In 1976, CAF acquired space in the Monadnock Building- a move which allowed the organization to provide small exhibitions. The popular architecture and history river cruises began six years later, allowing the organization to raise operating funds while reaching a large number of visitors to the city. The organization moved to its present location on Michigan Avenue in 1992.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br>Current programs include camps, family programs, Drinks and Design, “Design Dialogues,” studio programs, Lego Build, and several competitions/challenges (“Programs and Events”). &nbsp;Exhibits include Chicago Model and Skyline Stories. &nbsp;Check the CAF’s website architecture.org for program, event, and tour details as well as interactively explore the famous architecture buildings of Chicago. &nbsp;

This model of the city was created in 2009. It includes a thousand buildings representing four hundred city blocks. 

Website

More Info

Other

The Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) has offered educational programs and materials about the architecture of Chicago since its inception in 1966. The organization offers 85 tours and a variety of special programs, as well as a number of exhibits at its headquarters. The organization's most popular events are the daily river tours that allow visitors to learn about numerous buildings. These tours, like their exhibits and other programs, center, on architecture, engineering, and design. There are also a number of thematic bus tours as well as walking tours in several sections of the city. 

Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF)

This brief walking tour starts with the statue of city "founder" Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable and proceeds south to Millennium Park, with stops at some of the city's iconic buildings, monuments, and statues. Tour highlights include the Chicago River Museum, the Eastland Disaster, the Chicago Cultural Center, and sculpture by Picasso and iconic works such as The Cloud Gate, known affectionately to locals and tourists as "The Bean." The tour also includes the historic Palmer House and the world-renowned Art Institute of Chicago. 

Heart of Chicago Walking Tour: History, Art, and Architecture 

<p>John “Jack” Beasley Brickhouse was born on January 24, 1916 in Peoria, Illinois. He was the only child of John William “Will” Brickhouse, a carnival barker and movie booking agent, and Daisy James Brickhouse, a Welsh immigrant who worked as a cashier and hostess. When Brickhouse was just three years old, his father died suddenly. His mother remarried soon after. Growing up with his mother and stepfather, money was always tight and he often went hungry. A popular, outgoing, and athletic kid in high school, Brickhouse was elected senior class vice-president, played on the basketball team, starred in the senior class play, and served as a reporter and editor for the school’s newspaper. After graduating high school, he enrolled at Peoria’s Bradley Polytechnic Institute (now Bradley University) in the fall of 1933, but left only months later due to financial reasons.  </p><p><br /></p><p>Brickhouse then worked at a distillery briefly before landing a job at a Peoria radio station announcing the news, weather, and local sports. In the late 1930s, when the station began broadcasting Bradley Braves basketball games, Brickhouse called their road contests. In early 1940, he moved to Chicago and took a job at WGN helping Bob Elson announce Cubs and White Sox baseball games. That fall, Brickhouse began broadcasting Notre Dame football games. Following the conclusion of the 1943 baseball season, he joined the U.S. Marines, but was honorably discharged after only two months due to preexisting health conditions. After a brief stint broadcasting New York Giants baseball games, Brickhouse returned to Chicago and rejoined WGN in 1948. For roughly the next two decades, he announced all Cubs and White Sox home games. In 1953, Brickhouse became the radio voice of the Chicago Bears, a stint which lasted through 1976. When the White Sox switched stations in 1967, he began calling all Cubs contests, both home and away. Over time, he became known for his unwavering positivity and his signature “Back, back, back…Hey! Hey!” homerun call.  </p><p><br /></p><p>Following his retirement after the 1981 baseball season, Brickhouse received multiple awards and honors for his years of service to baseball. In 1982, the Cubs named their broadcast booth in his honor. The next year, he received the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. In 1998, at the age of eighty-two, Brickhouse died from cardiac arrest following surgery for a brain tumor.</p><p><br /></p><p>Following Brickhouse’s death, three admirers of his formed a group called Citizens United for Brickhouse Statue (CUBS) and began soliciting donations. Their fundraising campaign was a smashing success, hauling in roughly $400,000. Unveiled along Michigan Avenue near Tribune Tower in downtown Chicago in September 2000, the eight-foot-tall bronze bust depicts the longtime Chicago sports announcer sitting in a broadcast booth with one hand on a microphone and the other holding a program or spotter chart. Among those in attendance at the dedication ceremony were Chicago Cubs great Ernie Banks, the owner of the Chicago White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf, and Illinois Governor George Ryan. With the bust costing only $150,000, CUBS decided to use the rest of the money to fund a fellowship for brain cancer research at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Brickhouse’s honor. Within a decade, the bust had fallen into disrepair and was removed for restoration and repairs in November 2009. The following month, it was reinstalled in its original location. </p>

This bust commemorates Hall of Fame sportscaster Jack Brickhouse (1916-1998). A native of Peoria, Illinois, he announced Chicago Cubs baseball games on WGN radio and WGN-TV for more than forty years. Brickhouse also called games for the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bears, Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, and New York Giants baseball club during his career. Two years after retiring in 1981, he received the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. Following Brickhouse’s death in 1998, three admirers of his formed a group called Citizens United for Brickhouse Statue (CUBS) and began soliciting donations. Their fundraising campaign was a smashing success, hauling in roughly $400,000. Unveiled along Michigan Avenue near Tribune Tower in downtown Chicago in September 2000, the eight-foot-tall bronze bust depicts the longtime Chicago sports announcer sitting in a broadcast booth with one hand on a microphone and the other holding a program or spotter chart. Among those in attendance at the dedication ceremony were Chicago Cubs great Ernie Banks, the owner of the Chicago White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf, and Illinois Governor George Ryan. With the bust costing only $150,000, CUBS decided to use the rest of the money to fund a fellowship for brain cancer research at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Brickhouse’s honor. Within a decade, the bust had fallen into disrepair and was removed for restoration and repairs in November 2009. The following month, it was reinstalled in its original location.

Jack Brickhouse Bust

In 1965, a plaza called Pioneer Court was built on the site of Point Du Sable's homestead as part of the construction of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of America building. In October 2010, the Michigan Avenue Bridge was renamed DuSable Bridge in honor of Pointe DuSable. Previously a small street named De Saible Street had been named after him.<br><br>The sculptor&nbsp;Erik Blome used the original author of this statue&nbsp;(Savalas Williams) as the "outline"&nbsp;model for this historic statue of the founder of Chicago. No portrait of&nbsp;DuSable is known to exist, so&nbsp;the sculptor&nbsp;had only a&nbsp;picture of what DuSable might have looked like that was&nbsp;created for a book about the history of Chicago in&nbsp;the late 19th century.&nbsp;As a result, Mr.&nbsp;Blome wanted to find a young&nbsp;African American to serve as a model. This&nbsp;allowed the sculptor&nbsp;to blend some of the features of imagined caricature of DuSable with an actual person. <br><br>Savalas Williams recorded his memory of his first meeting with Blome:&nbsp;"So at the time I was working at McDonald's (2009) and Mr. Blome pulls up to pay for his food and said, 'you would be great! have you ever modeled?' Of course I said no, and he explained to me who he was and who Mr. DuSable was and I told Mr. Blome that I would love to help him create the statue."<br><br>A vandal defaced the statue on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2015. The statue was quickly restored and led to the following comment by Chicago mayor&nbsp;Rahm Emanuel.&nbsp;"The Jean Baptiste DuSable statue commemorates our city's founding father, and the defacement of this treasure disrespects all Chicagoans and attacks the heritage of our heroes and the common values that they stood for — values that we stand behind as a city and that we also celebrate today by honoring Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy,"1<br><h2><br></h2><h2>About Jean Baptiste Point DuSable</h2><br>It states in the Chicago Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Chicago:<br><br><blockquote>&nbsp;<i>I</i><i>n the late eighteenth century the small Native American and métis community that had settled at Chicago retained close ties to the French community in southern Illinois as well as to communities in Mackinac and Detroit. Among the most prominent was <b>Jean Baptiste Point DuSable</b>, an Afro-French fur trader whose partners traded along the Illinois River from Peoria to Cahokia. DuSable himself was trading during the 1770s near present-day Michigan City, where he was arrested briefly in 1779 by British officials who suspected him of rebel sympathies. <br><br>By the late 1780s he began developing a farm near the mouth of the Chicago River, where he also did some trading. He erected a spacious five-room “mansion” with a long covered porch modeled after French creole homes in the American Bottom. DuSable prospered during the 1790s, entertained travelers who passed over the portage, and was highly respected by both Native American and métis inhabitants. In 1800, however, he sold his holdings at Chicago and moved to Spanish Upper Louisiana near present-day St. Charles, Missouri.</i><br><br><i>Most houses at Chicago were less imposing than the DuSable residence. Houses were constructed of logs, but generally following the old French-Canadian fashion, with roughhewn logs set vertically in a trench rather than placed horizontally. The logs were chinked with grass and mud, then covered with either bark or lumber. The structures featured high-pitched, thatched or shingled roofs, with a fireplace and rude chimney in the center rather than at one end of the dwelling.</i><br><br><i>In 1803, the United States built&nbsp;</i><i>Fort Dearborn</i><i>&nbsp;on the south side of the Chicago River. By 1810 settlement at Chicago clustered at several places. North of the river's mouth were the Kinzie family, whose patriarch John Kinzie occupied DuSable's old mansion.2</i></blockquote><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><br>

Fur trader Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable became the first non-Native American resident of the area that is now known as Chicago. DuSable was of African descent and came to the region from the French colony of Saint Domingue (After winning independence from France, the Saint Domingue became known as Haiti). History books have recognized DuSable as the first settler of non-European descent in the area, having established a fur-trading outpost in 1779 when the area was a largely uninhabited swamp. The state of Illinois officially recoginzed DuSable as "the father" of the city of Chicago in 1968. Decades later, Chicago's Haitian-American community raised funds and hired sculptor Erik Blome to create a statue to honor DuSable. The statue was dedicated in 2009 and is one of several landmarks in Chicago that honor the city's founder.  

