1. 1. CHICAGO SCHOOL
2. 2. CHICAGO SCHOOL 1 Introduction ORIGIONS Also Known as Commercial style, the Chicago school was a school of architects active in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. They were among the first to promote the new technologies of steel-frame construction in commercial buildings. A "Second Chicago School" later emerged in the 1940s and 1970s which pioneered new building technologies and structural systems. The architecture of Chicago has influenced and reflected the history of American architecture. Beginning in the early 1880s, the Chicago School pioneered steel-frame construction and, in the 1890s, the use of large areas of plate glass. These were among the first modern skyscrapers. Many world-famous architects played a significant role in the development of Chicago -- rising from the ashes of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire into one of the world's largest cities and greatest collections of modern architecture.
3. 3. CHICAGO SCHOOL 2 While there were many reasons for the emergence of this school one of the major once were: The 1871 devastating fire in Chicago that created the need of rebuilding the city and also Architects were encouraged to build higher structures because of the escalating land prices. Quickly, the low buildings constructed just after the fire were seen as an inefficient use of valuable space. By 1890 Chicago had a population of more than a million people and had surpassed Philadelphia to become the second-largest metropolis in the United States. So now Chicago was ready to experiment with daring solutions and would now be the place where the tall office building would be perfected. One of the keys to this development was the invention of the safety elevator. The early structures of Chicago such as the Montauk had traditional load-bearing walls of brick and stone, but it was the metal skeleton frame that allowed the architects of the First Chicago School to perfect their signature building, the skyscraper. THE FIRST CHICAGO SCHOOL The First Safety Elevator The 1871 devastating fire in Chicago
4. 4. CHICAGO SCHOOL 3 The development of the skyscraper can be understood not only as an architectural style, but as the manifestation of the Chicago fire 1871 turned into redemption. Designed by William Le Baron Jenney, the home insurance building was an icon. He devised a solution to the problem of fireproof construction for tall buildings. What he did was substituting steel in the structural system for cast iron, which melts at high temperatures clad the buildings exterior with traditional masonry. This new construction, while costly, had overwhelming advantages. It was almost fireproof; the thin curtain walls hung from the steel frame allowed for more interior rental space; new floors could be added easily; and since the exterior walls were no longer essential to holding up the building, they could be cut away and replaced by ever larger expanses of glass, an important consideration in the early era of electrical lighting. The Home Insurance Building, which some regarded as the first skyscraper in the world, was built in Chicago in 1885. INVENTION OF THE SKYSCRAPER
5. 5. CHICAGO SCHOOL 4The "Chicago window" originated in this school. It is a three-part window consisting of a large fixed center panel flanked by two smaller double-hung sash windows. The arrangement of windows on the facade typically creates a grid pattern, with some projecting out from the facade forming bay windows. The Chicago window combined the functions of light-gathering and natural ventilation; a single central pane was usually fixed, while the two surrounding panes were operable. These windows were often deployed in bays, known as oriel windows that projected out over the street. The Chicago window combined the functions of light- gathering and natural ventilation; a single central pane was usually fixed, while the two surrounding panes were operable. Bay Windows Facing The street
6. 6. CHICAGO SCHOOL 5 The first design breakthrough by the Chicago School was in the area of structural foundations. It arose largely because Chicago was built on marshy ground, which was unable to support tall buildings. Frederick Baumann suggested that each vertical foundation of a building should stand on a wide pad that would distribute its weight more widely over the marshy land. A decade later, Daniel Burnham and John Root incorporated this exact same idea in their Montauk Building But this type of foundation took up too much basement space and was only able to support a structure of 10 stories in height. The way forward was provided by Dankmar Adler who devise a foundation "raft" of timbers, steel beams, and iron I-beams. An idea used successfully in the construction of Adler and Sullivan's Auditorium Building (1889). Adler made a final improvement in 1894 when he invented a type of underground, watertight foundation structure for the Chicago Stock Exchange which quickly became the template foundation for skyscrapers across the United States. The first series of high-rises in both New York and Chicago had traditional load-bearing walls of stone and brick. Unfortunately, these could not support super tall structures, a problem which stimulated Chicago School designers to invent a metal skeleton frame - first used in Jenney's Home Insurance Building (1884) - that enabled the construction of real skyscrapers. A metal frame was virtually fireproof and, since the walls no longer carried the building's weight, enabled architects to use thinner curtain walls, thus freeing up more usable space. The same applied to the exterior walls, which could now be replaced by glass, reducing the amount of electrical lights required. An important European influence in the use of metal skeletal frames, was the French architect Viollet-le-Duc. What Were The Characteristic Design Of The First Chicago School ? Foundations Steel Frames
