<div>The building was commissioned by Peter and Shepherd Brooks, real estate developers from Boston. The Monadnock's construction was part of the building boom that followed the price recession known as the Long Depression, or the Great Depression of 1873-79. The Brooks family made a fortune in the shipping insurance business. They began investing in Chicago real estate in 1868 and had the Grannis Block building built on Dearborn Street in 1880. Property manager Owen F. Aldis convinced the Brooks brothers and other wealthy investors to build skyscrapers in Chicago. By the turn of the century, Aldis managed almost one fifth of the office space in the Loop and had created over 1 million square feet of office space in the city.</div><div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;When the Monadnock was completed in its entirety, it included 1200 rooms and was capable of accommodating 6000. To put this in perspective, the Chicago Daily Tribune made the observation that the population of most Illinois cities at the time would've comfortably fit in the building. Some of the building's first tenants were the American Exchange National and Global Savings Banks and the Santa Fe, Michigan Central, and Chicago&amp;Alton Railroads. Although it was quite an architectural feat, the Monadnock did receive some harsh criticism for its aesthetic. French architect Jacques Hermant said of the building, "The Monadnock was no longer the result of an artist responding to particular needs with intelligence and drawing for them all of the possible consequences. It is the work of a laborer who, without the slightest study, super-imposes 15 strictly identical stories to make a block then stops when he finds the block high enough."</div><div><br></div>

North half of building as seen from Dearborn Street, 2005

1893 image of aluminum cast staircases, first use of aluminum in construction of buildings 

1910 postcard showing south half of building 

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Located in the Loop District of Chicago, the Monadnock building, originally known as the Monadnock Block, is a skyscraper whose construction began in 1891. The oldest section of the building, the north half, was designed by the architectural firm Burnham and Root and was the tallest load-bearing brick building in the world. The southern half of the building was designed by Holabird and Roche in 1893 and features more ornamental design elements. At the time of its completion in 1893, the Monadnock Building was the largest office building in the world.

Monadnock Building

After the Great Chicago Fire leveled the city in 1871, the residents had a unique opportunity to completely rebuild from the ground up. The next two decades witnessed an explosion of architectural advancements in construction height and design, which resulted in the birth of the modern-day skyscraper. The architectural style of these early skyscrapers is known as the 19th Century Commercial. This style features a steel frame, a modest cornice, and large bands of windows. The tour begins with one of the world's first steel-frame buildings, the Reliance Building. The tour continues down through the Loop with stops at the Marquette Building, the Railway Exchange (now known as the Motorola Building), and the Monadnock Building. The tour concludes with the architecturally innovative Manhattan Building.

<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

Following the destruction of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, city leaders and investors were able to "start anew" and build a planned downtown business area that would soon rival New York.Once known as a livestock terminus, Chicago used the destruction of the fire as an opportunity to build an urban infrastructure that reflected the optimism of the city boosters. Combining innovations such as fireproof steel-framed construction with traditional building elements, the city of Chicago became so synonymous with the skyscraper that architects around the world referred to these buildings as belonging to the Chicago Style.<br><br>The Marquette Building serves as a classic example of the First Chicago Style of architecture-a style that can be seen in buildings throughout the Loop and other buildings that were constructed throughout the city in the late 19th and early 20th century. These buildings feature terra cotta and other forms of masonry that cover steel-frame construction.&nbsp;<span>The Marquette&nbsp;Building features a&nbsp;red terra cotta facade that has been slightly darkened over the years due to the acidity caused by air pollution. <br><br>The buildings of the&nbsp;Chicago Style also</span>&nbsp;feature ornamental details throughout the first two or three floors&nbsp;of the building's exterior, as well as an&nbsp;ornamental&nbsp;"cap" on the building's top floor. These details can be seen when viewing the ornate cornice and features of the top floor and the lower two floors&nbsp;with the rest of the building.&nbsp;The most distinguishing feature of the First Chicago School, and one that is especially prominent in the Marquette Building, is the use of&nbsp;large horizontal plate-glass windows. For more information about the windows of the Marquette Building, please see the short video below. &nbsp;

Built in 1895 by the George A. Fuller Company, this Chicago landmark was one of the first steel-framed skyscrapers in the city. The building was named in honor of the French missionary Jacques Marquette, who with Louis Jolliet in 1674, became the first European to explorer and map the lands around Lake Michigan. The building was served as corporate headquarters to numerous railroad companies and other businesses over the years. During the mid-20th century, some of the historic buildings throughout the Loop such as Louis Sullivan's Stock Exchange were demolished in favor of new construction. The Marquette Building, like so many of the other historic buildings throughout the Loop, was saved due to the efforts of preservationists and community members who partnered with local government and business leaders. Since 1975, the building has been owned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a leading supporter of education that is also working with the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois to restore and share the history of this building. The Foundation operates an interactive exhibit on the building's first floor that is open to the public, as well as virtual exhibits that are available by clicking on the link below. 

