The Loop – Part Two
After lunch, I headed into the Loop to see a few buildings I had missed on the first round. Actually, some of these photos were taken in the morning before the cruise, but for simplicity I’ve included them here.
As I crossed Michigan Avenue at a major intersection, I was entertained by the people directing traffic, particularly one middle-aged woman who was yelling at some drivers ( “Pay at-TEN-tion TO the TRAF-fic!” ) and writing down the tag number of another who zoomed around the corner with blatant disregard.
Carbide and Carbon Building
The Carbide and Carbon building was completed in 1929 by Burnham Brothers (sons of Daniel Burnham) for — feature this — the Union Carbide and Carbon Company. You have probably seen one invention of the Union Carbide company many times: the dry-cell battery, which they sold under the Eveready name. Today Union Carbide is a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company, and the Carbide and Carbon building is the Hard Rock Hotel.
The building was designed in the Art Deco style, and features black polished granite at the base, and dark green and gold terra cotta above. The vivid colors were unusual for Art Deco buildings in Chicago, most of which used light grey Bedford limestone, but the building has been compared to the American Radiator Building built in New York in 1923 by Hood and Howells (who also designed the Tribune tower). Popular legend holds that the Burnham brothers based the colors and shape of the building on a gold-foiled champagne bottle seen at an office holiday party.
Art Nouveau style Metra station
The Metra, Chicago’s other rapid transit system, primarily functions as suburban commuter trains, bringing the lemmings to downtown in the morning and then back out in the evening. This Metra station entrance at Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street, installed in 2002, is a replica of the Art Nouveau Metropolitan subway stations designed by Hector Guimard around 1900. The city of Paris provided the replica to Chicago, produced from original molds. Paris has the Metro, Chicago has the Metra… get it? Oh those clever Chicagoans.
Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park
Four years late and $325 million over budget, Millennium Park is set to open in July 2004. The dominant feature of the park (which is really just a twenty-four-acre section of the expansive Grant Park) is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, designed by Frank garish, er I mean Gehry. The band shell will be large enough for an orchestra and chorus of almost three hundred. There will be fixed seating for 4,000 people, and additional lawn area for 7,000 more. The large trellis system will include speakers spread throughout. While I usually don’t care for Gehry’s work, a band shell in a park seems like an appropriate place to do something weird.
The Rookery
The Rookery was completed in 1888 by Burnham and Root. The name comes from a temporary city hall and water tank erected here after the Fire of 1871, which seemed to be quite popular with pigeons. The structure of the building is a combination of wall-bearing masonry and a metal skeletal frame comprised of cast iron main columns, steel internal columns, and wrought iron spandrel beams. In 1905, Frank Lloyd Wright remodeled the lobby.
Insurance Exchange Building
At one time, the Insurance Exchange Building held more insurance companies than any other building in the world. It was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, and built in two phases, one in 1912, the other in 1928. The structure was sized to accommodate a future expansion which would almost double the height, but this has never happened. In 2001, a major renovation was completed by Lucien Lagrange Architects, including the glass entry canopy shown here.
Sears Tower
Above all else in Chicago stands the 1,450-foot Sears Tower, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and opened in 1974. The building is composed of nine tubes, each seventy-five feet square, clad in black anodized aluminum panels and bronze-tinted windows. You missed your chance to buy it in early 2004, for $835 million. It was the tallest building in the world until the Petronas Towers in Malaysia opened in 1998. Life was simple before then, but now things are much more complicated in the “world’s tallest” competition, and changing rapidly as well. So, ready? Ok.
Currently, in June 2004, the Sears Tower is still the world’s tallest by pinnacle height (which includes the two radio towers on top), followed by the John Hancock building and the Petronas Towers. When Taipei 101 and the Shanghai World Financial Center are completed, it appears that in this category they will take second and third place. By official height (which I believe is height of the highest occupied floor), the Petronas Towers are first, followed by the Sears Tower and the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai. However, by 2007, Taipei 101, Shanghai World Financial Center, Union Square Phase 7 in Hong Kong, and the Complex Federation in Moscow will join the Petronas Towers ahead of the Sears Tower. By roof height, the Sears Tower is first, followed by the Petronas Towers and Two International Finance Center in Hong Kong. Again by 2007, The Shanghai World Financial Center, Union Square Phase 7, and Taipei 101 will be ahead of the Sears Tower. A year later, it may become simple again, at least for a while. A new SOM project, the Burj Dubai under construction in the United Arab Emirates, is scheduled for completion in 2008. The final height has not been revealed, but skyscraperpage.com shows it to be over 2,300 feet!
Citicorp Center (Northwestern Atrium Center)
In addition to housing Citibank offices, this 1987 Murphy/Jahn building serves as a Union Pacific Railroad station and a Metra commuter rail station. The recessed telescoping arches over the main entrance reference a similar technique used by Louis Sullivan for the Transportation Pavilion at the Columbian Exposition in 1893.
ABN AMRO Plaza Technology Center
Batcolumn
Printers Row
Starting in the 1880’s, printing and publishing firms began to set up facilities along three north-south streets near the Dearborn railroad station, just south of the Loop. The “extra” streets of Federal and Plymouth, on either side of Dearborn, create very small east-west blocks, and the narrow depth of these lots provided ample natural light for engraving and typesetting operations. In the 1960’s, the printing businesses all but vanished, and the buildings were remodeled for commercial, retail, and residential tenants.
Dearborn Station
The once grand Dearborn Station, in Richardsonian Romanesque style, was opened in 1885 for the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad, complete with twelve-story clock tower. By 1920, it was serving twenty-five railway lines and 17,000 passengers each day. From the 1920’s through the 1940’s, it was the railroad gateway to the West, functioning as Santa Fe Railroad’s primary departure point for long-distance trains like the Super Chief and El Capitan. In 1940, South Loop businessmen attempted to sabotage expansion of the station facilities by tearing up portions of the tracks. This plot was foiled by continuously running a train over the tracks day and night. With the advent of Amtrak, however, passenger service at the station declined in the 1970’s and stopped altogether in 1985. In 1986 it was converted into commercial office and retail space.
Prairie Avenue Bookshop
Before leaving downtown, I had to stop by the Prairie Avenue Bookshop, the largest architectural bookstore in the world. Although originally next door to H.H. Richardson’s Glessner House in the Prairie Avenue Historic District (one of the areas of Chicago I didn’t get to), the store later moved to Printer’s Row, and then to the current location on Wabash Avenue. In addition to 20,000 new and used books, the store features some furniture by designers such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van de Rohe, Le Corbusier, Stanley Tigerman, and Joseph Hoffman. Well, I could have spent hours there, if it wasn’t approaching their closing time and if I was not completely and utterly worn out from four days of walking Chicago. I browsed around for about half an hour, and managed to escape with no more than a $6 book, an amazing feat I assure you. An unexpected twist to my visit was running into Kevin’s friend Karl from the party, who works at the store.
I trudged to the nearest Red Line stop and headed back north to the Tremont, where I collapsed for a while before packing to leave early in the morning.
Architecture River Cruise