7. 7. CHICAGO SCHOOL 6 Chicago architects had a new set of skyscraper aesthetics, the driving force for this style of aesthetics emanated from two totally different sources: architect Henry Hobson Richardson and the very nature of the material newly adopted which was steel. The first was the architect Henry Hobson Richardson. His ideal was the rugged Romanesque of the South of France. In 1870 on Boston's Commonwealth Avenue, Richardson designed the trailblazing Romanesque revival Brattle Square Church, whose tower fired the architectural aspirations of Boston native Louis Sullivan when he was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And it was the revelatory presence of Richardson's Marshall Field Wholesale Store of 1885, filling the block bounded by Adams, Quincy, Wells, and Franklin Streets, that radically altered the design of Adler & Sullivan's Auditorium Building. Sullivan's original sketches were for an eclectic structure terminating in a high, gabled roof. After the appearance of the Field edifice, Sullivan swept away his original plans and replaced them with a virile, restrained Romanesque revival structure with a single massive tower. "Richardsonian Romanesque" also influenced Solon S. Beman in his design of both the brick and granite Pullman Building (1883) and the Fine Arts Building (1885), and Burnham & Root's design for the Rookery Building (1885-87). But perhaps the greatest master of Romanesque skyscraper design was Sullivan - notably in his interior of the Auditorium Building and the entrance to the Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1893-94) - although he was the first to embrace the new vertical shape entailed by buildings that for the first time had greater height than width. Stylistic Influence Of the School
8. 8. CHICAGO SCHOOL 7 The second source of stylistic inspiration for the First Chicago School, stemmed from the nature of their prime building material: steel. The physical attributes of this crucial material lent themselves to the creation of the sinuous curve, an outcome which made it a perfect match for the fashionable style known as Art Nouveau, which was a feature of both the Rookery Building and Chicago Stock Exchange. Steel also facilitated the emergence of the right angle, boldly expressed in Holabird and Roche's 13-story Tacoma Building (1889). This idiom was also an important factor in the upper floors of Adler & Sullivan's Stock Exchange Building, and most exquisitely in the sense of the sharp edges of the steel frame lying just beneath the thin, terracotta and glass walls of Burnham & Root's Reliance Building (1895).
9. 9. CHICAGO SCHOOL 8 Architects whose names are associated with the Chicago School include Henry Hobson Richardson, Dankmar Adler, Daniel Burnham, William Holabird, William LeBaron Jenney, Martin Roche, John Root, Solon S. Beman, and Louis Sullivan. Frank Lloyd Wright started in the firm of Adler and Sullivan but created his own Prairie Style of architecture. Who Were the Greatest Architects of the First Chicago School
10. 10. CHICAGO SCHOOL 9 Daniel Hudson Burnham and John Wellborn root ; Was one of Chicagos most famous architectural companies of the nineteenth century. It was established by John Wellborn root and Daniel Hudson Burnham. During their eighteen years of partnership, they designed and built res identical and commercial buildings. Their success was crowned with the coordination of the worlds Columbian exposition (worlds fair) in 1893. The two men meet when they worked as apprentice draftsmen in the office of Drake, Carter, and Wight in 1872. A year later they established their own architecture office and began work by building private residences for the wealthy families which allowed them to establish a basis for their business. Some of their works are; Montezuma castle (hotel), Rookery building, Heyworth building, Luzon building, Sydney Kent house and more. Notable Mentions : Architects of the first Chicago School
11. 11. CHICAGO SCHOOL 10The Rookery Building is a historic landmark Completed by John wellborn root and Daniel Burnham root in 1888, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings, and was once the location of their office. Rookery Building The building measures 181 feet (55 m), is twelve stories tall and is considered the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago. It has a unique style with exterior load-bearing walls and an interior steel frame, which provided a transition between accepted and new building techniques. The lobby was remodeled in 1905 by Frank Lloyd Wright. Beginning in 1989, the lobby was restored to the original Wright design. The name of the building is an indirect reference to the old City Hall building that occupied the land before the Rookery. That building was nicknamed the Rookery not only in reference to the crows and pigeons that inhabited its exterior walls, but also because of the shady politicians it housed.