Founder of Chicago statue Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable

<p>The DuSable Bridge (The McCormick Bridgehouse &amp; Chicago River Museum) speak Chicago’s transformation from a Native American community and trapping town to a modern, major city. &nbsp;Indeed, Chicago’s trifurcated character -- divided three ways by its rivers -- has played a large part in Chicago’s history. The bridge represents the human decisions that made Chicago a place for which to invest and live - a society changing from rural and local economies to that of cities and expanding marketplaces.<sub>1</sub>The bridge's location is now&nbsp;located near the River Museum. It was&nbsp;“the first double-deck, double-leaf, fixed Trunnion Bascule bridge ever built,"&nbsp;designed by architect Daniel Burnham 1909.<sub>2</sub></p><p>Chicago has existed as a home to Native Americans, trappers and Fort Dearborn because the rivers served as a place of easy navigation to Lake Michigan, as well as a place for access to water, food and trapping grounds. However, the evolution of expanding marketplaces and industry made Chicago a prime spot for speculators and investors, as the rivers and Lake Michigan converging on Chicago made it a potentially near-perfect central point for trade and shipping, notably by the 19th century. Soon after investors roamed in to help create the I&amp;M canal and take advantage of Chicago’s natural water highways, railroads arrived. Chicago’s population grew immensely in the latter half of the 19th century - but that was also a problem. Chicago’s natural waterway system included two pitfalls -- the ground in Chicago was quite swampy in nature, and it was difficult to traverse the city as the rivers proved to be difficult to cross. As such, bridges were needed to connect the north, south, and east portions of the city. But the turn of the 20th century, city planners such as Daniel Burnham looked to modernize the city and bridges were one of the major parts of that plan.<sub>3</sub><br></p><p>Chicago’s infamous “Mag Mile” - the skyscraper-laden shopping, hotel, and service-orientated district of Michigan Ave is largely a result of Daniel Burnham and the Commercial Club -- architects organized to create <i>The Plan of Chicago (1909).</i>&nbsp;Although they could not have foreseen how it would evolve in modern times, they made it a primary focus to connect the city’s north and south sections over the river that separated it -- and Michigan Ave was the road they wanted to use. They spent thousands of dollars promoting that specific part of the plan, hiring a publicist and otherwise making it a point to sell the idea. To them, it was not only a good move for the city’s logistical needs, but one that would benefit the city financially, thus helping those, like the Commercial Club, with a vested interest in the city’s success.<sub>4</sub><br></p><p>Today, for five dollars,&nbsp;visitors can enjoy a 360-degree view of the Chicago from atop&nbsp;the Bridgehouse, view the inner-workings of the bridge lifts, and possibly&nbsp;witness live&nbsp;bridge lifts (although, that is limited to&nbsp;roughly forty times per year).&nbsp;The museum opened in 2006 and educates visitors on the Chicago River and its help in developing Chicago.<sub>5</sub><br></p><p>The
bridge opened in 1920 for commercial traffic use and is a popular pathway for a Chicagoan today. The bridge and its four bridge-houses were designated as a
Chicago Landmark in 1991.&nbsp;<br></p><p>The museum's location provides a glimpse into Chicago's history, as well as that of the nation and globe. Once filled with Native Americans who named the area "Chicago," the location is not far from the residence of Chicago's first Anglo-American resident, John Kinzie - a trapper and friend to many Native Americans. He also befriended and traded with&nbsp;both the French and English who&nbsp;roamed the region. The river stood as a prime location for trapping. Later, the navigational advantages of the rivers into Lake Michigan also made it a prime spot for a Fort - Fort Dearborn, which helped the city grow.&nbsp;</p><p>The river always remained a place of navigation, but modern advances required one transport&nbsp;<i>over&nbsp;</i>the river, both for residential and business purposes. The city had grown crowded during the Industrial Revolution and modern-day engineering helped alleviate that issue. Today, one can look down the river and see an array of restaurants, bars, and roaming tourists, as well as businesspersons - the river now exists as a place where money is exchanged and leisure is attained. All of that is done in the shadows of towering skyscrapers, largely designed as a result of advances made by the same designers who helped build the bridge. Today's Chicago is the result of societal changes that made Chicago a place of commerce, and now a place of modern city living. And the bridge is a lasting symbol of that transformation.&nbsp;</p>

At the center of the new Chicago Riverwalk, The McCormick Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum celebrates and honors “the Chicago River and its world-famous movable bridges.”  At river level, visitors can see the city’s most famous movable bridges and then walk through 5 stories of exhibits that highlight the river and bridge.  

McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum

<p>Mather Tower is Chicago's most slender skyscraper, a Jazz Age silhouette against the city's skyline. Richly clad in stylized Gothic terra cotta, Mather is one of Chicago’s best "Modernistic" skyscrapers, combining modern form with lush historic ornament both in its exterior and interior. It reflects Chicago's 1920s obsession with height, encouraged by the 1923 Chicago Zoning Ordinance which called for tall, slender, "setback" towers.&nbsp;Mather Tower was commissioned in 1926 as a speculative office building,&nbsp; envisioned by developer and businessman Alonzo C. Mather (1848-1930) to be part of a&nbsp; set of twin towers that would make a bold urban statement at the north "entrance" to the&nbsp; Loop. While its twin on Michigan Avenue was never built, Mather Tower became one of about two dozen Chicago skyscrapers of the era that were built partly as the result of the building boom fueled by post-World War I expansion. Most of these had large amounts of speculative office space and were designed in accordance with the city's new zoning code enacted in 1923.</p><p>The 1923 zoning code governed the shape of Chicago's skyscrapers through the early 1930s, altering the skyline of the city. During that time, the total volume of office space more than doubled in Chicago. Under the code, a building could rise to 264 feet at the sidewalk, with habitable towers above that which occupied no more than 25% of the lot size, or one-sixth of the cubic area of the main building - a formula which encouraged skyscrapers with multiple setbacks. The builders of Mather Tower employed the formula in a way that created the tallest and thinnest possible structure on the available lot; thereby creating this "needle" skyscraper that was, upon its completion in 1928, the city's tallest building at 519 feet above the sidewalk. Rather than a series of small setbacks that retained more of the largest possible office floors, the creators of Mather Tower chose a design that placed dramatic emphasis on the tower itself, by extending it to the maximum possible height with many slightly telescoping spaces of small square footage.</p><p>Upon its completion, Mather Tower was occupied primarily by advertising agencies, art studios, graphic arts designers, publishers, and several engineers and architects - companies that would have been drawn by the excellent light afforded to each of the small office spaces. Some of the early tenants included American Advertising and Research Corporation, Art Directors Service, Inc., the Bureau of Advertising, Business Service Studio Artists, Bowman Wesley Studio, T.A. Gannon advertising agency, Grauman- Jennings Studio, and Reliance Advertising Company.</p>

This slender skyscraper at East Wacker Drive was built between 1926 and 1928, as the headquarters of the Mather Stock Car Company. The Mather Tower was named for Alonzo C. Mather, a businessman and philanthropist who was born in New York in 1848. Mather became the founder of the Mather Stock Car Company, a leading manufacturer of railroad livestock cars designed to provide more humane shipment of animals. The tower, now known by its address, was Chicago's second tallest building (41 stories) when it was completed in 1928.

Mather Tower

<p>In August of 1812, the Potawatomi still controlled this area and relations with the tribe were critical to American leaders at Fort Dearborn.. Captain Nathan Heald, a U.S. Army Officer, was stationed at Fort Dearborn during the War of 1812 and began to evacuate the ninety-four people living within Fort Dearborn owing to the power of the Potawatomi tribe and deteriorating relations between tribal leaders and American leaders in the area. Heald had the ninety-four people travel to Fort Wayne but they were attacked and most were either killed or captured while Fort Dearborn was sacked. From the American perspective, the event was known as the Dearborn Massacre. Heald Square was named after Captain Nathan Heald for his leadership during this time. </p><p>In 1934, Heald Square became part of the Chicago Park District but its ownership was transferred to the City of Chicago as a key component to the Second Functional Consolidation Act in 1959. On July 4, 1936, a Chicago attorney, Barnet Hodes, who was also head of the Chicago Department of Law at the time, led an organized attempt in order to put down the rise Anti-Semitism in the Chicagoland area. “Hodes defined the purpose of the foundation: “Leaders in every walk of life and representatives of every cultural group have confirmed the conviction that a major contribution to patriotism, historical knowledge, and understanding of the part played by peoples of various nationalities in the building of America will be made by the erection in Chicago of an appropriate memorial symbolizing the cooperation that George Washington received from Haym Salomon and Robert Morris.” Hodes felt that a commemorative statue of Salomon standing alone would not deliver the message of intercultural cooperation as effectively as a sculpture with non-Jewish patriots like George Washington and Robert Morris.” (Carl Volkmann) Hodes had made the decision and had chosen Lorado Taft to be the main artist in building this amazing sculpture. Hodes had also created a campaign to raise $50,000 to complete this project. Taft had completed a small yet significant amount of detail to a study model of the sculpture that had Robert Morris and Haym Salomon standing side by side with George Washington.</p><p>Taft passed away on October 30, 1936, leaving the project incomplete. Taft’s works for this project were later presumed and completed by Leonard Crunelle, Mary Webster, and Nellie Walker. George Washington was modeled by these artists after taking inspiration from the 18th-century bust version of George Washington by Jean Antoine Houdon. In 1941, the Heald Square Monument was dedicated on December 15. It became the first sculpture in the Chicagoland area declared an official city landmark by the city council in the early 1970s. </p>

