Chicago River Architecture CruiseOn 15 July 2011 I took a Shoreline Architecture Cruise. Highly recommended.
NBC Tower - opened 1989. Postmodernist building inspired by NBC's Art Deco skyscrapers in New York City's Rockefeller Center. The twist is the flying buttresses (L-shaped arches), which echo the adjacent Tribune Tower. Echoing elements from the environment is a characteristic of postmodernism.
Tribune Tower - built 1925. Architects Howells and Hood, won international contest with that design of 260 architects. Note the flying buttresses echoed by the NBC Tower.
Wrigley Building south tower was completed in 1921 and the north tower in 1924. Designed by the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White and meant to be reminiscent of the White City from the 1983 World's Fair.
The Jewelers Building (35 East Wacker Drive) built in 1926 in Beux Arts style with neoclassical detailing.
The IBM Building (330 North Wabash) is a modernist tower designed by Ludwig Meis van der Rohe and opened in 1971.
Marina City was designed by Bertrand Goldberg (a student of van der Rohe) and completed in 1964. The curvilinear facades were a revolt against the straight line since there are no straight lines in nature.
The Reid, Murdoch and Company building was built in 1914 in Romanesque Revival style (note the curved windows). Also note that is is not symmetrical (six bays to the east of the tower, five bays to the west). When LaSalle street was widened, the west side of the building was truncated.
The Chase and Sanborn coffee warehouse (325 North Wells) was designed by L. Gustav Hallberg and opened in 1912. The three-layered structure (base, shaft and capital) distinguish it as an example of the Chicago School style pioneered by Louis Sullivan. The Chicago School sign is for The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
Merchandise Mart is and Art Deco building finished in 1931. Art Deco's vertical lines emphasize height, and the regular, mechanical patterns glorify industry. The front of the building features busts of the merchant princes of Chicago's history. The massive building has 4.2 million square feet of floor space compared to the 4.8 million square feet in the Sears Tower. Bought by the Joseph Kennedy in the mid 1940s for $13M, and sold by the family in the 1990s for $600M.
The cruise turned north at Wolf Point to head up the North Branch of the Chicago river for a bit. Wolf Point is where the City of Chicago was incorporated on March 4, 1837. Fulton House was a cold storage warehouse built in 1908 and was the oldest building on the cruise. Condo conversion in 1980s.
The Kinzie Street railroad bridge (also known as the Carroll Avenue bridge) was opened by the Chicago and North Western Railroad in 1908. The bascule bridge span is 170 feet. It was abandoned in 2000 when the Chicago Sun-Times closed their downtown printing plant and the bridge was designated a Chicao landmark in 2007.
The River Cottages were designed by Harry Weese, whose work is distinctive for the liberal use of triangles. When they opened in 1990, they pioneered a changing view of the river as something to be embraced and enjoyed.
The pre-1990's view of the river is embodied by the East Bank Club (500 North Kingsbury St. - east side of the river), with no river level windows or space between the building and river for any kind of pedestrian access. This contrasts with Kinzie Park on the west side of the river, which is a residential development that includes a walkway, gardens and benches. At this point, the boat turned around and headed down the South Branch
Boeing Headquarters is a postmodern building opened in 1992. It is cantilevered over railroad track air rights.
The Daily News Building is an Art Moderne complex from 1929 that was the city's first RR air rights building. Moderne is distinguished from Deco by smooth horizontal (as opposed to Deco vertical) that glorify movement in a modernized age of transport.
Gateway Center is a five-building complex designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and opened in stages from 1967 to 1983. It includes Gateway Center III, which was built over the Union Station concourse in 1971 and gives Union Station the constrictive claustrophobia and chronic overcrowding that is a constant reminder of the absence of civic forsight embodied in the building's construction. In contrast to the stark, straight, modernist lines of Gateway I, Gateway IV has two distinctive features that embody the postmodernist desire to reflect the surrounding environment. The mirrored glass skin reflects the images of surrounding buildings, and the curved facade reflects the curve of the Chicago River at that point.
The Old Main Post Office (433 West Van Buren) was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White and built in 1921. A major expansion added nine floors in 1932. Presumably, the facility was oriented around mail trains (it's built over railroad tracks just south of Union Station) and the Postal Service moved to a new truck-friendly facility in 1997. The structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. Congress Parkway passes through the base of the building.
At the time of my visit, the Congress Parkway bridge (built 1956) was under renovation. The west leaf of the south span was parked in the open position.
After Harrison Avenue, the shoreline becomes less tourist-friendly and the boat was turned around and headed back up the South Branch toward home. River City was designed by Bertrand Goldberg and opened in 1986. The style clearly echoed his Marina City buildings that had opened 22 years before.
The Chicago Board of Trade Building (141 West Jackson Boulevard) was designed by the firm of Holabird and Root and opened in 1930. A distinguishing feature of the Art Deco building is a faceless stainless-steel statue of Ceres (goddess of agriculture) that caps the building.
301 South Wacker is a pink granite building topped by a drum of lights surrounded by turrents. This is a postmodern homage to the landmark Chicago Water Tower.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange building dates from 1987. The serrated corner maximize corner-office space. The center area between the two towers housed a massive trading floor.
The Civic Opera Building is an Art Deco building that opened in 1929 and houses the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
333 West Wacker Drive was designed by Cohen, Patterson and Fox and opened in 1983. Postmodern, site-specific features include a curved shape that echoes the curve of the river at the confluence of the branches, alternating bands of colored glass (green for water, blue for sky), and a Chicago-Style three-layered structure (base, shaft and capital).
225 West Wacker Drive, just to the East, was designed by the same team of architects and opened in 1989. Postmodern features include the metal window boxes that echo the Merchandise Mart across the river, four rivets on each spandrel that echoes the riveted bridges below, and the optical illusion of flying buttresses from the Tribune Tower.
The LaSalle-Wacker Building (221 North La Salle Street) was designed by Holabird & Root and opened in 1930.
The Leo Burnett Building (35 West Wacker Drive) was designed by Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates and opened in 1989. The postmodern feature is the sequential variation on the column theme across the facade. The buildings at the mouth of the River in the loop come fast and furious.
Lakepoint Tower was inspired by Ludwig Meis van der Rohe's 1922 design for a structure in Berlin. This design was by John Heinrich and George Schipporeit (two of van der Rohe's students) and was completed in 1968 on the location of van der Rohe's Chicago office. Capped by a restaurant.
And we concluded back at the Navy Pier.
Rev. 22 December 2011 |
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