12. 12. CHICAGO SCHOOL 11 Making prodigious use of light and ornamentation, Root and Burnham designed a central light court to serve as the focal point for the entire building and provide daylight to interior offices. Rising two stories, the light court received immediate critical acclaim. "There is nothing bolder, more original, or more inspiring in modern civic architecture than its glass-covered court", wrote Eastern critic Henry Van Brunt.The central tower over the entrance in 2011 The Rookery's light court serves as a focal point for the entire building
13. 13. 12 Frank Lloyd Wright had his offices in the building in 1898 1899. In 1905 Wright received the commission to redesign the lobby in the building. Wright's work on the Rookery recast the entryway in his prairie style and added a sense of modernity through his simple but effective lighting design. Among Wright's most significant alterations was the addition of white marble with Persian-style ornamentation. The marble and decorative details added a sense of luxury to the lobby's steel-laden interior, marked by Burnham and Root's skeletal metal ribbing. The entire interior space is bright and open. A double set of curving, heavily ornamented stairs wind upward from the lobby's second floor into the building's interior. A wrap-around balcony on the second floor enhances the feeling of being within the interior of a clockwork The Wright remodel opened the building up to more of the available light. CHICAGO SCHOOL
14. 14. CHICAGO SCHOOL 13 The Reliance Building is a skyscraper located at 1 W. Washington Street in the Loop community of Chicago, Illinois. The first floor and basement were designed by john root of the Burnham and root architectural firm in 1890, with the rest of the building completed by Charles B. Atwood in 1895. It is the first skyscraper to have large plate glass windows make up the majority of its surface area, foreshadowing a design feature that would become dominant in the 20th century. The Reliance Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970; and on January 7, 1976, it was designated a National Historic Landmark. Building, one of the few offices in downtown Chicago to partially survive the Great Fire. Hale was the founder of the Hale Elevator Company, an early producer of hydraulic elevators necessary in skyscraper design. Hale envisioned a new tower on the site, but first needed to raze the existing structure. However, its tenants did not want to terminate their leases. Reliance Building
15. 15. CHICAGO SCHOOL 14 Daniel Burnham recruited Boston architect Charles B. Atwood to complete the building with E. C. Shankland as lead engineer. After raising the original building's remaining three floors Atwood used white glazed architectural terra-cotta cladding, a feature that would later become strongly associated with him following his works for the Worlds Columbian Worlds Columbian exposition in 1893. The steel framing on the top ten floors was completed over fifteen days, from July 16 to August 1, 1895. The Reliance Building, so named for its functionality, opened in March 1895. It was one of the first skyscrapers to offer electricity and phone service in all of its offices. In its first few decades, it provided office space for merchants and health professionals, and dentist.
16. 16. CHICAGO SCHOOL 15 The Reliance Building has been called "proto-Modernist" in its lack of the hierarchy found in classical facades. Its stacks of projecting bay windows and terra-cotta cladding create an effect of extraordinary lightness. Its steel frame construction is physically light as well, being one-third the weight of an equivalent stone structure. It was a direct precursor of the all- glass Friedrichstrasse skyscraper proposed by Mies van der rohe in 1921. The addition of the remaining floors in 18941895 completed the building and marked the "first comprehensive achievement" of the Chicago construction method. The building's plate-glass windows are set within the terra-cotta-tiled facade. Its steel- frame superstructure is built atop concrete caissons sunk as much as 125 feet beneath the footing.
17. 17. CHICAGO SCHOOL 16 Louis Henry Sullivan (1856 1924) was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago school, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come to be known as the Prairie school. Along with Henry Hobson Richardson and Wright, Sullivan is one of "the recognized trinity of American architecture. Louis Sullivan Form follows function would become one of the prevailing tenets of modern architects.
18. 18. CHICAGO SCHOOL 17 Another signature element of Sullivan's work is the massive, semi-circular arch. Sullivan employed such arches throughout his careerin shaping entrances, in framing windows, or as interior design.
