LASALLE STREET. Fraternal Twins

Those twins of LaSalle Street, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Illinois Merchants Bank are both solid, considered, and thoughtfully designed buildings. They both have a conceptual basis. They are designed to become a part of the "Plan". Despite the "quirks." (See June 27 post below.) Neither, though, could individually "capture the imagination" like the pair. Neither could, individually, call attention to their differences. Separated, Ionic or Corinthian matter little. Together, it seems more than a little odd that the staid Federal Reserve would be assigned those flamboyant Corinthian Columns ... and not the Merchant's Bank. A matter of question or conjecture. A little mystery.

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This corner has made me rethink the value of order. Of symmetry. Of the variations allowable within seeming duplicates and implied order. Would these two buildings be better if they perfectly aligned? I think not. Both Ionic? No. Could just one of Mestrovic's Indians (just up the street) guard Grant Park? Of course not. Would exact duplicates weaken the power of their apparent symmetry? Hmm. Spearman, Bowman, Merchants Bank and Fed.

Staring at the rendered aerial view of Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan for Chicago (for the gazillionth time) I again notice that the Randolph Street Pier is not exactly the same shape as the Pier Planned for 12th Street. That the Chicago River curves and splits and plays in counterpoint to the gridded streets. Remember that the Field Museum is slightly off-angle from Soldier Field. And consider the possibility that the Beaux Arts tradition in Chicago could be significantly more nuanced than I had previously considered.
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Credits are due for use of the image above, of course, to Daniel Burnham.

LaSALLE STREET. 1924. At Jackson

Eighty years and the changes they've held, have mellowed the corner of LaSalle and Jackson. We see what we expect to see. Have always seen. But when the Board of Trade was constructed at the end of LaSalle Street, flanked by the existing classicism of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Illinois Merchant's Bank, it was a violent statement of modernity. A stylized expression of verticality, and height, leaving its two classical "framers" at street level. Beneath the tallest building in Chicago. A title to keep until 1965. (See previous post.)

Blame it on the kids.

Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, Architects of the Merchants Bank and the Federal Reserve, not only continued Daniel Burnham's legacy of Classicism that won the Chicago World's Fair, they continued the almost unstoppably successful corporate culture that serves as a model of organization for architects today. They literally carried Daniel Burnham to the next generation. Peirce Anderson's dedication played no small part in this accomplishment. But time has a way of creeping up on us. The symmetrical porticoes of LaSalle Street were already "on their way out" at their time of completion. A generation late.

In 1923, William Holabird, revered, accomplished Chicago School partner at Holabird and Roche was dead. (See Chicago Sculpture in the Loop for recent developments at the Marquette Building.) In early 1924 Anderson died of cancer. It was time for John Holabird and John Root ("the kids"), architects of the Palmolive Building and 333 North Michigan to take center stage, unopposed, with a small assist from the 1924 Zoning Ordinance that allowed the Board of Trade to rise 605 feet above the street below.

A remarkable accomplishment. But the next few posts will belong to Peirce Anderson. We'll give the future to Holabird and Root.

Below are details of the Brass Marquis that stands in front of the Illinois Merchants Bank (completed 1924). Think nothing of the Great War. The Panic. The cancer. The astonishing growth of density within an already dense City. Think nothing of the passing of a generation that knew the Fire and the Fair. Or the Depression to come. Just - look at this brass.

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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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BATCHAWANA. Points North

Two days of brilliant sunshine, that brought to mind Stieglitz, O'Keefe and Sante Fe. And two days of unbroken fog -- grayer than the Thames. Or Whistler or Turner. Pump priming and paint. Electrical wires. Wild flowers. Blackflies. And an old "Batchawana cottage" copy of Longfellow. I'd forgotten Longfellow. Or that "language" could be, simply, so beautiful.

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I'm not sure when "educated" people learned not to read Longfellow. Although Lawrence Buell had a clear opinion in his introduction to Penguin's 1988 Anthology. ----- "In short, he fared badly within a Critical Framework that is scholarly (a fondness for intricacy), modernist (the equation of alienated pessimism with the authentic) and American Centered. " Well now, doesn't that sound familiar?

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I first learned of Peirce Anderson some five years ago, when, by accident, I purchased a biography of Benjamin Latrobe that had belonged to him. And only slowly learned of his remarkable architectural contributions to the City of Chicago. Marshall Field and Company. The Field Museum. Union Station. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, The Illinois Merchants Bank. The Insurance Exchange. The strong advocate of the architectural component of the Burnham Plan. And a legacy of the Beaux Arts Architects he brought to Graham Anderson Probst and White. How could he have been erased. Impossibly. Right off the map.

