CHICAGO SCHOOL

OF
ARCHITECTURE
CHICAGO SCHOOL
CHICAGO SCHOOL
CHICAGO SCHOOL
CHICAGO SCHOOL
CHICAGO SCHOOL
CHICAGO SCHOOL
CHICAGO SCHOOL
 CHICAGO
• 3rd largest city in the United States - with a population of nearly 3
million
• Incorporated in 1833 between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi
River
• Experienced rapid rebuilding and growth after the Great Chicago Fire
of 1871 destroyed almost a third of the city
• Increased land prices due to the increase in population and scarcity
of land
• So, 1st skyscraper constructed during rebuilding period in 1885 using
steel-skeleton construction
• Many architects relocated to the city from New England for
construction of 1893 World Columbian Exposition
 CHICAGO
• Exposition drew around 2.75 million visitors – considered
among the most influential world fairs in history
• Many architects including Burnham, Root, Adler and
Sullivan went on to design other well known Chicago
landmarks because of the Exposition
• Today, Chicago's skyline is among the world tallest
• Three tallest in the city are the Sears Tower (tallest in U.S.),
the Aon Center and the John Hancock Center
• Chicago as one of largest cities and greatest collections of
tall commercial buildings, "skyscraper"
 SKYSCRAPERS
• Very tall, continuously habitable building
• Coincidence of several technologies and social developments
• Need for bldgs that rise rather than spread due to increasing
population density in urban areas
• Installation of 1st safe passenger elevator (in Haughwout Department
Store, New York City) in 1857 made practical buildings 4-5 storied tall
• Use of steel frame made possible construction of truly tall buildings
• Structural definition based on steel skeleton as opposed to
constructions of load-bearing masonry, which passed their practical
limit in 1891 with Chicago's Monadnock Building
 SKYSCRAPERS
• 1st skyscraper was 10-storey Home Insurance
Building in Chicago, built in 1884–1885
Architect, Major William Le Baron Jenney Led
to "Chicago skeleton" form of construction
• Sullivan's Wainwright Building in St. Louis,
1890, was 1st steel frame building, considered
-1st true skyscraper
• Early skyscrapers emerged in Chicago, London,
and New York toward end of 19th century
• Chicago's skyline wasn’t allowed to grow until
1960; over next 15 years many towers were
built - 442-m (1,451-ft) Sears Tower
• Today, however, many tall skyscrapers are built
almost entirely with reinforced concrete
 The
CHICAGO SCHOOL
• Chicago School - group of Modern American Architecture in Chicago,
Illinois at the turn of the 20th century (between 1883 to early 1990s)
• Also known as Commercial style
• Among 1st to promote new technology of steel-frame construction in
commercial buildings and developed spatial aesthetic which
influenced developments in European Modernism
• Development started after Great Fire 1871 - Chicago was boomtown
• By 1890 population of more than million and became 2nd largest
metropolis in United States
• Value of land soared - low buildings inefficient use of space
 The
CHICAGO SCHOOL
• Innovative tall office building were perfected – key, invention of
elevator
• Chicago - special problem - stood upon swamp
• 1873, Frederick Baumann proposed each vertical element of building
