CHARLES ATWOOD. The Fine Arts Building

I would be hard put to identify which of  Charles Atwood's projects for Daniel Burnham and Company made the greatest contribution to Chicago Architecture.  Marshall Field & Company transitioned Burnham and Root's 19th Century designs (The Rookery and the Masonic Temple) to the 20th Century "Commercial" style.  The delicacy of  The Reliance Building ( see E. C. Shankland's contribution HERE) clearly expressed its steel frame construction.  And the Fisher Building continued the early Chicago School's predilection to the Gothic.  But,  the greatest public impact, both then and now,  is undoubtedly made by the Columbian Exposition's Fine Arts Building (now the Museum of Science and Industry).

Some 120 years after its conception, the Fine Arts Building still "holds its own, "  thanks in large part to extensive care given the building by the Museum.  Ongoing restorations allow us the luxury to "imagine".....  Wooded Isle is behind us.  And Henry Ives Cobb's Fisheries.  The World's Fair remains very "close" in Jackson  Park. And Atwood's presence is clear.

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CHARLES ATWOOD. Marshall Field & Co.

THE USE OF ORNAMENT.  Light and Texture

"Neo-Renaissance."  "Italian Palazzo."  "A little of this and a lot of that......"  Marshall Field and Company's building at Wabash and Washington, designed in 1891 by Charles Atwood for D.H. Burnham and Company, typifies late 19th Century "Style."  It's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of ornament. We're just not used to it --

Marshall Field.  South Facade.

Marshal Field.  South Facade Detail

Ornament, here, is used not only for decoration.  It establishes texture and rhythm.  The combination of "rough" and "smooth" seen in the upper photograph relies on the rhythmed application of VERY small  scale ornament (below). D.H. Burnham & Company designers used this technique well into the twentieth century.  Peirce Anderson's work at the PEOPLES' GAS  is a late example.

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LOUIS SULLIVAN'S IDEA. At the Chicago Cultural Center

Curated by Tim Samuelson.  Designed by Graphic Artist Tim Ware.

Rarely have I been as excited by an exhibit as I was, today, at LOUIS SULLIVAN'S IDEA. (So excited, in fact, that I've delayed the post I'd been planning on Charles Atwood.) Ranging through time, detail, and scale, focusing both on the well known and the obscure, this exhibit combines photographs, artifacts, construction documents and text to show facets of Sullivan that are so easily overlooked. Sullivan comes alive, bringing Adler, Edelman, Schneider, and the late 19th century with him. The photos below cannot do the Exhibit justice -- but hopefully they give a taste of what is in store at the Cultural Center.

Remarkable.  In every way.

Take a look at ArchitectureChicago Plus' take on the Exhibit HERE along with comments by Tim Samuelson.

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D.H. BURNHAM and Company. Charles Atwood

A BURNHAM DESIGNER and TEAM PLAYER

Charles Atwood, Daniel Burnham's "Outsider" from New York, gained his reputation for Beaux Arts design details at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and for pushing the envelope at the Reliance Building. But also, and maybe even more importantly, Atwood proved himself to be a team player at D.H. Burnham and Company. The Rookery, Marshall Field and Company, and Buffalo's Ellicott Square are clearly of the same heart, if not the same hand -- and show an evenhanded progression of the development of the highrise office building. (Even more so when one learns that Field's was originally designed as retail on the lower floors and offices above -- those three arches are the location of the now-remodeled light court. )

JOHN ROOT.  The Rookery  PHOTOCREDIT

CHARLES ATWOOD.  Marshall Field and Company

CHARLES ATWOOD. Ellicott Square PHOTOCREDIT

CHARLES ATWOOD.  Ellicott Square Interior.  PHOTOCREDIT

JOHN ROOT. Roookery. Interiror

Add Burnham's (Dinkelberg's)  1904 Railway Exchange to the mix and you see, clearly, a strong hand guiding Root, Atwood, Dinkelberg (and later Anderson) within the corporate structure.

FRED DINKELBERG. Railway Exchange. Interior.

CHARLES ATWOOD. Marshall Field and Company.  Detail

Still there was room for variations on a theme.  And creativity best born from the synthesis of Art, Architecture, and Engineering.

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I am very pleased to post this blog from my new Studio in the Pittsfield Building.  Overlooking  Alfred Shaw's Atrium.

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