and Tower, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
- 2010 Studio Gang Architects
- 2019 NEMA, Rafael Viñoly Architects
- 2019 Robert A.M. Stern Architects
- 2020 110 North Wacker, Goettsch Partners
- 2021 Studio Gang Architects(2021)
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.
- American Four-Square[16]
- Art Deco/Moderne[16]
- Art Nouveau[17]
- Arts & Crafts[16]
- Chateauesque[16]
- Chicago School[16] (Also called Commercial Style)
- City Beautiful
- Classical Revival[16] (also known as Neoclassical architecture)
- Colonial Revival[16]
- Craftsman[18] (also known as American Craftsman)
- Dutch Colonial[16]
- Eastlake/Stick[16]
- Edwardian architecture[16]
- Gothic Revival[16]
- Greek Revival[16]
- International[16](sometimes called Second Chicago School)
- Italianate[16]
- Middle Eastern[16]
- Modern
- Oriental[16]
- Postmodern[19]
- Prairie School[16]
- Queen Anne[16]
- Renaissance RevivalNeo-Renaissance
- Romanesque Revival[16] also known as Neo-Romanesque
- Second Empire[16]
- Spanish RevivalSpanish Colonial Revival
- Sullivanesque[16] (for style elements and examples see Louis Sullivan)
- Tudor Revival[16]
- Workers Cottage[16]
Buildings - a "Top Forty" List
In 2010,
- 1: John Hancock Center, 875 N. Michigan Ave. (1969)
- 2: Rookery Building, 209 S. LaSalle St. (1885–1888)
- 3: 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments, (1952)
- 4: Monadnock Building, 53 W. Jackson Blvd. (1891 and 1893)
- 5: Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, 1 S. State St. (1899)
- 6: S. R. Crown Hall, 3360 S. State St. (1956)
- 7: Auditorium Building, 430 S. Michigan Ave. (1889)
- 8: Frederick C. Robie House, 5757 S. Woodlawn Ave. (1909)
- 9: Farnsworth House (Plano, Illinois), 14520 River Rd., Plano, IL (1951)
- 10: Sears Tower(now the Willis Tower), 233 S. Wacker Dr. (1974)
See also
- Chicago Architecture Foundation
- Inside Chicago Walking Tours
- Chicago Architecture Biennial
- Chicago Loop
- Chicago neighborhoods
- Landmarks of Chicago
- List of tallest buildings in Chicago
- Parks of Chicago
- Polish Cathedral style
- Visual arts of Chicago
Notes
- ^ Bach 1980, pp. 106–107.
- ^ Bach (1980), pp. 15.
- ^ Bach (1980), pp. 27–28.
- ^ Billington 1985, pp 234-235
- ^ Alfred Swenson & Pao-Chi Chang (2008). "building construction". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
- ^ Bach (1980), pp. 146–147.
- ^ Bach (1980), pp. 97–98.
- from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
- ^ Bach (1980), pp. 34–37.
- ^ Devil in the White City.
- ^ "Chopin Monument in Chicago".
- ^ Kamin, Blair (July 19, 2015) "Landscape Design Takes Center Stage: Chicago leads way in architecture trend focus on public spaces" Sec 1. p 7.
- ^ Chicago Architecture Center
- ^ Bach (1980), pp. 182–183.
- ^ "Eighth Church of Christ, Scientist". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. Archived from the original on 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2007-06-26.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y "Chicago Landmarks - Style Guide". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Chicago Landmarks - Craftsman". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Archived from the original on 24 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
- ^ "15 Buildings That Embody Chicago's Postmodern Moment". Retrieved 2018-09-23.
- Chicago Magazine Top 40 Buildings in Chicago
References
- Bach, IraJ. (1980). Chicago's Famous Buildings. The University of Chicago Press. LCCN 79-23365.
- Billington, David P. (1985). The Tower and the Bridge: The New Art of Structural Engineering. ISBN 0-691-02393-X.
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.
External links
Architecture of Chicago.