<p>A Chicago landmark, this eleven-foot-tall bronze sculpture was made by Lorado Taft and Leonard Crunelle and depicts George Washington, with Robert Morris and Haym Salomon during the events of the American Revolution.</p>

Heald Square Monument 

<div>The former International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Building, now known as 330 North Wabash Avenue, was completed in 1972 by noted Chicago architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It was his final design and included numerous engineering innovations to support its height, and at the time of its completion, this was the third-tallest building in Chicago.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br>Buildings constructed earlier in the century dominated the Chicago skyline&nbsp;until the late 1950s, when resumption of commercial building signaled the arrival of what became known as the "Second Chicago School" or Second School architecture. The Second School's most influential figure was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a native of Germany who served as one of the major pioneers in the development of modernism in Europe. <br><br>Ludwig Mies van der Rohe immigrated to the United States and arrived in Chicago in 1937. He&nbsp;assumed the headship of the School of Architecture at Chicago's Armour Institute of Technology (later Illinois Institute of Technology. Several of his influential European contemporaries such as Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer also came to the United States during the 1930s. Together, these architects&nbsp;sought to challenge current building design&nbsp;just as the original Chicago School architects had done. Together, these architects created designs based on 20th century modernism.<br></div><div><br></div><div>IBM traces its roots back to the 1880s when it produced such business machines as recording clocks and tabulating machines. The company hired Mies van der Rohe in 1966 to build the company's regional headquarters. By the late 1960s, the IBM Corporation had grown into an international giant with offices and plants in the United States, Europe, and Asia, employing more than 240,000 people and generating more than $6.8 billion by 1968.&nbsp;&nbsp;<div><br></div></div><div>At the time of the commission, Mies was eighty years old and had a resume that included seven decades of skyscraper and building construction throughout the world. The building is an outstanding example Mies' work, with trademark features shared by other Modern Movement architects. The 670-foot-tall IBM building enjoys a geometric, rectilinear box design, noted for its lightness that's expressed by the expansive glass and anodized-bronze tinted aluminum curtain walls.&nbsp; The windows of the curtain wall are taller than they are wide, expressing verticality and encouraging the onlooker's eye to move skyward. The I-beams also extend from the windows and reinforce the verticality of the building, typical of Mies' designs.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Upon completion in 1972, the building ranked as the city's third tallest building, which required innovative engineering. For instance, The engineers had to account for the force of wind against the exterior, which creates an air pressure imbalance between the inside of the building and the outside, which can result in water getting sucked through tiny holes in the office walls. Mies' team devised small shielded ports in the wall that balanced the pressure and prevented any water seepage. The building's electrical system and floor strength, along with the room heights, were all designed with IBM computer systems in mind. The building also included state of the art air conditioning, controlled by computer systems designed by IBM and tied to a weather station located on the roof and able to account for heating differences attached to which side of the building was experiencing the highest sun exposure.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Though Mies' designed the building, which was approved and finalized in July 1969, he died before construction started. Thus, it is his last design. An honorary bust of Mies sculpted by Italian expressionist, Marino Marini (1901-1980), was unveiled in the building lobby when the building officially opened for business.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>IBM moved out of the building in the 1990s as modern-world computer systems, personal computers,&nbsp;and inter-networking&nbsp;systems (&nbsp;(Internet) supplanted IBM's dominance. As such, the building is as much a monument to its architect as it is the twentieth-century business climate noted for its mainframe computers (notably after WWII), large office buildings and central, downtown locations.&nbsp;</div>

The IBM Building, now known as 330 North Wabash, was erected in Chicago in 1972. The building was the last skyscraper designed by the distinguished Second School architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who died before its completion. The building serves as a monument to the dominance of IBM within the late twentieth-century business world. IBM, at the time of the building's design, employed more than 240,000 people and generated more than $6.8 billion in revenue. The building is now home to the headquarters of the American Medical Association and the Langham Hotel.

Chicago's IBM Building (AMA Plaza and Langham Hotel)

<p>Post-war America witnessed a sudden middle-class migration from urban to suburban, mostly due in part to an aging urban infrastructure and the prospects of suburban life and all that it offered for growing families. Chicago, among other major metropolitan cities, suffered greatly during this time of transition. By the mid-1950s, a revitalization project led by Chicago’s newly elected mayor, Richard J. Daley, worked to reestablish downtown Chicago and its waterfront as a center the city and its economic future. To make the Loop more attractive to singles or childless couples who preferred living in downtown urban areas, constructing a new housing complex was proposed. Working in partnership with the Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU), who mostly financed Marina City, Mayor Daley secured a reliable backer for the new housing project. The president of the BSEIU, William McFetridge, selected Chicago native Bertrand Goldberg as the architect.</p><p>Bertrand Goldberg was born in Chicago in 1913, and first became interested in architecture in 1930 as an undergraduate student at Harvard University. Two years later, Goldberg traveled to Berlin, Germany where he studied architecture at the Bauhaus, an avant-garde school of art and design. During his time spent in Berlin, he absorbed the theories surrounding the school’s philosophy that art and design can improve the human experience, which would later influence his architectural designs. Goldberg also spent a short, but influential, three months working under Mies van der Rohe, one of the most influential modernist architects. However, the Nazi Party rose to power in January 1933. The political turmoil caused by the Nazis and the potential danger of being a Jew in Germany forced Goldberg to return to Chicago in early 1933. In 1934, he continued his education at the Armour Institute of Technology, now the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he eventually earned his degree. By 1937, Goldberg opened his own design firm that came to be known as Bertrand Goldberg Associates (BGA).</p><p>The housing project went through four different redesign phases before finally being set in December 1959. By the time Goldberg was selected as architect for downtown Chicago’s new housing project, he had already been experimenting with the use of cylindrical forms in design, and all four of Goldberg’s housing complex plans included cylindrical designs. He explained the design rationale in 1960: “I also feel that there is a terrible need to get people out of boxes. Those long hallways with scores of doors opening anonymously are inhuman. Each person should retain his own relation to the core. It should be the relation of the branch to the tree, rather than of cell to the honeycomb.” The final project plan included five buildings: two 60-story cylindrical apartment buildings, a ten-story office building, a cinema, and a two-story base on which the entire complex sat. Within the base building and in the lower levels of the office building, the project team aimed to lease space for a bowling alley, gym, skating rink, bank, grocery store, liquor store, drug store, barber shop, beauty salon, travel agency, flower shop, coffee shop, and restaurants. A 70-boat marina was also planned on site to provide residents with opportunities for recreation on the Chicago River.&nbsp;</p><p>Construction officially began on Marina City on November 22, Thanksgiving Day, 1960 during a highly celebrated groundbreaking ceremony. Work on the housing complex ensued at an almost frantic pace; alternating between the two towers, the crews completed one floor per day or a floor per tower every other day. Of the 60-stories per tower, the first twenty floors were parking spaces for the residents and the upper 40-floors offered 896 apartments. The cylindrical design of the two towers created a pie-shaped layout for the apartments, providing large windows and balconies for each unit. The cylindrical, pie-shaped exterior of the two towers resembled that of two corn-cobs, which later became the nickname for the two apartment buildings. Tenants were able to move into the east tower in October 1963, and then the west tower opened in early 1963. The completion of the Marina Towers, they were the tallest apartment buildings in the world and the tallest buildings constructed with reinforced concrete. The rest Marina City complex, the “city within a city,” was not complete in its entirety until the mid-1960s. While mixed-use developments were not a new concept, Goldberg’s Marina City was the first attempt at a mixed-use development on such a grand scale.&nbsp;</p><p>Marina City quickly became one of Chicago’s most iconic landmarks and sought-after housing complexes, as Goldberg’s idea of a 24-hour, self-sustaining community came to fruition. The use of the housing complex to bring more residents back into Chicago’s urban center worked and worked successfully. Marina Towers became something of a tourist attraction, with at least 12,000 people visiting the&nbsp;model units per month during the first few years of its operation. The towers remained rental apartments until 1977 when they were converted to condominiums. After that point, out-of-state investors began purchasing holdings of the property, and the condition of the buildings began to deteriorate. Then in 1994, John Marks purchased the commercial buildings of the complex for $3.35 million and began renovating the commercial spaces: the office building was converted into a hotel, the theatre became a live entertainment venue, and the skating rink was converted into a restaurant space.</p><p>Marina City remains a mixed-use complex today, offering a wide variety of entertainment, dining, recreation, and lodging. The architectural and cultural significance of Marina City is such that it was designated as a Chicago Landmark on March 16, 2016.</p>

Situated just outside of Chicago’s Loop District on the north side of the river, Marina City, also known as the "Corn Cob Towers," has been one of the city’s most iconic landmarks since its completion in 1967. Noted for its unique nature-inspired curvilinear architecture and reinforced concrete construction, Marina City is the brainchild of the world-renowned modernist architect Bertrand Goldberg. Goldberg studied architecture at the Bauhaus in Germany and worked under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, known as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture. The idea behind Goldberg’s Marina City was to draw middle-class Chicagoans back into the city after twenty years of post-war suburban migration. Blending a unique architectural style with utility, Goldberg envisioned the complex to be a city within a city that combined residential, office, retail, and entertainment spaces. When completed the five-building Marina City complex offered Chicagoans two 65-story residential towers, a 10-story office building, a bowling alley, an ice rink, retail shopping space, a restaurant, a cinema, gym, and a small marina. Marina City remains a highly sought-after residential complex and became an official Chicago Landmark on March 16, 2016.

