The Loop – Part One
Architecturally speaking, Chicago would not be what it is today if it were not for the Great Fire of 1871. Following the fire, wood buildings were banned. To make the more expensive brick, stone, iron, and steel buildings economical, they had to build up instead of out. Although many early buildings of significance remain, many have been lost along the way. Arguably, the first skyscraper (an amazing ten stories) was the Montauk building, completed in 1883 and designed by Burnham and Root. The first skyscraper using a steel frame (and thus usually credited as the first skyscraper), William Le Baron Jenney’s ten-story Home Insurance building, was completed two years later. Both were later demolished. But others remain, like the Reliance Building (1895), and Carson Pirie Scott (1899).
333 West Wacker Drive
At the northwest corner of the Loop, on the only triangular block, the curved green glass facade of 333 West Wacker Drive mirrors the bend in the Chicago River. The first skyscraper designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (with some help from Perkins and Will), it was completed in 1983, and won the National AIA Honors Award in 1984. Since then it has become one of the most famous all-glass skyscrapers in the world. In 1995, Chicago Tribune readers voted it their favorite building in Chicago. Below the glass tower, the base is grey and black marble and granite.
James R. Thompson Center
Finished in 1985, Helmut Jahn’s James R. Thompson Center raised a few eyebrows with its rounded shape and bold colors. The building houses many agencies of the State of Illinois, and features a huge cylindrical atrium. In the plaza stands a sculpture by Jean Dubuffet entitled Monument With Standing Beast.
Government workers soon discovered that the building was too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Eventually, the cooling solution chosen was to freeze eight 100,000-pound ice blocks every night, then melt them as coolant for the air-conditioning system during the day. That seems efficient.
Chicago Title and Trust Building
The Chicago Title and Trust Building, designed by Kohn Petersen Fox, was finished in 1992 on the site of the downtown Greyhound Bus Station. The original proposal called for a twin tower to the north, which has yet to happen.
City and County Building
Designed by Holabird and Roche in the Classical Revival style, the County Building was completed in 1908 and City Hall in 1911.
Richard J. Daley Center
The Daley Center was the first skyscraper to use self-weathering Cor-Ten steel for the exterior skin. Finished by C.F. Murphy Associates (later Murphy/Jahn), in 1965, the building was also noted for the long spans between the four columns on each side, and for being the first public building in Chicago designed in the International Style rather than classical. The large plaza, often used for cultural events and protests, features a large, untitled sculpture by Picasso. This was also the location shoot for the end of The Blues Brothers, where they crash the Bluesmobile into the lobby.
Bank One Plaza
The Bank One building and plaza stand on the former location of six earlier skyscrapers. Completed in 1969 by C.F. Murphy Associates, the building is 200 feet wide at the base, narrowing to 95 feet at the top. The terraced plaza features Marc Chagall’s Four Seasons mosaic and a large fountain.
Inland Steel Building
When the Inland Steel building was completed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in 1957, it was the first major structure within the Loop since the Depression, and the first downtown building for SOM. It was the first skyscraper to use steel pilings (most in Chicago use concrete caissons), first to place the steel structure outside the building envelope (to maximize rentable floor area), first to have an underground parking garage, and first to install air-conditioning. The facade is covered in stainless steel.
Bank One Center
Ricardo Bofill’s Bank One Center was finished in 2003, on the former site of Montgomery Ward’s flagship store. The old department store was demolished in the mid 1980’s in preparation for the first of two seventy- to eighty-five-story skyscrapers proposed for the site. Neither of these SOM projects became a reality, so the site was vacant for almost twenty years until the Bank One Center was built.
Reliance Building
The Reliance building was designed by Burnham and Root, and completed in 1895. Considered a direct ancestor of modern steel-and-glass skyscrapers, it was one of the first entirely steel-framed buildings, and featured much more glass on the facade than previous structures. Probably the greatest innovation of Chicago architects, starting with William Le Baron Jenney, was the development of the internal steel frame structure. Previously, the exterior walls of buildings were part of the structure. With the internal steel frame, which came to be known as the “Chicago skeleton”, the exterior walls no longer held up the building. Therefore, massive materials like brick and stone were no longer so necessary, and skyscrapers began to feature more and more glass over the years. In the late 1990’s the Reliance Building was extensively renovated to become the Hotel Burnham.
Carson Pirie Scott
Originally built for the Schlesinger and Mayer department store in 1899, the Carson Pirie Scott building was designed by Louis Sullivan. D.H. Burnham Co. designed an addition in 1906, and Holabird and Root another in 1961. The building features extensive ironwork ornamentation on the lower faces, primarily in Art Nouveau style, and terra cotta above. Unfortunately, the original projecting cornice at the top was later replaced with a flat terra cotta parapet. In 1904 Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company bought out Schlesinger and Mayer, and in 1998 they were in turn bought out by Saks (though the name remains). When I was there, the main entry was partially obscured by scaffolding (and a self-congratulating sign) as restoration work continues. They plan to restore the original cornice in the next few years.
Harold Washington Library
The Harold Washington Library dates from 1991, though at first glance it looks like turn-of-the-century Chicago School style. If not for the square-grid curtainwall system at the top, you might never know. Personally I think it’s a bit ostentatious, even if it is the largest public library building in the world.
Old Colony Building
The Old Colony building, designed by Holabird and Roche, was built in 1894. It features rounded bays on all four corners, and was the first building to use portal arches (a technology borrowed from bridges) to handle wind loads.
Monadnock Building
The Monadnock block offers a unique transition between building methods. The first section was built in 1891 by Burnham and Root, and the other in 1893 by Holabird and Roche. The sixteen-story northern part is the tallest building in the world supported by load-bearing masonry walls, which are six feet thick at the base. The southern addition, on the other hand, is supported by a steel frame. The two parts look very similar, except for the flared base on the northern half, and more detailed cornice on the southern half.
Riding the L