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1 The Chicago School AD Sites available for construction became increasingly rare and more expensive. Particularly true of the economic and administrative centres in the USA and, in particular, Chicago. The optimization of the use of floor space was applied in the residential and office buildings. In 1850, Chicago had only 30,000 inhabitants. By 1870, this number had increased tenfold. By 1880, it reached 1/2 1,000,000. By 1890, exceeded 1,000, Chicago had by this time become the main city of the American Mid-W. 5 It was the main junction for railway and shipping traffic, the transshipment centre for grain and timber, the site of major metal processing works, and the biggest slaughterhouses in the world. 6 1

2 In 1871, the harshest possible lesson demonstrated that iron was not as fire-resistant resistant as had originally been believed: the city s iron structures melted like butter in a great fire which destroyed almost the entire city. In view of the economic boom, ways of building higher buildings were constantly being sought. 7 The Monadnock Building,, the highest brick building in the city, , required two-metre-thick thick walls at ground floor level. This was in order to support the fifteen floors and at the cost of valuable shop-window space on the ground floor. 8 The design of the building as an unadorned red-brick slab, solely articulated by flat, house-high high bays and the deep insertion of the windows into the wall, was indicative of future developments. Monadnock Building, Chicago, Chicago, the metropolis which reveled in euphoria for the future, showed greater openness to simple and more economical design than New York. In Chicago there was no desire to imitate motifs from European architectural history, but a strong impulse to develop a self-confident individual style. 11 In 1879, William le Baron Jenney merely covered the supports and cross girders on the façades ades of his First Leiter Building,, which were supported by cast-iron columns, and filled in the resulting grid with enormous window. 12 2

3 William Le Baron Jenney, who designed the Home Insurance Building of , the first-ten-storey skyscraper with an exclusively steel skeleton, used the same principle for the Second Leiter Building. William Le Baron Jenney: Home Insurance Building, Chicago, A stone-face exterior was almost completely plain and was articulated solely by horizontal and vertical masonry bands; Only the suggested capitals at the heads of the wide masonry bands at intervals of four windows were vaguely reminiscent of pilasters. William Le Baron Jenney: Second Leiter Building, Chicago, Fire resistance was guaranteed by encasing its metal frame with cavity blocks. Bessemer steel was used for the first time in this metal frame. By inserting a projecting perpendicular strip of masonry between the windows on the Wainright building in St. Louis, , and the Guaranty building in Buffalo, NYC, 1894, Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan emphasised the vertical thrust of rectangular buildings It must be proud and impressive to the last inch, rise up in joy so that it forms a unit from the ground to the roof without a single deviating line. His motto form follows function became the guiding principle of all of modern architecture. Louis Henri Sullivan, Functions of different floors can be distinguished on the basis of the differentiation of the façade ade design into socle, shaft, and capital. Holabird & Roche: Chicago Building,

4 The ground and first floors are fitted with large windows and hence are suitable for retail trade. L. Sullivan: Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Building, Above the first floors lies the regular grid of the main floors which are used as offices. Holabird & Roche: Marquette Building, Chicago, Finally, beneath the projecting flat roof, there is an almost sealed surface with bulls -eye windows contains the technical equipment. D. Adler & L. Sullivan: Wainright building in St. Louis, There is some Art Nouveau decoration but this contributes little to the overall impression of the building s exterior. Daniel H. Burnham & John W. Root: Rookery Building, Chicago, Sullivan s department store Carson Pirie Scott in Chicago is similar. 23 He emphasised only the rounded corners of the building with perpendicular masonry strips. L. Sullivan: Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Building,

5 The main floors, which were for retail use, are fitted with wide Chicago windows. If one ignores the decoration added in the socle zone, this building already looks like something built in the 1920 s or 50 s. L. Sullivan: Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Building, Chicago window. L. Sullivan: Van Allen Building, Clinton, Iowa, Chicago window. 27 Such buildings, whose consistently simple design was derived from constructive conditions and functional requirements, gave Chicago the most modern architecture in the world at the turn of the century. Holabird & Roche: Gage Group Buildings, Chicago, This was most evident in the Loop, the business quarter of Chicago. 29 The Loop, Chicago. 30 5

6 This approach to the construction of skyscrapers became known as the Chicago School. One of its main representatives, Daniel H. Burnham, betrayed its aggressive modernity by turning back to a more communicable neo- Classicism, as can be seen in his design for the Flatiron building in NY Daniel H. Burnham: Flatiron building, NYC, Daniel H. Burnham, Flatiron building, NYC, When Chicago was destroyed by fire in 1871, it took several years to overcome the fear of further catastrophe and start on the construction of a modern business centre with office blocks, department stores, and hotels, aided by extensive funding from the urban authorities

7 The first designs were by engineers and very similar, mainly because several technical inventions created the necessary framework conditions: i.e. the steel skeleton structure and new systems for stone foundations. William Le Baron Jenney: Home Insurance Building, Chicago, The new Chicago grew up in regular blocks -- buildings with eight or nine floors were described as skyscrapers -- which always complied with the crucial condition of fire resistance. Holabird & Roche: Gage Group Buildings, Chicago, To this were added the pioneering inventions of the electric lift, the telephone, and tubular post. For the first time it seemed possible to build to an unlimited height -- the upper floors which were previously cheaper and less desirable now became sought-after and expensive addresses. 39 The Chicago architectural partnership of Adler and Sullivan represented an optimum combination of talents; Adler was an expert on finance and technology whereas Sullivan was more the visionary. Louis Henri Sullivan, In theoretical treatises, he divided the building into three parts: the base, shaft, and capital, using the Classical column as his model. Sullivan made a key contribution to the renewal of international architecture in the 1890s. He gave his buildings a modern appearance, with their reticent decoration and large glazed surfaces. L. Sullivan: Union Trust Building, St. Louis, L. Sullivan: Stock Exchange Building, Chicago,

8 The base or socle was reserved for shops, the business or residential floors were accommodated in the shaft, and the capital, which was given particular emphasis, contained the building technology. L. Sullivan: Prudential (Guaranty) Building, NYC, Holabird & Roche: Brooks Building, Chicago, Theorist Emilio Cecchi describes the undecorated façade ade articulation as follows: The skyscraper is no symphony of lines and mass, surfaces and openings, power and resistance, it is much more an arithmetical operation. End The architecture of the Chicago School was the harbinger of the new world