Marina City, Chicago

<h3>History of the Eastland Disaster</h3><p>The SS Eastland was first commissioned in 1902 and named in 1903. During the ship’s first voyages on Lake Michigan, many discovered significant flaws in its design. The most prominent flaw was the top-heavy construction that resulted in a high center of gravity. Between 1903 and 1915, many noticed that the ship was susceptible to listing. Furthermore, after the Titanic disaster in 1912, President Woodrow Wilson ordered boats to supply sufficient lifeboats to accommodate passengers. Unfortunately, the extra lifeboats made the Eastland more top-heavy and therefore more likely to capsize.&nbsp;</p>
<p>On the morning of July 24th, 1915, thousands of Western Electric Company employees lined up along North LaSalle Street to board the SS Eastland. Many were Czech immigrants and other working-class immigrants who rarely had opportunities to enjoy time with their families. The air was festive as immigrant families looked forward to the company picnic.&nbsp;</p><p>As passengers walked up the gangplank onto the ship that morning, however, crew members noticed the ship seemed to&nbsp;lean to one side&nbsp;regardless of the water pumped into the ballast tanks to keep the ship’s shifting load on an even keel. The morning was fairly chilly with a light rain, so many passengers immediately went below deck to warm up and rest before the picnic.&nbsp;</p>
<p>With over 2,500 passengers on board, the captain of the ship, Captain Harry Pedersen, gave the order to embark. The engines roared, but immediately it was apparent that the Eastland was slouching on its port side. Suddenly, passengers started to notice that the increasing tilt, and it was at this point that the ship’s warning whistle blew. The ship passed a tilt of 30 degrees and continued rotating, with water gushing in its port side. Around 7:28, the tilt became too much, and the Eastland capsized.&nbsp;</p><p>Writer Jack Woodford, a witness to the disaster, described the scene.&nbsp;“And then movement caught my eye," Woodford wrote.&nbsp;"I looked across the river. As I watched in disoriented stupefaction a steamer large as an ocean liner slowly turned over on its side as though it were a whale going to take a nap. I didn’t believe a huge steamer had done this before my eyes, lashed to a dock, in perfectly calm water, in excellent weather, with no explosion, no fire, nothing. I thought I had gone crazy.”</p>
<p>During the capsize, many passengers were thrown into the river. Others became trapped underneath the ship’s hull. Inside, the capsize tossed passengers around and some were crushed by furniture, refrigerators, pianos, and other pieces of equipment.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Two accounts of the disaster are as follows:</p>
<p>“When boarding the boat we all remarked jestingly: ‘The boat is listing!’ Reaching the big dancing hall on the lower deck where many hundreds of excursionists were enjoying the music, we noticed that the floor was strongly tilted. Then a man cried: ‘All hurry to the other side, lest the boat tip!’ Even now we enjoyed rushing up the sharply inclined dance floor, when suddenly the mighty boat rolled to the opposite side, and all occupants were hurled into a helpless heap. In the dance hall the furniture, the tables and chairs, the heavy piano, the large icebox and counter of the tavern, crashed upon the poor victims, so that many were killed outright. Those who had been on deck were trapped deep down in the river, under twenty-three feet of water.</p>
<p>I was one of the few who came out of the water although I was imprisoned inside the dance hall. I could swim well and tried to rescue a little girl, but a man took hold of my arm and pleaded, ‘Lady, please save me!’ I screamed: ‘Let me go! I have all I can do to save myself and this child!’ Then the fellow pulled me and the child down to the bottom. I fought him off, and in the scuffle I lost hold of the poor child. Only five other girls and men were swimming within the dance hall. Luckily they found a ledge to which they now clung, and they called me to come and hold on. For half an hour we took this rest, but the suspense became unbearable. We screamed for help. Finally we were noticed and strong arms drew us through a porthole.”</p><p>“I shall never be able to forget what I saw. People were struggling in the water, clustered so thickly that they literally covered the surface of the river. A few were swimming; the rest were floundering about, some clinging to a life raft that had floated free, others clutching at anything that they could reach—at bits of wood, at each other, grabbing each other, pulling each other down, and screaming! The screaming was the most horrible of all.”<br></p>

This plaque along the Chicago Riverwalk commemorates the 1915 Eastland Disaster, one of the most deadly maritime disasters of the 20th century. The capsizing of the S. S. Eastland led to the death of an estimated 848 passengers and crew and remains the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes. Most of the victims were factory workers and their children, and twenty-two entire families saw the loss of both parents and all of their children on that day. 

On the morning of July 24, 1915, four major passenger steamers ready to take over 7,000 passengers to the Western Electric Company’s company picnic across Lake Michigan in Michigan City, Indiana. On the Eastland, nearly 2,500 Western Electric employees, crew members, and employee family members were on board. Around 7:30 am that morning, while still docked in the Chicago River, the Eastland capsized. Out of the 2,500 passengers, 844 passengers and four crew members drowned. 

While the Eastland Disaster made headlines for a few days, media coverage soon focused on other events such as the marriage of a millionaire heiress in Michigan the following week. More passengers lost their lives in this disaster than the Titanic, although far more crew members lost their lives on the Titanic than the Eastland. That the Titanic tends to focus on the death of passengers while few people remember the Eastland demonstrates the tendency for tragedies involving non-elites and working-class victims to receive less media coverage. the story of the Eastland might have also ended in the wrongful arrest of crew members had it not been for the efforts of attorney Clarence Darrow who demonstrated the innocence of the chief engineer and other crew members. 

The S.S. Eastland Disaster Memorial

“Freeform” is mounted on the window wall of the renovated old State of Illinois Building designed in 1908 by Holibard and Root and restored and renovated by them in 1990.&nbsp; Richard Hunt was born in Chicago in 1935. From the seventh grade on, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago where he received a B.A.E. in 1957. While still a student at SAIC, he began exhibiting his sculpture nationwide and during his Junior year one of his pieces, “Arachne,” was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. <br><br>Hunt’s career in sculpture began to take him outside the studio with his first large-scale public sculpture commission, “Play” (the first sculpture commissioned by the State of Illinois’ Public Art Program). This piece marked the beginning of what Hunt refers to as “his second career,” a career that gave him the opportunity to work on a&nbsp;sculpture that responded to the specifics of architectural or other designed spaces and the dynamics of diverse communities and interests. Since that time he has created over one hundred and fifty commissioned works. Many of them are in the Chicago area. Among them are “Jacob’s Ladder” at the Carter G. Woodson Library at 9525 S Halsted, “Freeform” on the exterior facade of the State of Illinois Center at 160 N LaSalle, “Flight Forms” at Midway Airport on the corner of 59th and Cicero, and “We Will” at the Heritage building on the corner of Randolph and Garland Court.&nbsp;

Freeform by Richard Hunt is an abstract sculpture that complements the exterior facade of the State of Illinois Building.  It was commissioned in 1993 by the State of Illinois’s, Capital Development Board.  The sculpture is made of stainless steel welded together and the dimensions are, H 26 ft. x W 35 ft. x D 2 ft.  It may look small compared to the building but it is actually two and a half stories high and weighs three tons. The title of the sculpture derives from one of Hunt’s central ideas about the nature of Abstract Art, it is freely formed.

Freeform by Richard Hunt

<p>The theatre first opened its doors in in 1926 as the home theater for a vaudeville group called the Orpheum Circuit. It was one of many two-a-day houses around the country, known as such because it showed two vaudeville performances a day. Many famous stars of the era, such as Jimmy Durante, Mae West, Jack Benny, Sophie Tucker and Bob Hope graced the theater's stage. In the 1930s, vaudeville fell out of fashion and the theater transformed itself into a movie palace.</p><p><br /></p><p>Before movies became a staple, the 1920s might be considered the era of the grand theater. Indeed, between 1927 and 1928 alone, 264 Broadway productions opened in New York. Throughout the country, the booming interwar economic climate offered U.S. residents an opportunity to spend money on leisurely things, including the theater; the consumption culture was born. But, the productions themselves, including in Chicago, reflected a society that had changed dramatically as a result of World War I. Plays routinely reflected a culture that was more unsure about the future than it had been during the height of the Industrial Revolution (before the war). </p><p><br /></p><p>The emergence of television during the 1950s forced theaters to begin showing live stage shows and musicals. Stars such as Carol Channing returned to the stage for Broadway productions like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." Still, theaters declined in popularity throughout the twentieth century. The Cadillac Palace transitioned to the Bismark Theater during the 1970s, and then it was turned into a banquet hall that hosted rock concerts. IA restoration project completed in 1999 also included renaming the theater back to its original Cadillac Palace Theatre name. The musical "Aida" had its premiere at the newly named theater the night it reopened. The theater now shows Broadway-style productions in its two thousand plus seat auditorium.</p>

The Cadillac Palace Theatre is a testament to the elegance and grandeur of old theaters and movie palaces. The interior, which was inspired by the Palaces of Versailles and Fontainebleau, is filled with red carpeting, gilded walls, and six glittering chandeliers. The theatre first opened its doors in in 1926 as the home theater for a vaudeville group called the Orpheum Circuit. However, by the 1930s, vaudeville fell out of fashion and the theater transformed itself into a movie palace, then back into a performance stage by the 1950s, and serving as a concert venue and banquet hall during the 1970s. The Cadillac Palace Theatre was restored in 1999 and continues to offer Broadway style theatrical performances.