- separate foundation ending in broad pad – distribute weight over
marshy ground
• Used in Montauk Block (1882) by Burnham & Root
• But Baumann's foundation occupied basement space and could
support only 10 stories
• Adler & Louis Sullivan developed better solution
• Adler devised vast raft of timbers, steel beams & iron I-beams to float
Auditorium Building (1889)
 The
CHICAGO SCHOOL
• Early structures - load-bearing walls of brick and stone – replaced by
metal skeleton frame – architects perfected skyscraper
• William Jenney constructed world's 1st first completely iron-and-
steel-framed building – Home Insurance Building in 1884
• When Home Insurance Company asked Jenney to design office tower,
he designed iron skeleton to bear weight of structure – but Carnegie-
Phipps Steel Company supplied steel instead of iron beams
• Advantages - almost fireproof; more interior rental space; new floors
be added easily; exterior walls no longer holding building, could be
replaced by glass – important in early era of electrical lighting
 The
CHICAGO SCHOOL
• Inspiration for Chicago style – 2 disparate sources
• 1st - Henry Hobson Richardson – Romanesque - Marshall Field
Wholesale Store of 1885 - round-arched building – altered design of
Adler & Sullivan's Auditorium Building
• Solon S. Beman’s brick and granite Pullman Building of 1883 and Fine
Arts Building of 1885 – influence Burnham & Root to embrace
Romanesque for Art Institute and Rookery, 1888
• Sullivan - interior of Auditorium Theater and entrance to Chicago
Stock Exchange of 1894 brought Chicago Romanesque to most
complete and impressive development
• Caisson construction for Chicago Stock Exchange - routine for tall
buildings across US
 The
CHICAGO SCHOOL
• 2nd - nature of material adopted – steel - led in two directions
• 1 – sinuous curve –examples - light court of Rookery and stairways
and elevator grills in Adler & Sullivan's Chicago Stock Exchange
• 2 – aesthetic implication of iron and steel - daringly expressed in
Holabird and Roche's 13-story office tower, Tacoma Building of 1889
– 1st building constructed using rivets
• Also controlling factor in upper floors of Adler & Sullivan's Stock
Exchange, where Romanesque arches of base eschewed above for
simplified elevation with interplay of planes of flat wall surface
against those of rhythmic bays
 ELEMENTS OF CHICAGO SCHOOL
• First to promote new technologies of steel-frame construction in
commercial buildings
• This had two prerequisites
• 1. Elevator, invented by Elisha Graves Otis in1853, which
would at once allow travel to great height, optimizes space and be
fire proof
• 2. Use of Steel skeleton (by William Le Baron Jenney), in
contrast to the cast iron type, proved not only reliable under stress
but also under strain and formed a completely rigid structural system
clad with masonry to make it more heat-resistant
 ELEMENTS OF CHICAGO SCHOOL
• Use of limited amounts
of exterior ornament
• Sometimes elements of
neoclassical
architecture are used in
Chicago School
skyscrapers
 ELEMENTS OF CHICAGO SCHOOL
• Many Chicago School skyscrapers contain the three parts of a
classical column
• 1st floor as base, middle stories (usually with little ornamental
detail) as shaft & last floor as capital (with ornamental detail capped
with cornice)

