Chicago School Lecture

7/27/2019 Chicago School Lecture

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Chicago School

The search for a new architecture in America


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19th century had been

filled with soot, disease,

overcrowding, and lack

of open space

No wonder early 20th

century schemes of

urban reform made so

much of light, space,

greenery, hygiene, and

transparency.

INTRO: Origins of

Modern Arch.


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In both Europe and America Coal and steam power Ferrous metals and

engineering

Concentration of capital

Labor (and laborers) moved

from country to city Opening of national and

international lines of tradeand communication

Cities on both sides of the

Atlantic expanded upwards,outwards, evenunderground, to cope withthe pressure of people,traffic, and goods.

Chicago 1873, Chicago 1907


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Industrialization changedthe size, shape, andrelationship of buildings inthe cityscape Challenged pre-existing

building conventions Created uncertainties about

the basis of style

Upset the scale of values:private buildings(warehouses, factories,etc.) towered above publicbuildings of civic orreligious importance.

Lewis Cubitt, Kings Cross Station, 1851-2


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Progress induced radical change in all areas of life In response, modern movement attempted to:

Come to terms with the newness (engineering, etc.)

Frampton broke the newness down into 3 categories (which

were?)

Improve upon quality of life brought about by the industrial

revolution

For architecture, new ways of living and doing

business meant developing new buildingtypologies to house these functions


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Differing Origins of Modern Arch.

In Europe: Thousands of years of

building culture

Modern arch. movements

were reactions against

immediately preceding

building norms

Cities were built on

layers of historic fabric

built up over time

In America: Building traditions were

shorter, imported, and

much less entrenched

Cities were relatively

much newer than

European cities


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Chicago School

Richardson, Sullivan, Burnham & Root,

Holabird & Roche, Wright


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Why Chicago?

Main depot, nerve center,clearing house for the greatrailroad expansion to the West

Great Chicago Fire, October 8-10, 1871

Tabula rasa

Worlds Columbian Exposition1893 Years and years of preparation

Record for outdoor eventattendance in its time, 716,881people from all over the worldcame to the fair

Between 1870 and 1900,population increased from299,000 to 1.7 million people


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Worlds Columbian Exposition, 1893

The White City


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The Challenge

reconcile engineering and architecture Struggle to do this is most clear in the commercial

buildings produced in the Midwest in the last two decades

of the nineteenth century.

The problem to find forms for a range of mercantile functions from

warehouse to tall office building.

Should be cheap, quick to construct, flexible in use,

fireproof


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Typical arrangement

The Skeleton

Utilitarian cage Wide bayed windows

Elevators tucked out of the way

Grid of structural supports inplan

Maximizes sqft Major change was the

relationship between load andsupport, and between claddingand frame

Question facing architects: What were these buildings

supposed to look like and whatdid they really represent?


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Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886)

Born in southern Louisiana,lived on a plantation

Went to Tulane, then Harvard,then Ecole des Beaux Arts inParis until the end of the CivilWar.

Combined elements ofmedieval, classical, andvernacular strategies into asystem that could be adjustedto handle a wide range of tasks

straddled the old world and

the new calledRichardsonian Romanesque

Supplied the rock on which theChicago School would stand


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Marshall Fields (1885-1887)

Richardsons majorcontribution to Americancommercial architecture Giant purchasing warehouse

Symmetrical and hierarchicalplan with a dominant structuralidea

The block as a whole wastreated like a monolith intowhich arches were cut

Ext. is loadbearing sandstonewith a granite base

Cast-iron/wrought iron frame

Technologies of two differenteras (stone arch, metalframe) are resolved together

Pont du Gard aqueduct, France


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H.H. Richardson, Marshall Fields,

Chicago, 1885-1887William Le Baron Jenney,

First Leiter Building,

Chicago, 1879


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Allegheny

Courthouse,Pittsburg,

1886


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Trinity Church, Boston,1872-1877


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H.H. Richardson

Glessner

House,

Chicago, 1887


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Louis Sullivan (1856-1924)

Wrote The Tall OfficeBuilding Artistically

Considered in 1896

Tripartite division of

base, middle, and top

Expression of skyscraper

should be a vertical

emphasis

Coined the phrase form

(ever) follows function

Favored ornamentation

inspired from nature


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Auditorium Building

1886-1889 Designed by engineer Dankmar

Adler and Louis Sullivan

3 programs in 1 building Opera house

Hotel

Offices Load-bearing outer walls

Exterior partially based on thedesign ofMarshall Fields

Borrowed historical devices(like the tower)

Divided into base, middle, andtop Sullivan repeated thisstrategy


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Adler and Sullivan, Auditorium Building,

Chicago, 1886-1889

Torre del Mangia, Piazza del Campo,

Siena, Italy, 1338-1348


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Rookery Building (1888)

Burnham and Root

Considered one of their

masterpieces, and they

kept an office in it

Oldest standing high-rise

in Chicago

Exterior is load-bearing

walls, interior is steel

frame

Marked transition between

load-bearing masonry and

steel framed skeleton


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Rookery Building

(1888)

Light court in the centerprovided light for officebuildings

Lobby remodeled byFrank Lloyd Wright in

1907 Added marble and

Persian styleornamentation

known for Wrightsspiral stairs that end indouble curve


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Monadnock Building (1884-1893) Last Chicago skyscraper built

using load-bearing masonryconstruction

One of the tallest masonrybuildings in the world 18stories

Northern half designed and

built first by Burnham andRoot in 1884-1891

Completely resolvedsculptural entity a work ofinvincible directness andclarity

Form was inspired by the formof an Egyptian Pylon

Client insisted on simple linesand avoidance ofunnecessary clutter


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Burnham and Root, Monadnock

Building, Chicago, 1884-91

Isis Temple, Philae Island, Egypt,

Temple of Karnak, Egypt,

Egyptian Pylon as inspiration


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Monadnock -an isolatedrock hill, knob, ridge, or

smallmountain that rises abruptly from a gently

sloping or virtually level surroundingplain

(Pilot Mountain, North Carolina)

Burnham and Root, Monadnock

Building, Chicago, 1884-91

What the n*ck is a

Monadnock?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain


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Reliance Building Floorplans

Ground Floor

An Upper Floor


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The Gage Group

Group of 3 buildings

Holabird and Roche

designed the buildings

Sullivan designed the

ornamental faade onthe tallest building

Shows the two different

approaches within the

Chicago School Straightforward

Expressive


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Wainwright Building

Adler and Sullivan

St. Louis, MI, 1891

Sullivan wrote his essay

The Tall Building

Artistically Considered

after designing this

building

Base, middle, top

Material, ornament, and

shadow express verticality

and the underlying pattern

of visual stresses


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Carson Pirie Scott Building

Sullivan, 1899-1904

Steel structure allowed

large windows for light

and visibility of

merchandise Frame has a horizontal

emphasis


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Chicago School: In Conclusion

New synthesis of

technology and form

Faced industrial realities

head on

Reflected on the

goal/purpose of

architecture

Contributed a major

foundation to modern

architecture.


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Form Follows Function

vs.

Ornament is Crime

Documents

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