LaSALLE STREET. at Jackson Boulevard

I've been looking forward to writing about this corner of LaSalle Street ever since posting Union Station. This, I thought, was the intersection of the Sedate and the Symmetrical. The ultimate triumph of Peirce Anderson and Daniel Burnham. Where Classicism is unquestioned and axial relationships dominate. I've been back to this corner often during the last few weeks. And with each visit I see that the intersection becomes more complex. Conflicted. Imperfect. Exciting. And nearly impossible to photograph.

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This is a canyon of light and dark, where sun reaches the furthest corners only in June. And only then, shows us what we could not know. The porticos of the Illinois Merchants Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago do NOT align. The centerline of the Chicago Board of Trade is NOT the centerline of LaSalle Street. The frame is NOT symmetrical. To the left the Merchants Bank is flamboyant. Ionic. And to the right, the "Fed" is staid, and uncharacteristically Corinthian. The Greek Temples ironically frame nothing at ground level.

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But the Chicago Board of Trade uses their simple flanking masses to accent its visual dominance of the skyline at the foot of LaSalle Street. This is the moment when Deco prevails over neo-classicism. It looks like a "sucker punch" to me. And the allegorical Statue of "Industry" below disappears from LaSalle Street for some 80 years, replaced at the Door by the Deco Eagle.
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I particularly like this gentle work by an unknown, perhaps German, sculptor. "Industry" is no idealized allegory. She is a beautiful woman and the Sculptor knows her. And I am very pleased that she has returned to LaSalle Street after having gone missing for so long, along with her fat sister, "Agriculture."
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The story here will be one of details, though many are lost after only 80 years. But a first clue is "1924 "(caught by accident with my good telephoto on an ionic column of the Illinois Merchants Bank).
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Indeed, the story "is in the details".
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CHICAGO PHOTOS are available for purchase at IMAGES IN THE LOOP.