Cadillac Palace Theatre

<div>The term “alderman” is somewhat confusing, as its meaning and usage varies slightly not only from country to country, but also from state to state. The word originally comes from the Old English title ealdorman, which meant “elder man”, and was used to refer to leaders of the shires. This title of “elder man” was common throughout much of present-day Europe at the time, with similar titles used in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. <br><br>In the modern-day United States, the term alderman generally refers to something akin to a city council member or any kind of elected public official serving a localized area in a more general capacity. Generally, cities either employ the city council or the alderman terminology, but not both. However, in Chicago they use both terms, meaning they have a city council composed of aldermen.<br><br>One of City Hall’s more modern features is a rooftop garden, known as the Green Roof. Completed in 2001, the 38,800 feet of garden space was done in an effort to study the impact of green rooftop spaces on the heat island effect in urban areas. An urban heat island is a metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than surrounding areas due to human activity. Rooftop gardens are believed to help reduce this effect because the main cause of rising temperatures in urban areas is the alteration of the landscape. The urban heat island is detrimental for a number of reasons, including its harmful affect on air and water quality.</div><div><br></div>

Completed in 1911, Chicago City Hall was designed by the architectural firm Holabird & Roche. The building is home to the offices of the mayor, the city treasurer of Chicago, the City Clerk, some of the city’s departments, the wards of the various aldermen of Chicago, and the chambers of the Chicago City Council. It reaches 11 stories and was built in the classical revival style. The classical revival style, or neoclassicism, refers to Western movements in visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture at various points throughout history that were inspired by stylistic elements of Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman art.


City Hall

The Monument with Standing Beast in the heart of Chicago is only one of three sculptures by Jean Dubuffet in the United States. The sculpture is composed of four notable elements: a standing animal, a tree, a portal, and architectural form. With his sculpture, Dubuffet hoped to connect with the average person as the sculpture’s open plan allows viewers to walk through and under the sculpture. Monument with Standing Beast reflects Dubuffet’s “often brutal, urban style utilizing street language, graffiti and caricature.”  

Monument with Standing Beast

Nestled on the east side of the Daley Center, “The Picasso” is an untitled abstract sculpture dedicated to the city by Pablo Picasso.  The sculpture, made of Cor-Ten steel, stands 50 feet tall and was commissioned in 1963 by the architects of the Richard J. Daley Center.  Picasso worked on this sculpture for over 2 years, even creating a 42-inch model that can be seen today at the Art Institute of Chicago.  The sculpture was unveiled in August 1967.  In a letter to the city, Picasso wrote that he gave the sculpture as a gift to the city of Chicago, but never gave a description of the sculpture’s representation.

"The Picasso"

<div>Joan Miró i Ferra, more commonly known simply as Joan Miró, was a painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barelona. He believed that conventional painting methods reflected and supported the rich and powerful of society. He sought to rebel against these traditional methods, going so far as to declare an "assassination of painting."<br></div><div><br>Miró attended art school and business school. However, after suffering a nervous breakdown he decided to abandon his business ambitions and focus solely on his art. His early work was similar to the work produced by Fauves and Cubists in Barcelona at the time. Thus, scholars have deemed this period his Catalan Fauvist period. He had a solo exhibition in Barcelona during 1918 and moved to Paris a few years later. While in Paris, he finished a painting called The Farm. Ernest Hemingway later purchased the piece and said of it, "It has in it all that you feel about Spain when you are there and all that you feel when you are away and cannot go there. No one else has been able to paint these two very opposing things." Miró became part of the Surrealists in 1924. It was during this time that he began experimenting with collage.<br></div>

Located in the Loop district of Chicago, this sculpture was designed by Joan Miró in 1979 and originally named The Sun, the Moon, and One Star. The Brunswick Corporation originally commissioned a sculpture from Miró in 1969. However, they decided not to go forward with the project due to the cost. The first female Mayor of Chicago, Jane Byrne, agreed to fund 50% of the project in 1979. Miró decided to donate his design to the city, thus making the cost more manageable. A number of organizations and individuals covered the other fifty percent. The sculpture was unveiled in 1981.

Miró's Chicago

<div>In the late 1880s, real estate investor and elevator entrepreneur William Hale hired the famed Burnham &amp; Root architectural firm (Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root) to build a 14-story to building at the corner of Washington and State. However, &nbsp;a building which had survived the Great Fire already existed on the lot, and only the lower floor's lease would expire soon. The tenants on the upper floors refused to leave, waiting three more years for their end of their leases. Thus, the contractor used jack screws to hold up floors two through four while construction began on the lower floor. Eventually, by 1894, the residents moved and construction of the 14-story&nbsp;skyscraper took place (one that proved highly influential). The building&nbsp;was finished in 1895.</div><div><br></div><div>The Reliance is a perfect example of the emerging &nbsp;"Chicago School" or style, which emerged during Chicago's building boom in the wake of the Great Fire. The first wave of that style reached its peak in the late 1890s when the Reliance was constructed. The Reliance celebrates the use of metal framing, hidden only subtly by the terra cotta exterior. &nbsp;Meanwhile, the bays between the framework are filled with rectangular glass known as "Chicago Glass," Indeed, the walls consist of two-thirds glass.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Sadly, Root died in 1891 well before the building was finished. Burnham hired Charles B. Atwood to complete the project (and his name now adorns the cafe on the lowest floor). &nbsp;Together, the building enjoyed the fruits of modern innovation. For instance, the Reliance Building offered full electric and phone service in each office. Over time, numerous physicians and dentists leased offices in the Reliance (including Al Capone's dentist). On the other hand, the idea of trying to combat stains created by the thick coal-induced smoke with a smooth terra cotta that would easily wash in the rain -- exist as "self-cleaning," proved unsuccessful.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The Great Depression took its toll on the building, as maintaining full occupancy rarely materialized. &nbsp;The building fell into disrepair until the 1990s when the city purchased the building and funded its restoration; the windows and terra cotta enjoyed full repair. The renovation made the building worthy of sale and, as such, a private developer purchased it and subsequently renovated the interior. In time, it became the Hotel Burnham, and now, today, it is part of the hotel chain known as The Alise -- a luxurious hotel and boutique.&nbsp;</div>

The Reliance building was erected as one of the world's first steel-frame skyscrapers in 1895. Designed by the famous Burnham and Root architectural firm, the building was built in two stages because the tenants living on the top floors of the existing building at this location refused to leave until their lease expired. In response, the engineers used jack screws which held up the top floors while construction began on the lower floors. Construction began in 1891 and the building stood fourteen stories when it was completed. Until the Great Depression, doctors and other medical professionals leased offices in the building; afterwards, the Reliance Building began to fall into disrepair until the mid-1990s when a major renovation occurred. Today, the Reliance Building serves as a boutique hotel, the Alise Chicago

Reliance Building

<p>Vaudeville dominated the entertainment world from the 1880s until just before World War I. In 1882, C. E. Kohl and George Middleton opened the first acknowledged vaudeville entertainment in Chicago on the city's west side, followed by opening another location in 1883 and again in 1884. The vaudeville shows' profound success allowed the pair to lease much larger venues such as the Chicago Opera House and Haymarket. In 1900, Kohl bought out Middleton's leases and later with George Castle acquired the Academy of Music and two well-known theaters. Additionally, Kohl and Castle built the Majestic (now known as CIBC), which opened in 1906. </p><p>The Majestic took its name for the twenty-one-story Majestic Building for which it resided. The building, when it opened, stood as the city's tallest building. Meanwhile, the auditorium's design proved more lavish than its counterparts, as the owners intended to draw more elegant audiences to vaudeville. In fact, the Majestic, with its detailed architecture, marble floors, decorative tapestries, and amenities, served as the city's first venue to cost more than $1 million. </p><p>The Majestic existed among four major vaudeville theaters in Chicago and helped the city become of the nation's most prominent sources of vaudeville entertainment, trailing only New York. Headliners at the Majestic included Al Jolson, Jack Benny, W.C. Fields, and Harry Houdini. By the 1920s, though, venues like the Chicago theater offered both movies and live entertainment for the same price as the vaudeville-only shows, which spelled the end for vaudeville. By the end of the 1920s, Hollywood ostensibly killed pure vaudeville, but Broadway and live theater survived; between 1927 and 1928, 264 Broadway productions opened in New York and traveled to places like Chicago and San Fransisco. </p><p>The Majestic withstood the erosion of vaudeville, but not the Great Depression, which forced its closure for thirteen years. The theater closed in 1932 and did not open again until 1945 when the Shubert Organization purchased and remodeled the theater and reopened it as the Sam Shubert Theatre, or "The Shubert," a name that endured until 2005. Patrons of the late 1940s viewed popular productions, including <em>Carousel</em>, <em>South Pacific</em>, and <em>Guys and Dolls</em>. More recently, the theater benefited from an extensive renovation in 2005-2006. The theater started productions in 2006 as the LaSalle Bank Theatre, which coincided with floors 4-21 of the adjoining (Majestic) office building opening as the Hampton Inn Majestic Hotel. The hotel and theatre now share the facility, with the theatre operating (under the name CIBC) on floors 1-6 and the hotel on floors 4-21. Recent productions include <em>Hamilton</em>, <em>The Book of Mormon</em>, <em>Camelot</em>, <em>Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?,</em> Irving Berlin's <em>White Christmas</em>, and <em>Chicago</em>.</p>

The CIBC Theatre opened in 1906 under the name Majestic Theatre as Chicago's first $1 million venue and home to legendary vaudeville acts. The CIBC currently seats 1,800 and routinely presents Broadway shows, notably since a substantial renovation in 2006; its most recent claim to fame involves producing the smash hit, "Hamilton." The Majestic name comes from the twenty-one floor skyscraper for which it resides. When the building opened in 1905, it stood as the city's tallest building. Today, the CIBC and the Hampton Inn Majestic Hotel occupy the tower. Over the years, the theater has operated under several names such as the PrivateBank Theatre, Bank of America Theatre, LaSalle Bank Theatre, and, from 1945 - 2005, the Sam Shubert Theatre.