capital

shaft

base
 ELEMENTS OF CHICAGO SCHOOL
• Use of steel-frame
buildings with masonry
cladding (usually terra
cotta), allowing large plate-
glass window areas
ELEMENTS OF CHICAGO SCHOOL
"Chicago window”
3-part window consisting of large fixed center
panel flanked by two smaller double-hung sash
windows
• Arrangement of windows on facade typically creates
a grid pattern, with some projecting out from facade
forming bay windows
• Combined need for light-gathering and natural
ventilation; a single central pane was usually fixed,
while 2 surrounding panes were operable
• Often deployed in bays, known as oriel windows that
projected out over street
 ARCHITECTS
• William W. Boyington (1818-1898)
• William Le Baron Jenney (1832-1907)
• Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886)
• Dankmar Adler (1844-1900)
• Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912)
• John Wellborn Root (1850-1891)
• Solon S. Beman (1853-1914)
• William Holabird (1854-1923)
• Martin Roche (1855-1927)
• Louis Sullivan (1856-1924)
• Irving Kane Pond (1857-1939)
• Allen B. Pond (1858-1929)
 ARCHITECTS
• George Maher (1864-1926)
• Richard Ernest Schmidt (1865-1958)
• Edgar D. Martin (1871-1951)
• Mackie Gorden Garden (1873-1961)
• Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937)
• Frank Lloyd Wright started in firm of Adler and Sullivan but created
his own Prairie Style of Architecture
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who had run Bauhaus in Germany before
coming to Chicago, is sometimes credited with rise of second
"Chicago school" between 1939 and 1975
 WILLIAM LE BARON JENNEY
(1832-1907)
• Innovative construction methods earned the title, “Father of the
Skyscraper”
• Constructed world's 1st completely iron-and-steel-framed
building in 1880s - Home Insurance Company Building
• 1853 - enrolled in Paris's École Centrale des Arts et
Manufactures (Classmate - Gustave Eiffel)
• Served as engineer in union army during American Civil
War(1861-65)
• After war, settled in Chicago - practiced and taught architecture
at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1876-80)
• In 1868 established office - training ground for number of
leading architects - Martin Roche, William Holabird, and Louis
Sullivan
 WILLIAM LE BARON JENNEY
(1832-1907)
Works
• Leiter Building I (1879, enlarged 1888,
later demolished)
• Home Insurance Company Building (1884-
85, enlarged 1891, demolished 1931)
• Manhattan Building(1889-90)
• The Leiter Building II (1889-90)
• Ludington Building (1891)
• The Fair Store (1891-1892)
 LEITER BUILDING I
• Constructed 1879,
enlarged 1888, later
demolished
• Expression of the
framed structure
 HOME INSURANCE BUILDING
• Built 1884-85, Enlarged 1891,
• Demolished 1931
• Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Stories: 10, Height: 138 ft (42 m)
• Structure: Steel frame
• Facing Material: Brick
• 1st building entirely supported by light exposed
steel frame – considered the 1st skyscraper
• Steel frame liberated exterior walls from
supporting building, walls instead thin curtain wall
• Weighed only 1/3 as much as a stone building
• Fire proof well lit office building
 THE LEITER BUILDING II
• Built: 1889-1890
• Location: 403 south state st.,
Chicago
• Stories: 8
• Structure: Cast Iron frame

• Also known as Sears Building

• One of most important buildings in
history of American Architecture
• 1st commercial building to have metal
skeletal frame
• Cast iron skeletal frame used to make
the design fireproof
 LUDINGTON BUILDING
• Built: 1891
• Location: 1104 S. Wabash Ave, South Loop,
Chicago
• Stories: 8
• Structure: Steel frame
• Construction that changed modern
architecture
• One of 1st structures completely clad in
terra cotta
• Its purity of form and delicacy of
ornamental detail mark as significant visual
landmarks
• Designated Chicago Landmark on June 10,
1996
 DANIEL HUDSON BURNHAM (1846-
1912)
• Raised and educated in Chicago, gained early
architectural experience with William le Baron Jenney
• In 1873 formed partnership with John Wellborn Root
(1852-1891) – Burnham & Root