Are we Architects, Artists, Poets, so weak, so unsure that we cannot allow and respect a flourish of stylistic variation within our ranks. That we must all be born-again thus-and-so's. within a Critical Framework. That we must destroy variation to justify ourselves? No Longfellow with the Dickinson. No Tuckerman, no never. Burnham okay with the Plan. But not the Architecture. And certainly, certainly, no Anderson with the Sullivan.

Not in fog . Not in sunshine. -- The vacation is over. Time to head back to LaSalle Street

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CHICAGO PHOTOS available online at CHICAGO IMAGES IN THE LOOP

BATCHAWANA BAY. On Vacation

Architecture takes second place. At least this week. On vacation at Points North through June 21.

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CHICAGO PHOTOS are available online at Images in the Loop

LaSALLE STREET. LaSalle at Jackson

There are special places in Chicago. The Marshall Field and Company Building on State Street. Union Station. The Field Museum. To name just a few. And of course, the foot of LaSalle Street at Jackson Boulevard. Each of these hold an undeniable attraction. And a few things in common. First, they all conceptually embrace Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan for the City of Chicago. Second they all seem to "fit" . ((Here at LaSalle Street and Jackson Boulevard cornices and ornament align. Most buildings are of comparable height and style. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago symmetrically faces the Illinois Merchants Bank to frame LaSalle Street's axial terminus at Jackson Boulevard.)) And third, and surely most important, each location exhibits the lifelong dedication to both Burnham and Beaux Arts design pricinples by GAP&W design partner, Peirce Anderson.

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Below is Board of Trade building designed by William Boyington in 1885 that was to be demolished for the new structure on the site that could complete the Burnham Plan at the foot of LaSalle Street.

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There was no place else in Chicago that had the potential for so completely fulfilling the visual component of Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan. Matching cornice heights, comparable building heights, neo-classic detail and contruction to the lot line predominates. In the immediate vicinity, The Insurance Exchange (1912), 208 South LaSalle (1914), the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (1922) the Illinois Merchants Bank (1924) all buildings designed by Graham Anderson Probst and White, set and framed the stage for the new Board of Trade Building to be commissioned in 1925. The new Board of Trade could complete the vision. Below is GAPW's rendering of the proposed structure.

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But in 1925, the Board of Trade commissioned Holabird and Roche -- whose interest clearly was not being "part of a plan". They were about to construct the tallest building in Chicago. Above is the new Board of Trade Building photographed at street level. Anderson died on February 10, 1924. Hopefully, he never knew what had been lost.

Credits are due Sally A. Kitt Chappell for the LaSalle Street Rendering shown on page 46 of her really excellent work ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING OF GRAHAM ANDERSON PROBST AND WHITE. And also http://www.patsabin.com/illinois/trade.htm -- a great Chicago website of postcard images and renderings. See the Three Eagles of LaSalle Street at CHICAGO SCULPTURE IN THE LOOP

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FIELD MUSEUM. The View North

In 1919, from the North Steps of the Field Museum, a sharp eye might have seen this bronze statue standing on top of Schmidt Garden & Martin's Montgomery Ward Building. She is a Spirit of Progress and now stands on the Montgomery Ward Warehouse on Chicago Avenue. The original that inspired her was a Saint Gaudens at the Agriculture Building at the Columbian Exposition. In my mind she is forever a part of Aaron Montgomery Wards's efforts to keep Grant Park "forever open, clear and free." She once watched over Grant Park.

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Today, it would take a very sharp eye, indeed, to find her on the skyline. She would be dwarfed. Of somehow, little importance. Along with the Carbon and Carbide Tower, the Pittsfield, and Willoughby.
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Objects of great height appear closer than smaller objects. The distance between less. Imagine the impression of Grant Park's openness and size if it were defined only by the "small" wall of buildings that line Michigan Avenue. Understand how fragile Grant Park has been made by the huge scale of buildings that define and surround it. Even small, well intentioned mistakes become irreparable. The view below is to Monroe at Columbus. In the heart of the Park.

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When we think of Daniel Burnham we think of "no little plans." But we should remember that even his biggest ideas had a sense of scale and orientation. A place for detail. And a little peace. Remember that even a small monument in his honor, located poorly, may not serve his legacy. And that a huge undertaking ,well conceived in principles, like the Field Museum, behind me, becomes an unforgettable part of the fabric of the City we all love.
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