CIBC Theater (also known as the Majestic and Shubert Theatre)

<p>The first Palmer House was built was a wedding present to Bertha Honoré, the bride of Potter Palmer. Potter Palmer (May 20, 1826-May 4, 1902) was the founder of a dry goods store, called Potter Palmer and Company, located on Chicago’s Lake Street. In 1865, Palmer brought two partners into his business, Marshall Field and Levi Leiter. This store eventually grew into a department store chain called Marshall Field and Company, which was bought by Macy’s, Inc. in 2005.</p>
<p>Palmer’s wife Bertha (May 22, 1849-May 5, 1918) was a successful businesswoman and philanthropist in her own rite. She served a number of positions in Chicago, including the President of the Board of Lady Managers, which meant that she was instrumentally important in organizing the World’s Colombian Exposition, held in 1893. She was also among the first members of the Chicago women’s club, a group of women who met to discuss various societal problems in an effort to find solutions. Part of the larger General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Chicago-based group sought to provide inexpensive milk for poor children and better general care for children whose mothers were in prison. Later in her life, she became a pioneer in the early days of Florida real estate. In 1910, she purchased over 80,000 acres of land in the Sarasota area. She convinced acquaintances and friends who had means to spend winters in Sarasota Bay. In 1914, she established a hunting preserve called “River Hills” on the 19,000 acres of land she bought in Temple Terrace, Florida.</p>

Originally known as “The Palmer,” the Palmer House Hilton Hotel has been one of the city's most important places for events and welcoming guests from the day the establishment opened its doors on September 26, 1871. The original Palmer hotel greeted only a few guests, however, as it was destroyed by fire 13 days later--one of hundreds of buildings destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire on October 9, 1871. The second Palmer House was completed in 1875. The third and final Palmer House was built between 1923 and 1925 and was acquired by Conrad Hilton in 1945. Thor Equities acquired the Palmer House Hilton in 2005 and announced its intention to sell the historic property in 2015. 

Palmer House Hilton

Similar to many large cities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, saloons and those who brewed and distilled liquor proved highly successful, such as the case with&nbsp;Gardner Spring Chapin and James Jefferson Gore, who rose to local fame due to its whiskey distilling prowess. The 1904 building that bears their names included a ground-floor saloon. But, the history of the building also includes its Prairie School design made famous by Louis Sullivan and Frank Loyd Wright.&nbsp;<br><br><div>The story of Chapin began in the late 1860s (it is believed) when Chapin provided Gore, then broke, with a $200 loan. Gore turned that loan into successful businesses ventures in Chicago while Chapin went to Minneapolis and opened an unsuccessful dry goods store. Chapin returned to Chicago and opened a Grocery store. Gore found him, and to return the favor of the loan, suggested the two go into business together -- friendship and business partnership were born.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The two opened a grocery store in 1865, but with the inclusion of a liquor store, which proved to be the most rewarding (financially) aspect of the new store. From there, the two developed their own "1867 Sour Mash, " and its success pushed the two to concentrate solely on making whiskey.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>However, what truly made the two famous in Chicago was their actions to save their whiskey during the Great Chicago Fire. By rolling the barrels into Lake Michigan, much of their stock was saved -- recovered after the fire. They then sold the post-Great-Fire whiskey as "Lake Whiskey."&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>&nbsp;That notable occurrence gave them notoriety and provided the two great success, opening saloons and liquor stores throughout Chicago. In fact, Chapin &amp; Gore’s liquor received national attention, notably its “1867” and “Old Jim Gore,” which the firm trademarked in 1904, which allowed them the ability to acquire their own Kentucky distillery. They eventually opened branches in Kansas City, &nbsp;Indianapolis and even Paris, France.</div><div><br></div><div>The 1904 Praire School structure stands as a monument to the whiskey maker's success. The building includes a warehouse and offices, along with the bar at street level. Meanwhile, the exterior consisted of exemplary brickwork and terra cotta. &nbsp;Sadly, Jim Gore did not see the building's construction as he died in 1891, but Chapin continued the firm under the name Chapin &amp; Gore.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Prohibition, of course, put an end to the company's distillation but the name arose in 1934 under the umbrella of Louisville's National Distillers Corporation, and later sold to Bardstown Distilleries. In truth, though, the whiskey was never again distilled by the actual Chapin &amp; Gore.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Renovations to the building in 1997-98 not only helped restore the building to its former aesthetic glory, but ushered in a new chapter for the building. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, purchased the building to use for its offices and administrative needs. The actual symphony is located around the corner on Michigan Ave.&nbsp;</div>

Completed in 1904, the Chapin and Gore Building was built for the locally famous whiskey-distilling duo of Gardner Spring Chapin and James Jefferson Gore, who gained fame due to a bold move made during the Great Chicago Fire. As well, the 1904 structure represents one of the few multi-story office buildings inspired by the Prairie School of architecture made famous by people such as Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. 

Chapin and Gore Building 

<p>The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, boasts a collection spanning 5,000 years of artistic expression. The founders of the Art Institute hoped to place a gritty, working-class city on the cultural map and also desired to expose the citizens of Chicago to works of the masters. Their avant-garde spirit led the founders to collect some of the greatest works of art of the late 19th century, and that vision built one of the best Impressionist collections in the world outside of France. The Art Institute continued to grow over the 20th century, and now the museum stands as one of the great encyclopedic art museums in the world.</p>

<p>Built on rubble from the 1871 Chicago fire, the Art Institute was originally founded as the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1879. The name was changed in 1882, and shortly thereafter the institution was already in need of a new home for its expanding collection and growing student body. As the city prepared to dazzle the country as host of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the Art Institute's trustees negotiated with the city's civic bodies for a new structure located on a park site at Michigan Avenue and Adams Street. The design of the classical Beaux-Arts building, by the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, allowed for the institution's ambitious goals. The Art Institute officially opened on December 8, 1893. Over the years, the museum has grown and continues to grow its collection, its physical plant and its reputation.</p><p>In May 2009, the Institute opened its newest addition, a 24,000-square-meter Modern Wing, housing renowned Modern and Contemporary masterpieces. This internationally acclaimed Modern Wing designed by Renzo Piano is the largest expansion in AIC’s 130-year history. This signature building features the latest in green museum technology and greatly increased the space dedicated to modern and contemporary art, photography, and architecture and design. The Modern Wing also houses the Ryan Education Center, a state-of-the-art facility placed in a prominent and highly trafficked area of the museum.<br></p>

The Art Institute of Chicago, established in 1879, is a world-renowned, encyclopedic art museum housing one of the world’s most important permanent collections. The Institute offers around thirty exhibitions a year and its permanent collection of over a quarter million works represents the third largest collection of art in the United States. The Institute is also home to the largest collection of impressionist paintings outside of Paris.

The Art Institute of Chicago

Jaume Plensa was born in 1955 in Barcelona, Catalonia. Catalonia is an autonomous community within Spain. Due to its Statue of Autonomy, it is designated as a nationality. It is a very complicated and contested identity. The Parliament of Catalonia ruled in September 2005 that Catalonia was, by definition, a nation. However, the Spanish Government does not consider this legally binding due to the Spanish Constitution's recognition of the "unity of the Spanish nation."<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Plensa's work, the&nbsp;Crown Fountain and his other public work, seeks to engage and connect with the viewer through expressing dualities in his work and challenging the viewer to engage with them intellectually. These dualities in their literal form (inside/outside, light/dark, front/back) call for the viewer to consider the metaphorical dualities within life and within ourselves. The hybrid nature of his work is heightened by combining conventional sculpture materials (glass, aluminum, bronze) with less conventional materials (water, light, video). This also heightens viewer participation as the viewer is asked to make unusual connections through the viewing of the piece.<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Plensa's use of video allows the fountains to remain enjoyable and interactive even in Chicago's frigid winter months when the water is turned off. The use of the "faces" in the video element of the fountain also allow for a representation of the city's diversity.<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The fountain has also been a source of controversy, even before it was built. James Wood, the president of the Art Institute of Chicago, along with several other community leaders, thought the towers would be too tall. It was even said that the size of the project was a "pissing contest" to compete with other park features.<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<br><br>

The Crown Fountain is a piece of public art located in Chicago's Millennium Park that opened in July 2004. It was built by Krueck and Sexton Architects and designed by Jaume Plensa, a Catalan artist. The fountain is a Black granite pool with a 50 ft. glass brick tower on either end. The towers display videos of various faces that interact with park goers by squirting water out of their mouths. The water features operate from May to October.

The Crown Fountain- Millennium Park 

<p>Born in India, Anish Kapoor (b. 1954) has lived and worked in London since the 1970s. Kapoor has recently emerged as one of the most influential sculptors of his generation. His work represents a fascination with darkness and light, radiance, and fluid reflections. Cloud Gate is his first outdoor permanent installation in the United States.</p><p>Cloud Gate stands thirty-three feet high and sixty-six feet long. Made of 168 stainless steel plates that were created in California over a period of two years, the sculpture was assembled on site in Chicago. With 2200 lineal feet of continuous welding, Cloud Gate received “The Extraordinary Welding Award” from the American Welding Society.</p><p>



</p><p>Though initially estimated to cost $6 million, Millennium Park’s iconic sculpture ended up costing nearly four times that figure. Private and corporate donations covered the entire cost of the artwork. Mayor Richard M. Daley declared May 15, 2006, the day of its official dedication, as&nbsp;“Cloud Gate Day.” In celebration, jazz trumpeter Orbert Davis composed “Fanfare for Cloud Gate” for the ceremonies.</p>

Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States. Though commonly known throughout Chicago as “The Bean” because of its kidney-bean shape, Cloud Gate was so christened when it debuted in 2006, two years after installation began. Kapoor's 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect Chicago’s famous skyline and the clouds above. The reflections of the city and the people surrounding the sculpture are equally fascinating. The Bean grew rapidly into one of Chicago’s major landmarks, up there with the Hancock Tower, the Chicago River, the Willis Tower, Navy Pier, and Wrigley Field. In fact, it is Chicago’s No. 2 tourist attraction, thanks in part to its reflective surface that simplifies selfie photographs. The sculpture is a major feature in the city’s Millennium Park and stands next to Jaume Plensa's Crown Foundation (installed in 2004), another favorite for its constant monumental video feed.

