Chicago School

Revista

All life is organic. It manifests itself through organs, through structures, through functions. That which is alive acts, organizes, grows, develops, unfolds, expands, differentiates, organ after organ, structure after structure.

Louis H. Sullivan, Kindergarten Chats, 1901–1902

Louis Sullivan gave America the skyscraper as an organic modern work of art. One of the worlds greatest architects, he gave us again the ideal of a great architecture that informed all the great architecture of the worlds.

Frank Lloyd Wright, F. Lloyd Wright on Architecture, 1941

Chicago buildings were the beginning of the modern business buildings of the world; with their creation, architecture took on a new and splendid lease for its future life.

T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Good-bye,Mr. Chippendale,1944

Almacén De Carson Pirie Scott ,1904

LOUIS HENRY SULLIVAN

Auditorium De Chicago (1886-1889)

Once the technology and construction methods are in place and prototypes appear, the architect’s dilemma becomes

how to articulate a multistory building to reflect a human scale.

Auditorium De Chicago (1886-1889)

Architect Louis Sullivan believes

that the building’s form should express the interior function.

WAINWRIGHT BUILDING, 1881

Sullivan develops the expressive

qualities of the skyscraper using

classical precedent and his own unique style of ornament.

-Larges windows for light. -Little ornament. -Covered with terra-cotta or mansory. -May have bay or oriel windows or ones between vertical piers. -At the street level, shops, architectural features, and details provide a human scale. -Entries, lobbies, and atriums are large impressive spaces with expensive treatments and mater.

Louis Sullivan uses stringcourses, projecting cornices, richness of detail and decoration as a part of the structure. Offices, in contrast, may seem more residential or are strictly utilitarian in appearance. The office hierarchy drives planning, finishes, and furniture with executives having the most space, best treatments, and nicest furniture.

DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS

Second half of the 19th century. Steel skeletons to replace masonry

bearing walls or piers, foundations that can support tall buildings, and

elevators to access upper floors come together to create the first

skyscrapers, or buildings 16 to 20 stories high. Jenney’s Home

Insurance Building of 1885 in Chicago is the prototype. It uses a

metal skeleton composed of cast-iron columns and steel beams that

support the masonry walls and floors.

Early modern designers and the International Style Holabird and Roche introduce a reinforced concrete foundation to support a building structure in sandy or muddy soil like that of Chicago. Construction improvements occur incrementally, so some early skyscrapers retain load-bearing masonry walls combined with wooden or metal beams. However, the thick load-bearing walls take up valuable interior space. The need for more space and profits will soon eliminate masonry walls except as a cladding. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, architects and engineers in other cities begin to employ steel frames extensively, and the modern skyscraper is born.

Architecture

Public Buildings

Types Commercial office buildings

dominate steel frame construction throughout

Chicago and New York City during the

late 19th century .

Other types of structures

include auditoriums,

department stores,

hotels, banks, and

libraries.

Floor

Plans

Floor plans are generally rectangular or

square, so the building forms a rectangular

box or sometimes a U shape.

Plans often have a central corridor with shallow

rectangular rooms on both sides. Prominent entries

lead to vestibules and major public circulation

areas, such as hallways, corridors, stairways,

and elevators.

Materials

Exterior walls may be of brick, terracotta,

granite, or other types of stone, giving no

hint of the interior metal skeleton.

They subsequently adopt steel-skeletal construction

covered with brick, terracotta, or

sandstone.

Facades

Building facades exhibit large scale,

verticality, repetition, order, and

simplicity.

Speculative buildings,

built by developers for

rentals, have plain,

unadorned exteriors.

Corporate headquarters,

in contrast, are more

lavishly embellished

Windows

Windows come in

prefabricated, standard

sizes to take advantage

of the new technology.

Buildings show wide expanses of

glass windows arranged in

rectangular grids.

A new introduction is the

Chicago window, a

tripartite composition

with a fixed wide center

window flanked on one

or both sides by double-

hung sash windows for light

and ventilation.

Monumental entries,

often with large arches

surrounded by heavy

architectural features

or stonework, lead to

major circulation area.

DOOrs

The public buildings have undergone significant changes according to the architecture presented. Color changes, the use of natural light, the coating of walls and high ceilings, make buildings completely changed.

CHARACTERISTICS

Office furniture differs little in form and appearance frim residential furniture.Furniture in other public places reflects the character, scale, and importance of the particular space.

UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE SINALOA

FACULTAD DE ARQUITECTURA DE CULIACÁN

Unidad de Aprendizaje: Comprensión de Documentos de Arquitectura en Inglés Profesor(a): Claudia Aispuro Espinoza

Alumno(s): Camacho Contreras Erick Gpe. Miranda Salazar José Ramsés Melissa Gpe. Ríos Quintero Sosa Medina Abel Alejandro 4to. Semestre Grupo 2