19. 19. CHICAGO SCHOOL 18 Also known as the Wainwright Building is a Ten story red brick office building at 709 Chestnut Street in downtown Louis, Missouri. The Wainwright Building is among the first skyscrapers in the world. It was designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan built between 1890 and 1891. The Wainwright Building
20. 20. CHICAGO SCHOOL 19 As designed, the first floor of the Wainwright Building was intended for street-accessible shops, with the second floor filled with easily accessible public offices. The higher floors were for "honeycomb" offices, while the top floor was for water tanks and building machinery. Aesthetically, the Wainwright Building exemplifies Sullivan's theories about the tall building, which included a tripartite (three-part) composition (base-shaft-attic) based on the structure of the classical column. And his desire to emphasize the height of the building. He wrote: "[The skyscraper] must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line. The Wainwright Building
21. 21. CHICAGO SCHOOL 20The base contained retail stores that required wide glazed openings; Sullivan's ornament made the supporting piers read as pillars. Above it the semi-public nature of offices up a single flight of stairs are expressed as broad windows in the curtain wall. A cornice separates the second floor from the grid of identical windows of the screen wall, where each window is "a cell in a honeycomb, nothing more"". The building's windows and horizontals were inset slightly behind columns and piers, as part of a vertical aesthetic to create what Sullivan called a proud and soaring thing. This perception has since been criticized as the skyscraper were designed to make money, not to serve as a symbol. The ornamentation for the building includes a wide frieze below the deep cornice, which expresses the formalized yet naturalistic celery-leaf foliage typical of Sullivan and published in his System of Architectural Ornament, decorated spandrels between the windows on the different floors and an elaborate door surround at the main entrance. "Apart from the slender brick piers, the only solids of the wall surface are the spandrel panels between the windows..... They have rich decorative patterns in low relief, varying in design and scale with each story." The building includes embellishments of terra cotta, a building material that was gaining popularity at the time of construction. In 1968, the building was designated as a National Historic Landmark and in 1972 it was named a city landmark.
22. 22. CHICAGO SCHOOL 21 List of the most important high-rise buildings associated with the First Chicago School of architecture, together with the architects responsible. - First Leiter Building (1879) William Le Baron Jenney - The Montauk Building (Montauk Block) (1882-83) Burnham and Root - Pullman Building (1883) Solon S. Beman - Home Insurance Building (1884) William Le Baron Jenney - Marshall Field Warehouse (Chicago) (1885-7) H.H.Richardson. - Rookery Building (1885-87) Burnham and Root - Chamber of Commerce Building (1888-9) Edward Baumann & Harris W. Huehl. - Tacoma Building (Chicago) (1889) Holabird & Roche - Second Leiter Building (1889-91) William Le Baron Jenney - Auditorium Building (1889) Adler and Sullivan - Fisher Building (1895-6) Designed by Charles Atwood, D.H.Burnham - Sullivan Center (Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company Building) (1899) Sullivan - Gage Group Buildings (1899) (at S. Michigan Avenue) Holabird & Roche - Flatiron Building, New York (1901-3) D.H.Burnham & Company - Heyworth Building (1904) D.H.Burnham & Company - Reliance Building (1890-95) John Root and Charles B. Atwood - Rand McNally Building (1890) Burnham and Root - Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Missouri (1890-91) Adler and Sullivan - Monadnock Building (Monadnock Block) (1889-91) Burnham and Root - Schiller Theatre Building (Garrick Theater) (1891-93) Adler and Sullivan - Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1893-94) Adler and Sullivan - Prudential Building (Guaranty Building) Buffalo (1894) Adler and Sullivan - Marquette Building (1895) Holabird & Roche - Chicago Building (Chicago Savings Bank Building) (1904-5) Holabird & Roche - Brooks Building (1909-10) Holabird & Roche Famous Skyscrapers Designed by the First Chicago School
23. 23. CHICAGO SCHOOL 22 Conclusively, the First Chicago School was an astonishing and a profoundly important achievement. The Chicago World Fair of 1893 signaled the end of the city's dominance in skyscraper design, although its reputation would soon be restored with the emergence of the Second Chicago School. Its matchless tradition of technical skills and aesthetic boldness would surface again in Chicago in the 1930s with the arrival of the Bauhaus, and in the following decades in the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his followers, along with the outstanding multi-disciplinary achievements of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings.
24. 24. CHICAGO SCHOOL 23 Introduction and Origin THE SECOND CHICAGO SCHOOL In the 1940s, a new wave of building design - known today as the Second Chicago School of architecture " emerged from the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his efforts of education at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Its first and purest expression was the 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1951) and their technological achievements.
25. 25. CHICAGO SCHOOL 24The first building to apply the tube-frame construction was the DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building which Khan designed and was completed in Chicago by 1963. This laid the foundations for the tube structures of many other later skyscrapers.
26. 26. CHICAGO SCHOOL 25The Second Chicago School is famous for structures like the Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1948-51), and the Seagram Building (1954-58). The principal firm of architects associated with the Second Chicago School is Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, whose breakthroughs in design and structural engineering during the 1960s, spearheaded by Fazlur Khan, confirmed America as the undisputed leader in high-rise 20th-Century architecture and led to a new generation of supertall towers. Interior