Cloud Gate, "The Bean"

<p>The Chicago Cultural Center was designed by Shepley, Rutan &amp; Coolidge and built in 1897 to serve as&nbsp;the city’s first central library. The building was deemed a national historic place in 1972 and a Chicago landmark in 1976. In 1991, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs designated the library to become the Chicago Cultural Center.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>The building is&nbsp;made of rare imported marbles, polished brass, fine hardwoods, and mosaics of Favrile glass, mother-of-pearl and colored stone. The Chicago Cultural Center&nbsp;is home to the world’s largest stained glass&nbsp;Tiffany Dome, which measures&nbsp;38 feet in diameter and contains&nbsp;30,000 pieces of glass. The building also features&nbsp;the Healy &amp;&nbsp;Millet Dome, a renaissance-style piece that&nbsp;measures&nbsp;40 feet in diameter and is made of 50,000 pieces of&nbsp;glass. The neoclassical Beaux Arts style architecture was influenced by buildings at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>The interior of the Chicago Cultural Center&nbsp;is made of rare marbles, mosaics, and coffered ceilings. The first floor houses several galleries, the visitor’s center, a studio theater, and a dance studio. On the second floor stands the Claudia Cassidy Theater, the Healy Millet Dome, and a gallery. Preston Bradley Hall and the Tiffany Dome reside on the third floor while more galleries and exhibit halls are on the fourth.</p>

Famous for its two stained glass domes, the Chicago Cultural Center is an architectural beauty that offers free music, dance, theater events, as well as films, lectures, art exhibitions, and family events/programs for the City of Chicago. These events honor international, national, regional, and local arts, musicians, and performers. The Chicago Cultural Center was designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge and built in 1897 to serve as the city’s first central library. The building was deemed a national historic place in 1972 and a Chicago landmark in 1976. In 1991, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs designated the library to become the Chicago Cultural Center.   

Chicago Cultural Center

<p>The Oriental Theatre opened on May 8, 1926. It could originally seat 3,238 patrons. [1] In its first years, patrons came to watch silent films, which were accompanied by an ornately decorated Wurlizter organ. It also hosted vaudeville performances, and Paul Ash, known as “The Rajah of Jazz”, worked for a time as the house band manager. Although movies eventually became the main focus of the theatre, it continued to host live shows and musical performances starring the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, and Duke Ellington.</p><p>The Oriental Theatre was owned by Balaban and Katz, a successful theatre management company that operated dozens of Chicago’s most popular theatres around the greater metropolitan area. Balaban and Katz frequently hired Rapp and Rapp architectural firm to design their theatres, which were known for their opulent interiors. The Oriental Theatre, with its East Asian theme, was exceptionally lavish. The theatre has been described as “a virtual museum of Asian art”, where “[t]urbaned ushers led patrons from the lobby, with polychrome figures and large mosaics of an Indian prince and princess, through an inner foyer with elephant-throne chairs and multicolored glazed Buddhas, to the auditorium's ‘hasheesh-dream décor.’" [2]</p><p>The Oriental Theatre would be a landmark in Chicago’s Theatre District for decades. However, attendance began to decline in the 1960s. For a brief time in the 1970s, the theatre hosted live musical performances by Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Little Richard, as well as kung-fu movies. [1] The theatre was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Immediately, a campaign in opposition to its nomination was launched because a redevelopment project had proposed razing the theatre and constructing an indoor shopping mall in its place. Preservation efforts were ultimately successful in stopping the redevelopment project, and the theatre was added to the register in September 1978. [3] Despite the fact that the building was saved from being torn down, there were no funds to renovate it. The theatre closed in 1981, and the building remained largely vacant for another 15 years.</p><p>In the mid-1990s, it was announced that the theatre would finally undergo restoration. It reopened on October 18, 1998 as the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. [1] Live musical productions shown at the theatre, such as <em>Ragtime</em>, <em>Wicked</em>, and <em>Billy Elliott,</em> were wildly popular. In 2000, Broadway in Chicago was launched to host touring productions at theatres around Chicago, including at the Ford Center. The founder of Broadway in Chicago, James M. Nederlander, would win 10 Tony nominations in his lifetime for his company’s productions. In February 2019, the theatre was renamed James M. Nederlander Theatre in his honor. [4]</p>

The James M. Nederlander Theatre originally opened as the Oriental Theatre in 1926. Owned by Balaban and Katz, the theatre was one of Chicago’s grand movie palaces of the Roaring ‘20s. It was designed by Rapp and Rapp, an architectural firm known for outlandish, almost gaudy designs; the interior was inspired by an East Asian theme, with mosaics, exotic animals, and golden figures. The Oriental Theatre showed movies and hosted live performances until it closed in 1981. The building remained largely vacant for several years, finally undergoing an extensive renovation project in the mid-1990s. The theatre reopened in 1998 as the Ford Center for Performing Arts. In 2019, it was renamed the James M. Nederlander Theatre. 




James M. Nederlander Theatre

<p>The Oriental Theater (now James M. Nederlander Theatre) expanded in 1997 by tying its theater into the historic Oliver Building, leaving only a portion of the landmark Oliver Building and its front facade in original form. As such, historic theater and the historic building -- home to the Oliver Typewriter Company -- seemingly merged. Oliver Typewriters revolutionized the typewriting industry, growing into the world's leading typewriter manufacturer. The company moved to its downtown Chicago location in 1907. Meanwhile, The Oriental Theater opened nearby in 1926 as a place for silent films and vaudeville performances before movies served as the theater's leading draw. </p><p>Methodist minister Thomas Oliver founded the Oliver Typewriter Company in 1894 two years after he applied for a patent on his unique design for a "down-strike" typewriter that allowed the typist to see the line he or she was typing. Oliver's design differed from other typewriters of that era that used a "front-strike" method, preventing typists from seeing what they were typing. From 1896 to 1926, the Oliver Typewriter Company stood as the leading typewriter manufacturer in the world, having developed more than a dozen models of its distinct typewriters. Its "No. 9" accounted for more than 400,000 units of sales from 1915 to 1926. The Oliver Typewriter company constructed a factory in the Chicago suburb of Woodstock, Illinois, affording that suburb of becoming the "typewriter capital of the world." Oliver moved the company to its now-historic Dearborn Street location in 1907. The Oliver Building personified the classic principles of the Chicago School of architecture. One can easily view the building's internal steel frame by observing the surviving front facade and the cast-iron ornamentation that includes inscriptions of its name and product. By 1920, the company operated six branches throughout the U.S. and London and added two floors to its downtown Chicago location. </p><p>Six years after the Oliver Building moved downtown, in 1926, the Oriental Theater opened. Around that same time, a rapid decline in sales of Oliver typewriters led the company on a path to ostensibly fold by the time the Great Depression arrived. In 1997, the Oriental Theater purchased the Oliver Building with plans to demolish it and expand its backstage onto the lot once occupied by the Oliver Building. However, a compromise occurred that resulted in the theater gutting out most of the Oliver Building and renovating it to use it as its backstage. The plan allowed for the facade of the Oliver to remain untouched.  </p><p>As noted in the Clio entry, "James M. Nederlander Theatre," the Oriental Theater "reopened on October 18, 1998, as the Ford Center for the Performing Arts...In 2000, Broadway in Chicago was launched to host touring productions at theatres around Chicago, including at the Ford Center. The founder of Broadway in Chicago, James M. Nederlander, would win 10 Tony nominations in his lifetime for his company's productions. In February 2019, the theatre was renamed James M. Nederlander Theatre in his honor." </p><p>Thus, the expansion and renovation of the Oriental Theater during the 1990s provided the theater a new life, but it also came with a plan to demolish the history of another icon: The Oliver Building. Instead, the compromise met by city, historians, builders and investors in the 1990s ostensibly saved the history of both well-known institutions, allowing their chronicles to remain tied together for the foreseeable future. </p>

The Oliver Building enjoys its own historical distinction as the home to the Oliver Typewriter Company, which profoundly transformed the typewriting industry. However, in 1997, The Oriental Theater (now known as the James M. Nederlander Theatre) gutted the Oliver Building and connected the its theater to it for the purposes of using it as its backstage area. The only remaining feature of the Oliver Building is its front facade, which still displays the Oliver Typewriter Company name.