Works
• The Montauk Building (1881-2)
• The Rookery Building (1885-88; lobby remodeled
1905-07)
• The Monadnock Building (1889-91)
• The Reliance Building (1890-95)
• The Heyworth Building (1904)
 THE ROOKERY BUILDING
• Built: 1885-88
• Location: 209 S. LaSalle St.
• Stories: 12, Height: 181 ft (55 m)
• Structure: Skeletal frame
• Red marble, terra cotta and brick facade –
embraced Romanesque
• Marked transition from masonry load-bearing
structures to steel skeleton load-bearing structures
• Has unique style of exterior load-bearing walls &
interior steel frame
• Lobby remodeled in 1907 by Frank Lloyd Wright
• Again restored to original Wright design starting in
1989
 THE MONADNOCK BUILDING
• Built/Founded: 1889-1891
• Stories: 17 Height: 197 ft (60 m)
• Last load bearing skyscraper
• North end rose to 16 stories, using load bearing
masonry walls (from 6 ft in thickness at base to 1 ft
at top)
• Southern addition made by use of modern steel
framing for entire load bearing structure, allowing
reduction in wall thickness and increase in interior
leasable space on lower floors of building
• Employing cast and wrought iron framing only for
window spandrels and internal frame
• Tiers of canted bay-windows, huge crowned coved
cornice
 THE RELIANCE BUILDING
• Built: 1890-1895
• Location: 20 North State Street, Chicago
Illinois.
• Stories: 14
• Structure: Steel Frame
• 1st skyscraper to have large plate glass
windows - make up majority of its surface area
• Extremely narrow piers, mullions, & spandrels,
covered with cream-colored terra cotta
decorated with Gothic-style tracery
• 1st 4 floors erected in 1890, addition of 10
more in 1894–1895
• Steel-frame superstructure built atop concrete
caissons sunk as much as 125 ft beneath
footing
 LOUIS SULLIVAN, HENRY (1856-1924)
• Regarded as spiritual father of modern US
Architecture and identified with early skyscraper
design
• Came to Chicago in 1873, where he worked briefly for
William Le Baron Jenney
• In 1879, joined firm of Dank man Adler (1844-1900)
• “Form follows function”
• Works
• Auditorium Building (completed in 1889, restored
1967)
• Wainwright Building (1883-1885)
• Guaranty building (1894-5)
• Schlesinger & Mayer Department
 AUDITORIUM BUILDING
• Built: 1889, Restored 1967
• Stories: 10 (17 storey tower)
• Structure: Load Bearing Masonry Wall
• Exterior partly based on H.H. Richardson's
Marshall Field Warehouse
• Most innovative features was massive raft
foundation
• Exterior features - 2-storey, roughhewn granite
base topped by floor of rusticated limestone &
above, a smooth-faced limestone that created
flat wall plane from 4th floor to tower
• 4,300 seat auditorium, 136 offices and 400-
room hotel
 SCHLESINGER & MAYER DEPARTMENT
• Built:1899
• Location: 1 South State Street

• Also known as Carson, Pirie, Scott and

Company Building
• Classic structures of Chicago school
• Corner entry to be seen from both State
and Madison
• Remarkable for steel structure, which
allowed increase in window area - more
daylight and larger displays of
merchandise to outside pedestrian traffic
• Chicago Window
 HOLABIRD AND ROCHE
• Founded in 1881 by William Holabird (1854-1923) and Martin
Roche (1855-1927), who met while working in the architectural
office of William Le Baron Jenney
• Influential in development of early skyscraper - “Chicago
School”

Works
• Tacoma Building (1889,demolished 1929)
• The Old Colony Building (1894)
• The Marquette Building (1894-5)
• City Hall-County Building (1905-08)
• The Brooks Building (1909-10)
• The Chicago Building
• The LaSalle Hotel
• The Hilton Hotel
 THE TACOMA BUILDING
Built:1889
Demolished 1929
Storey:12
• Structure of cast-iron
columns and wrought-
iron beams as well as
brickwork and concrete
and steel
• Whole clad in terracotta
and glass
 THE OLD COLONY BUILDING
• Built: 1894
• Located: 407 S. Dearborn St.

• Rounded corner bays, a feature of many early

skyscrapers, enliven the silhouette of this
commercial structure.
• Continuous vertical piers divide the building's
long Dearborn Street facade into tall, narrow
sections, while continuous horizontal
spandrels serve to visually widen the narrow
Van Buren Street facade
 THE MARQUETTE BUILDING
• Built : 1894-1895
• Located: 140 S. Dearborn St.
• Structure: Steel frame
• Stories: 17
• Rises 16 stories, covered with brown brick
& terra cotta
• In 1950 decorative cornice was removed
to add a 17th floor
• Facade clearly reveals its underlying
structure - with broad windows set in
framework of narrow piers and spandrels
• Open and well-lit interior layout, built
around a central light court, significantly
influenced design of modern high-rise
commercial structures
 CONCLUSION

• Chicago - "birthplace" of modern tall building

• Realizing value of land - vertical structure rather than wider ones -
Development of elevator
• Development of frame structure using light material (steel) with
high strength
• Use of initially iron, then steel framing allowed for birth of curtain
wall buildings
• Construction mostly "post fire“ - fire protective methods used
around steel framing
• Floor systems normally made of clay tiles within steel/iron
framework, although some earlier buildings used flat brick vaults to
make floors