FIELD MUSEUM. North Portico

From time to time, standing on the North Portico of the Field Museum, it is possible to see the future. The singular wide angle view of the City shows isolated "events" before they become trends. A building somewhat taller. Of a different shape or material. Of color or position. In 1919, when the Museum was completed, Peirce Anderson would have seen the City becoming increasingly dense, but Michigan Avenue's towers of the 1920's were yet to be constructed. Nothing Deco. Nothing over-exuberant. Certainly nothing other than "open and free" in the Park. For the moment, it was possible to look confidently backward to Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago and believe it was the future. And to look at the traditions of the Columbian Expositon and believe that they would always be respected. Below is Henry Hering's allegorical sculpture "Science," commisioned by the Field and Anderson. Hering also sculpted the figural work at the 1893 Palace of Fine Arts.

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There is nowhere in the City that exhibits the promise of Daniel Burnham, more clearly, than the North Portico of the Field Museum. And nowhere else that shows the danger, so persuasively, of its iminent loss.

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FIELD MUSEUM. Ornament

The detailed ornament at the Field Museum is as foreign to us as its Classsical inspiration. Our currently popular architectural "style" revels in self-concious simplicity. This might be, simply, a matter of time. We have neither the time to conceive and implement non-functional decoration nor the time to appreciate it. How many times have I been to the Field and never noticed the Greek Key patterned onto the chandeliers? Where would you find the artist to design the Lion's Head medallion. Or the blossomed column capital?

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Where too, would you find an Architect whose vision of a building is that it is first and foremost a part and a place in the City? That a building has a responsibility to the "whole." And while we all talk "Daniel Burnham" it was the Architect of the Field Museum, Peirce Anderson, who for 25 years carried out Burnham's principles in form and function. And for those 25 years understood full well, that Ornament, even when applied to buildings of the grandest scale, gave reason to pause, and contemplate both the building itself and our own place within.

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FIELD MUSEUM. Coffers, Keystones, Acroterion and a Magic Carpet

I think when an Architect takes care of the basics - when the clarity of a building's concept is apparent, when function, utility, maintenance and grace are given consideration due - that "Style" is a delicate, arbitrary matter of ever-changing, taste. I believe that no "Style" is more or less moral or appropriate than another. And that modernism is no excuse for unclear concept, perverse manipulation of scale, or a lack of contextual respect. Could the Field Museum survive without its application of Classic Ornament? Of course. Would we love it quite so much?

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This week-end marks the opening of the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. Renzo Piano, the Wing's Architect, took great care to orient his work to Frank Gehry and Millenium Park. But despite the orientation, Chicago now finds the museum work of Renzo Piano in close proximity to the Landmark accomplishments of Daniel Burnham, Peirce Anderson, Graham Anderson Probst and White, and Ernest Grunsfeld. Not to mention Shepley Rutan and Coolidge. (Speaking of schizophrenic). And amid this confusion, the question comes to mind, if in a hundred years or so, some crazy architect (and we're all crazy) will be blogging the community to raise enough money to restore Renzo's Magic Carpet roof-thing, ---just as I am today asking for the restoration of Stanley Field Hall's great skylight -- coffers, dentils and all.

FIELD MUSEUM. Developing a Pattern

Peirce Anderson, design partner for the firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White completed designs for Marshall Field (ca 1902) while employed by Daniel Burnham before starting (after a trip to Manila and Washington DC) the Field Museum (ca 1911). Work on Union Station in Chicago followed (ca 1913). When viewed together, the three Chicago commissions form a pattern: a clear deftness with planning issues and interior circulation; a developing mastery of spatial manipulaton; and ever increasing interest in 3rd Century Roman ornament applied to 20th Century building types. (Marshall Field and Company and Union Station have been previous subjects of this Blog.)

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Marshall Field has its Grand Arcade and great vertical spaces. Union Station maniuplates train arrivals and departures, automobiles and pedestrians on multiple levels. And at the Field Museum, stairs flank the North entrance while another highlights the South in the otherwise symmetrical Stanley Field Hall. The Hall and the Stairs combine to orient visitors encourage them to move around and through the entire Museum. Nice Job! See Sally A. Kitt Chappell's ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING OF GRAHAM, ANDERSON, PROBST AND WHITE, page 8, at the library for a good first floor plan and great comment. Or splurge at http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=58731 to buy it.

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Above: Stairs at the South end of Stanley Field Hall are a visual feature from the First Floor.

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Above and Below: Broad Scissor Stairs Flank the North Entrance.

More on the "developing patterns" with the next post.

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FIELD MUSEUM. Unexpected Vaults, Arches and Modified Pendentives

The seemingly smooth surfaces that surround Stanley Field Hall disguise unexpected complexities and depth. They define arcades and balconies. Sequences of vaulted ceilings. Places to linger between exhibits. Axial definitions that guide the visitor. And give pause to notice that the North Stairwells are not duplicated on the South. (There is a reason.) They also allow a close-up look at the decorative elements of 3rd Century Rome and Henry Hering's important allegorical sculpture, which will be discussed in future posts.

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Above: Arches and Coffered Ceilings give way to a view of Stanley Field Hall

Below: A Sequence of Vaulted Spaces define both corridor and balcony.

Below: This Arcade separates Exhibit Space from Stanley Field Hll.

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More arches than the Transportation Building at the World's Fair. I like this building (and particularly Stanley Field Hall) better with each visit, and imagine the potential impact of the Museum's form, function, space and ornament as an element of the Burnham Plan had Holabird and Roche's plan for Soldier field been fully implemented and preserved. Imagine stepping through the Museum's heavy bronze doors, out on to the south portico, and this: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1165.html

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