Mather Tower
Mather Tower (later Lincoln Tower, as designated on the
The 521-foot (159 m)-high building is sometimes called "The Inverted Spyglass" by Chicagoans due to its highly unusual design, an 18-story octagonal tower atop a more conventional 24-story rectangular "box." Briefly the tallest building in Chicago at the time of its completion in 1928, it remains the city's most slender high-rise structure at only 100 by 65 feet (30 by 20 m) at its base. The interior space within the upper octagonal spire contains the least square footage per floor of any Chicago skyscraper.[1]
History
It was designed by Herbert Hugh Riddle (1875–1939), the architect of the Chicago Theological Seminary,[2] as headquarters for the Mather Stock Car Company, a builder of rail cars for transporting livestock. Its design was greatly influenced by the pioneering Chicago Zoning Ordinance of 1923, which placed no limit on the height of new buildings as long as the surface area of the structure's uppermost floor did not exceed 25% of its footprint. This resulted in a multitude of tall, slender, "setback" towers, of which the Mather is an extreme and unusual example. The top floor of the octagonal spire has only 280 square feet (26 m2) of floor space.[2]
Mather Company's founder,
By the 1990s the building had fallen into significant disrepair. In 2000 the 4-story "cupola" at the top of the building was demolished because of structural deterioration and safety concerns, after chunks of terra cotta began falling from the facade.[3] Damage was sufficiently extensive that consideration was given to dismantling the remaining 17 stories of the octagonal spire as well.[1]
In 2000 Masterworks Development Corporation purchased the structure and undertook a complete restoration. In November 2002, the final phase of the project was initiated when a helicopter lifted the steel framework for a new cupola from a river barge to the top of the tower.[4]
The lower, rectangular portion of the building currently houses the River Hotel, while the octagonal upper stories are occupied by a branch of the Club Quarters chain of membership corporate accommodations.
Mather Tower was designated a Chicago Historic Landmark in 2001,[5] and in 2006 it received a National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.[6]
Architecture and Structure
The
As previously mentioned, the Mather Tower was clothed in a
Contrary to what it may seem, the deterioration of the Mather Tower, prior to its restoration in the early 2000s, did not originate in the falling terra cotta cladding itself. Although the material is durable and long lasting, it was still a relatively new kind of cladding (especially for skyscrapers) and came with some unpredicted design properties. Thermocycling along with a combination of compressive forces were not necessarily accounted for in the early 20th century design phase, which are properties that are now known to cause deterioration in facades like terra cotta. In previous designs, the mass of the masonry in walls would absorb moisture, therefore these new ideas on thermal cycling were not needed. With more structures evolving from masonry to steel, methods previously depended on would no longer cut it.[12] When considering the need for the restoration of the Mather Tower, its likely, although not specifically stated, that the falling cladding was a result of cracking terra cotta due to high amounts of strain from the structure itself.
References
- ^ a b The Mather Tower. Essential American Architecture. Archived 2010-09-17 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ ISBN 0-393-73155-3. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ Construction Begins on Mather Tower Cupola. Emporis Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ Mather Tower image compilation. [1][dead link] Retrieved August 23, 2016.
- ^ "Mather Tower". Chicago Landmarks. City of Chicago. 2003. Archived from the original on 2007-10-28. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
- ^ "National Trust Presents National Preservation Honor Award to Mather Tower in Chicago" (Press release). National Trust for Historic Preservation. 2006-11-02. Retrieved 2006-11-06.
- ^ "Neo-Gothic". www.marcmaison.com. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
- ^ "Gothic Revival | Definition, Style, Architecture, Examples, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
- ^ "What Is Terracotta? | Wonderopolis". www.wonderopolis.org. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
- ^ "An Architect's Guide To: Terracotta Cladding - Architizer Journal". Journal. 2017-11-24. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
- ^ "An Expert's Guide To Architectural Terra Cotta | Ludowici Roof Tile". 2020-07-29. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
- S2CID 108632872– via Palgrave Macmillan LTD.