Oliver Building (now part of the James M. Nederlander Theatre)

<p>Chicago's oldest and largest not-for-profit theater opened in 1925, three years after the parents of Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, a Chicago playwright who died of the "Spanish Flu" while serving in World War I, sent a letter to the Art Institute trustees that proposed a theater at the rear of the museum as a memorial to their son. The theater group remained connected to the Art Institute until 2000 when it moved to Chicago's theater district in the heart of downtown Chicago. The Goodman Theatre has received a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.</p><p>The Goodman Theatre opened during a decade when live shows gave way to films; movie attendance soared. By the mid-1920s, fifty million people a week went to the movies (the equivalent of half the nation's population). By 1929, in Chicago, theaters offered enough seats to accommodate half the city's population to attend a movie every day. Nonetheless, live theater -- plays and music performances -- did not vanish, and the Goodman catered to those still seeking to view live theater. Often, productions reflected a society that undergone profound change as a result of World War I; plays routinely reflected a culture less sure about its future than was before the war. The earliest productions at the Goodman drew audiences of all types, from the affluent to the art devotees. </p><p>The founding director Thomas Wood Stevens departed five years into the theater's existence in 1930, resulting in the professional company dissolving. Still, the school of drama Stevens had established in 1922 survived, and student productions took over the Goodman stage during the Great Depression and lasting into the 1950s. Professional actors did not return until 1957 when John Reich, a Viennese teacher and director, took over the Goodman and brought professional actors back to the theater. For twelve years, Reich directed productions that comprised of professional and student actors. But, in 1969, under his leadership, the Goodman opened the season with the first entirely professional acting company at the theater since its first five years of existence. In the late 1970s, having parted from the school (which had moved to DePaul University) and the Art Institute, the Goodman formed an independent board: Chicago Theatre Group. Although debts mounted during the late twentieth century as a result of hiring professional actors, the theatre avoided the plight of many 1920s theater houses by not only surviving but remaining relevant. In 1998, the landmark revival of Arthur Miller's <em style="background-color:transparent">Death of a Salesman </em>enhanced the theater's popularity allowing it to move into a new structure. Thus, in 2000, the company moved into its current building at 170 N. Dearborn in Chicago's famed theater district. Meanwhile, the original Goodman School of Drama lives on through the DePaul University School of Drama, and enjoys a connection to the Goodman.</p>

The Goodman Theater operates as Chicago's oldest not for profit theater company. Since 2000,  its home has been located within the heart of Chicago's theater district. However, its history dates back to 1922 when it opened in the back of the Art Institute. The history of the theater involves a mix of professional, student, or combined student and professional productions. The Goodman won a Regional Theatre Tony Award in 1992, one of five Chicago-based companies to win the award, giving Chicago the most Tony awards for the Regional Theatre category. The current DePaul University School of Drama owes its history to the Goodman School created in 1922, which served as an integral part of the Goodman until the 1970s and still enjoys a connection. 

Goodman Theatre

<p>The Chicago-based Balaban and Katz Movie Palace empire began in 1908 when the Balaban brothers Barney and A.J. rented the 100-seat Kedzie Nickelodeon on Kedzie Avenue. Understanding the opportunity to expand their theatre business, in 1916 the Balaban brothers joined with friends Sam and Morris Katz to form the Balaban and Katz Theater Corporation. Together, the four men envisioned a “motion picture palace” empire, combining luxury with the most current entertainment trend. Balaban and Katz commissioned the architects Rapp and Rapp to construct the first of what would become known as a movie palace, setting an entertainment trend for the rest of America.</p><p>Inspired by the royal architecture of Versailles, Rapp and Rapp constructed the Chicago Theatre in a Neo-Baroque French Revival style. Originally known as the Balaban and Katz Theatre, the theatre is seven-stories tall, extends half a city block, and seats 3,600 guests. Every surface of the theatre’s interior was carefully designed and crafted to create a sense of luxury: the lobby was based on the royal chapel of Versailles, the grand staircase was inspired by the Paris Opera, Louis XIV furniture and motifs were placed throughout the building, crystal chandeliers, and classical murals adorn the stage and ceilings. The theatre’s off-white white terra cotta exterior features a miniature French Arc de Triomphe and contains Balaban and Katz’s logo of two horses holding ribbons of film in their mouths set in Tiffany stained glass. The neon marquees on the theatre’s façade contrast sharply with the classical architecture, which works to draw more attention to the classical façade. Both vertical and horizontal Chicago marquee signs are attractions in and of themselves now, as they serve as the unofficial emblem of the city. The Rapp brothers became so successful after the Chicago Theatre that they went on to become the primary architects for the entire Paramount/Publix theatre chain.&nbsp;</p><p>Completed in 1921, the “Wonder Theatre of the World” set the standard for modern theatres. In addition to showing motion pictures, the theatre also hosted live entertainment. Some of the era’s best musicians came through the theatre: John Phillip Sousa, Duke Ellington, Jack Benny, and Benny Goodman. For days when the theatre offered motion picture shows, a team of 125 ushers welcomed guests. The prices of shows varied throughout the day: 25 cents until 1 p.m., 35 cents during the afternoon, and 50 cents after 6 p.m.&nbsp;</p><p>The Chicago Theatre has only experienced only three remodels during its lifetime. The first renovation occurred in 1933 in preparation for the World’s Fair with new interior décor and murals. The second renovation took place in the 1950s in order to modernize the venue. The theatre’s live performances were terminated during this time. The third and most significant renovation came about in 1986, one year after the theatre closed its doors. The Chicago Theatre Restoration Associates purchased the building in 1985 with the intent on preserving the landmark. Through a partnership with the architectural firm Daniel P. Coffey &amp; Associates, Ltd and interior design consultants A. T. Heinsbergen &amp; Co., the theatre was given a new life after a nine-month multi-million-dollar project. The Chicago Theatre officially reopened on September 10, 1986 with a rememberable performance by Frank Sinatra.</p>Once again, the Chicago Theatre today is one of the city’s premier live entertainment venues, hosting such acts as Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, David Letterman, Dolly Parton, Prince, and Kelly Clarkson. The Chicago Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 6, 1979 and designated a Chicago Landmark on January 28,&nbsp;1983.

The Chicago Theatre is one of the city’s most iconic landmarks and provides the “unofficial” emblem of the city. Designed by Rapp and Rapp in their famous Neo-Baroque French Revival style, the theatre served as the flagship for the Balaban and Katz theatre group. The famous marquee is one of the most famous and recognized in the world. Meticulously designed with every emphasis placed on luxury, for the next 40 years, the Chicago Theatre served as the premier entertainment venue for the city. As with most historic theatres, the rise of duplex theatres during the 1970s and 1980s resulted in the decline of the Chicago Theatre. In the mid-80s, the Chicago Theatre Restoration Associates purchased and commenced a multi-million dollar renovation on the building, reopening the venue on September 10, 1986. The Chicago Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 6, 1979 and designated as a Chicago Landmark on January 28, 1983.

Chicago Theatre

<div>The Page Brothers Building (1872), which shares a southern wall with its famous State Street Chicago Theater neighbor, is the last remaining cast-iron front building in Chicago. It's one of the city's first buildings to arise after the Great Chicago Fire (1871). However, it's also one of the last to face Lake Street instead of State Street, and it emerged just prior to Chicago's emergence as a center for skyscraper construction and innovation -- the Chicago School of Architecture arrived after Page Brothers opened its doors. As such, it's a monument to Chicago's pre-skyscraper existence.<br><br>Though iron enjoys a long history, its inclusion as a structural element in construction did not emerge until the late eighteenth century, first as part of bridge engineering and then as part of beams in commercial development. By the middle of the nineteenth century, architects began to combine iron and glass, demonstrated by the Page Brothers Building.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The Page Brothers Building is an essential example of an architectural transformation that mainly took place in Chicago before spreading to other parts of the nation, and then the world. The first buildings comprised of cast-iron fronts emerged in Chicago during the late 1840s with a dozen erected by 1857, mainly along Lake Street. These iron fronts were usually five stories tall and enjoyed a cast-iron front wall and masonry back and side walls, with large glass windows fitting between iron beams on the first floor, perfect for retailers.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Though State Street grew famous in Chicago later, its position concerning the Chicago river initially made it unappealing; thus the street did not enjoy prominence. However, in 1867, Potter Palmer bought a three- quarter plot of land along State Street and began to promote the street and convince the city to widen the road. He succeeded and afterward built a hotel on State Street, and then he convinced Field, Leiter, and Company to leave Lake Street and focus on State Street by creating a new store there.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The Great Fire proved to be a help for State Street, too, as it allowed for investors to re-think where to put their money when financing new construction. Within a few years after the fire, State Street had won the competition by attracting mercantile enterprises away from Lake Street and to the now famous State Street; most of the first buildings enjoyed cast-iron facades.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>When the Page was built, the move away from Lake to State was, at best, in its infancy.&nbsp; Hence, The Page Brothers Building, located on the corner of State and Lake, exemplifies the transition as its cast-iron facade was located on Lake Street while its brick facade pointed towards State Street.&nbsp; Page was first building after the fire, but within decades State Street was a booming economic center point for Chicago supporting hotels, stores, theaters and more.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Page Brothers has been remodeled, expanded, and altered numerous times but the cast-iron facade&nbsp;remains largely untouched. As well, Chicago's Elevated Train (the "EL"), runs along Lake Street, noting that Lake Street is more about function than asthetics in today's Chicago. Indeed, after Page Brothers opened its doors, Chicago School architects moved towards skeletal construction and took advantage of numerous other technologies that allowed for buildings to rise to new heights - the skyscraper was born, and the Chicago school of Architecture became famous. &nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>To view the Page Brothers is to see the <i>Old Chicago,</i> both because its primary focus pointed towards Lake Street rather than the now-famous State Street and because it remained at five stories and relied on cast iron as its front-facing wall. Just as Page Brothers turned the corner at Lake and State, it's the building that was constructed as Chicago was turning the corner towards architectural distinction.<br><br>The Page Brothers Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 5, 1975 and designated a Chicago Landmark on January 28, 1983.</div>

The Page Brothers Building in Chicago represents a transition for Chicago, both in its local history and architectural history. Erected in 1872 as the first commercial construction after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the building features a cast-iron facade facing Lake Street and stands as the oldest remaining structure of its kind in the city. Not long afterwards, State Street supplanted Lake Street - even growing to become one of Chicago's most noteworthy locations. As well, the Chicago School of Architecture grew famous for no-longer building small five-story cast-iron buildings, but instead pushed the envelope and usher in the age of the skyscraper. The Page Brothers Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 5, 1975 and designated a Chicago Landmark on January 28, 1983.

Heart of Chicago Walking Tour: History, Art, and Architecture

Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF)

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information