They had a blank slate and deep resources. Maybe it looks too big for you because of the large floorplates and two other towers crammed-in while this sits forward in the arrangement. “Looking too big for the land it’s on” is wholly subjective but that could be addressed with form/orientation. Instead we got another “world class” promise with milquetoast product. Perhaps some materials like terracotta/brass to pay homage to our tradition while also adding class and maybe create some wonder and awe in the realm of structural-engineering and construction techniques. Not only taller to have a presence in the skyline and reimagine the cityscape but also a bold design to show architecture is still relevant in the city most synonymous with modern innovations. They were fully aware of this site’s prominence in the history of Chicago as they clearly stated in press conferences and said a “world class” project would be built here. The Kennedy’s should have sold this lot to a developer committed to making a statement like Wanda/Magellan or Golub are intent on making knowing they were playing it ultra safe. Throw in some luxury units at 1,400-1,500′ and this would have been a wild success that could have been the catalyst for other developers to boost their ambition. A luxury hotel flag here makes perfect sense and would have paid massive dividends in this location. With Kirkland & Ellis signing that huge lease and Salesforce anchoring this tower it was always obvious the potential was enormous. Three glass slabs constructed over a decade that merely fill-in their surroundings is embarrassing. This was the most risk averse marquee development I can remember. This was perhaps the best opportunity to surpass Sears and reinvent our global image. This development is the missed opportunity of a life time. Its 1925 headquarters sported the flying buttresses of a medieval cathedral.Spot-on as usual. “The steel skeletons of the office buildings need be no more expressed than the bones of critics rash enough to father that statement,” the Tribune held. Others anachronistically mimicked historic styles.
The Century Building’s spare simplicity was followed by the curlicues of art moderne skyscrapers.
A huge electric sign announced the building’s Romas Restaurant.īut shortly, architectural fashions shifted. It showed the office floors enjoying the benefits of classic Chicago windows: large glass planes flanked by small windows.Īmong its tenants was Local 66 of the Elevator Operators Union and the Audit Bureau of Circulations that told advertisers how periodicals were doing. Pronouncing it “an unusually attractive structure,” the Tribune greeted the news of its construction with an architect’s rendering.
Chicago skyscraper windows#
Its ground-level floor-to ceiling windows welcomed visitors with a shower of sunlight. Holabird and Roche employed it when designing the Century Building. That didn’t deter Sullivan from appropriating Jenney’s method, which was inherited by subsequent Chicago architects. (Chicago Architectural Photography Company) Architects had before then obliged to enclose an iron column within a masonry pier, and the greater use of this idea, together with another - making each story a unit in its self - marked the solution of the problem. “With this dilemma to be met it was necessary to find some material capable of supporting a greater load per unit of section. Jenney knew would necessitate small piers - smaller probably than admissible if of ordinary masonry construction,” the Tribune recalled in Jenney’s 1907 obituary. “The order further called for a maximum number of well lighted small offices above the second story which, Mr. That gave him a familiarity with metal construction that he brought to bear on a problem that came with his commission to design the Home Insurance Building Jenney studied civil engineering in Paris and during his Civil War service dismantled bridges. That part of the building was added in 1893 and constructed according to Jenney’s formula of a metal framework and curtain walls. The windows of the south section are larger. The windows of the north section are narrow, as cutting into masonry reduces its load-bearing capacity. The doorway is set in a wall 6 feet thick at ground level. Upon entering, a visitor might sense time standing still.
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