City Hall-County Building
41°53′02″N 87°37′54″W / 41.88386°N 87.631631°W
City Hall-County Building | |
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Holabird & Roche |
The City Hall-County Building, commonly known as City Hall, is a 12-story building in Chicago, Illinois that houses the seats of government of the City of Chicago and Cook County.[1][2] The building's west side (City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St.)[3] holds the offices of the mayor, city clerk, and city treasurer; some city departments; offices of alderpersons of Chicago's 50 wards; and the Chicago City Council's chambers.[4][5][6] The building's east side (County Building, 118 N. Clark St.)[7] houses offices of the Government of Cook County, including the Cook County Board of Commissioners' chambers.[8]
The building spans a city block bounded by
The building was designed by the architectural firm
The "fifth floor" is sometimes used as a
History
Past Buildings (1837-1908)
The first Chicago City Hall in 1837 was in leased chambers in the Saloon Building on the corner of Lake and Clark Streets.[11] The city next leased space in a building owned by Nancy Chapman, from 1842 until 1848, when Old Market Hall was constructed in LaSalle Street.[12] The city owned market hall held city council business on its second floor, with shops below until 1853. A new combined city hall and county courthouse was then constructed in the public square made by Randolph, LaSalle, Washington, and Clark Streets (this building, which later burned, is sometimes referred to as, Old Chicago Courthouse). President Abraham Lincoln's body lay in state at the old courthouse city hall prior to his burial in Springfield in 1865.[11] The courthouse bell was rung in 1871 to raise the alarm during the Great Chicago Fire before the hall burned to the ground.[14]
A hastily constructed hall nicknamed the 'old rookery' was built around a water tank that survived the fire at LaSalle and Adams streets—today, that site houses the Rookery Building (built 1888). In 1885, the city and county completed construction of a new combined building in the French Empire style at the present site (and the site of the old courthouse). This building was demolished and replaced in 1905 by the present and larger classical revival structure.[14]
Holabird & Roche Building (1908-present)
The city and county jointly sponsored an architectural competition that
The building is distinguished by its colossal, 118 feet-tall, 9 feet-wide Woodbury granite Corinthian orders - among the largest ever built.[12][15] The columns are hollow and were built in 5 feet-high segments.[12] Altogether, the outer walls and orders are clad in 180,000 cubic feet of granite weighing 30 million pounds.[12]
The ground floor lobby is clad in solid polished Botticino marble.[12]
The exterior cornice was removed in 1948 During a major renovation project initiated in 1967, seventy-five percent of the interior of the building from basement to roof was renovated, including new suspended ceilings, partitions, flooring, lighting, wall finishes, bathrooms and boilers.[12] The renovation was overseen by the Office of the City Architect with Holabird & Root serving as consulting architect.[12]
The adjacent Richard J. Daley Center was constructed as an annex in the 1960s as the city and county governments outgrew the city hall-county building.[12]
Features
Entrance Reliefs
The main (west) City Hall entrance features four reliefs sculpted by John Flanagan.[18] Each of the panels represents one of four principal concerns of city government: playgrounds, schools, parks, and water supply.[18]
The main (east) County Building entrance features four additional high reliefs: a man studying a scroll; a man holding a sailing ship and fishing net; and two near-identical reliefs depicting an older version of the county seal flanked by two young men.[1]
Green Roof
In 2001, 38,800 square feet (3,600 m2) roof gardens were completed atop the west wing serving as a pilot project to assess the impact green roofs would have on the
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Roof garden atop city hall
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Botticino marble lobby
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City Hall-County Building as seen in the January 1919 issue ofNational Geographic
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A fasces above an entrance
In media
The exterior and parts of the interior of the building were featured in the climax of the 1980 comedy film The Blues Brothers, in which the titular characters, Jake and Elwood Blues, race to the building to beat a property tax deadline while being chased by a horde of police officers, firefighters, and the military.[citation needed]
The building's interiors of were featured in the 1993 blockbuster movie The Fugitive, where Richard Kimble (played by Harrison Ford) is chased down the stairs by U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones), until spilling into the lobby, where Kimble narrowly escapes being apprehended by Gerard and his men.[19]
Agencies
The Following Agencies are located in City Hall:
- Elected Offices:
- Office of the Mayor - 5th Floor
- Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities
- City Council - 2nd Floor (Council Chambers)
- City Clerk - 1st Floor
- Treasurer - Room 106
- Office of the Mayor - 5th Floor
- Buildings Department - Room 900
- Department of Finance - 7th Floor
- Department of Law - Suite 600
- Business Affairs and Consumer Protection - 8th Floor
- Department of Planning and Development - 10th Floor
- Department of Streets and Sanitation - Room 1107
- Office of Emergency Management and Communications
- Department of Procurement Services - Room 806
- Department Human Resources
References
- ^ a b c d "City Hall-County Building". City of Chicago - Chicago Landmarks. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ "Green Roofs on Historic Buildings: City Hall, Chicago, Illinois (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ "Contact Us". www.chicago.gov. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
- ^ "Office of the Mayor". www.chicago.gov. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ "Contact Chicago Treasurer's Office | Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin". Chicago Treasurer's Office | Melissa Conyears-Ervin - Chicago Treasurer | CTO | Chicago Illinois. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ "Ward Offices". www.chicago.gov. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ "Cook County Facilities - County Building". cookcountyil.gov. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
- ^ "Secretary to the Board of Commissioners". www.cookcountyil.gov. December 12, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ "9. First floor plan, published in 'Architectural Record', Vol 31, No. 4, April 1912, p 356, courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago City Hall, 121 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, Cook County, IL". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ a b "CHICAGO'S SEVEN CITY HALLS". WTTW Chicago. November 22, 2013. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Then and Now: Chicago's City Halls". WTTW Chicago. December 2, 2013. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Viehe-Naess, Ivan (September 1, 1981). "Chicago City Hall" (PDF). Library of Congress. America's City Halls. National Park Service. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ Shepard, Steven. "Black women make history in Chicago mayoral election". Retrieved February 27, 2019.
- ^ a b "The City Hall and Courthouse Buildings". chicagology.com. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
- ^ Wood, Paul (August 6, 2007). "Woodbury Granite Co.: a rural industrial giant". Times Argus. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/il/il0400/il0439/data/il0439data.pdf
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
- ^ a b Reardon, Patrick T. (July 27, 2004). "Street smarts". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
- ^ "Here Now, Every Chicago Location in The Fugitive Mapped - Curbed Chicago". March 13, 2015.