The Marquette Building

The Santa Fe Building, now known as the Motorola Building, is one of the shining examples of the Chicago School of Architecture,&nbsp;which provided the impetus for the&nbsp;modern day skyscraper.&nbsp;An integral figure in that architecture style was&nbsp;Daniel H. Burnham, whose firm built the Santa Fe Building (completed in 1904).&nbsp;Although its original tenants were the Santa Fe Railroad company who used the building for as a railway exchange, many architectural firms owned offices in the building.<sub>1</sub><br><br>Burnham and his firm were one of the architects that used the space. In fact, one can still glance upon&nbsp;the northeast corner of the roof and "see the top of the penthouse&nbsp;Burnham had built as the space where the&nbsp;<i>Plan of Chicago</i>&nbsp;(1909) was to be prepared."<sub>2</sub>&nbsp;Influenced, in part, by&nbsp;Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who designed a new Paris for Napoleon III in the late 1840s, Burnham looked to make Chicago a new type of&nbsp;Paris. However, that entailed wide buildings rather than tall buildings. Obviously,&nbsp;the city of big shoulders certainly did not evolve as Burnham had hoped. The building from which Burnham orchestrated the Plan of Chicago proved to be of greater influence than his actual vision for Chicago.<br><br>However, one principal aspect of the Plan of Chicago existed in having an expansive set of parks, including along Chicago's lake shore.&nbsp;Today's&nbsp;Grant and Millennium Park exist as manifestations of that vision, ironically keeping the Santa Fe building and Chicago's majestic skyline in full view, providing Chicago with much of its identity.<sub>3&nbsp;</sub>One can now bask in the idea of making Chicago's shoreline a park while looking at the very building where people conjured that idea. More than that, one can look at the skyscrapers that Burnham (and his partner, Root), helped inspire.&nbsp;<br><br><br>

Designed by Daniel Burnham's architectural firm, this building once served as the center of activity as Daniel Burnham and his team devised the "Plan of Chicago," which was published in 1909. The 17-story building, known for its porthole windows on the top floor, serves as a fine example of the Chicago School of Architectural style, which Burnham helped to create and popularize in the early 1900s. The building was originally known as The Santa Fe Building and was built as a railway exchange for the Santa Fe railway. This name adorned the building until 2012 until Motorola purchased the building and replaced the sign with one reading, "Motorola." 

Motorola Building (Formerly the Santa Fe Building, or Railway Exchange Building)

<p>William Le Baron Jenney is considered one of the architects responsible for developing the modern skyscraper, which earned him the nickname Father of the American skyscraper. Jenney was born in Fairhaven, MA in 1832 to a wealthy family. He began his education at the Philips Academy in Andover, then attending the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard but transferring to the Ecole Centrale Paris where he studied engineering, architecture, and iron construction methods. Jenney graduated from the Ecole Centrale one year after Gustave Eiffel, architect of the Eiffel Tower. When he returned to the US in 1861, Jenney joined the Union Army as an engineer. Over the course of the war, Jenney designed fortifications for Sherman and Grant, and earned the ranking of Major.</p><p>After the war, Jenney moved to Chicago, IL where set up his own architectural firm. His career and contributions to the development of modern architecture are often underacknowledged. With the completion of the 10-story Home Life Insurance Building in 1885, Jenney is credited with designing the world’s first skyscraper as the building was supported entirely by a steel frame. His use of a steel and iron structure meant that the building weighed 1/3 less than it would have with a load-bearing masonry structure, the weight change allowed for a taller building to be constructed. The Home Life Insurance Building was unfortunately demolished in 1931, set the new standard for urban architecture.</p><p>Jenney’s innovative steel-frame building structure provided the means for some of Chicago’s most famous historic buildings. Reaching a staggering height of 16-stories, the first skyscraper to reach such a height, the Manhattan Building became Jenney’s greatest achievement. Because it was still unknown how safe these new tall buildings were, he deliberately constructed the Manhattan Building with horizontal sections and setbacks as a means to lessen the appearance of 16 stories. The height of the building also required both wind-bracing techniques to be incorporated in its design and an original foundation system, which became the standard for high rise structures. As a means to maximize the amount of natural light into the building, Jenney designed the façade to feature oriel windows. The decoration of the Manhattan Building is also heavily ornamented with masks and vegetative detailing.&nbsp;</p><p>Today, the Manhattan Building is the third-oldest skyscraper in Chicago and is the earliest surviving skyscraper relying on an entirely skeletal support structure. The Manhattan Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976 and designated as a Chicago Landmark on July 7, 1978.</p>

At the time of its completion in 1891, Chicago’s Manhattan Building was one of the most innovative buildings of the era. Designed by William Le Baron Jenney, he sought to push the limits of building height during a time when the traditional practices of architecture were being questioned and experiments with new designs and ideas began taking shape. At that time, constructing a building at such a height of 16-stories was generally thought to be unsafe. To remedy that concern, Jenney designed the Manhattan Building to feature horizontal sections and setbacks which creates an allusion of a shorter building. Today, the Manhattan Building is the third-oldest skyscraper in Chicago and is the earliest surviving skyscraper relying on an entirely steel skeletal support structure. 

19th Century Commercial Style of Architecture Walking Tour

Monadnock Building

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