DANIEL BURNHAM. The Edison Building. Revelation

I need to finish the sequence of posts about Daniel Burnham's Edison Building. But I'll confess to a little writer's block.

So, on this gray monday I stopped into the Art Institute for warmth and brightness. I wasn't disappointed. A cluster of excited school children stood in front of Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus. A docent explained Caravaggio's kitchen table Revelation. And his revolutionary technique of painting tableaux vivants directly from life. The Gallery was perfectly lit and without distraction. Except for the adjacent Manfredi depicting Mars punishment of a blindfolded Cupid (whose perfectly rendered, about-to-be-whipped bum was the epicenter of the un-settling composition). The Children moved out and on, followed by three bespectacled Germans. Tourists. Women in their eighties. Caravaggio cognoscenti it would seem, if judged by the nods and murmurs. The shocking contrast of Cupid's bum and Christ's reappearance on Earth was clearly not lost on them.

For a moment, I was left alone in the room, clearly aware that I was in the presence of two silent masterpieces. Revolutionary. Diametrically opposed. Brilliant. Hanging side by side. It was a moment you would pray for, if you prayed. But only comes accidentally. Unexpectedly. Caravaggio's and Manfredi's gift spanning 400 years. I left the Museum through the modern wing. Exited to the solitude of the Nichols Bridge and the Park in the rain. I always have the notion, floating over Monroe Street, suspended, carpet-like, that someone thought it necessary to crush some philosophy or some movement or another with the sheer size and correctness of their modernisme. And indeed they did. Howard Van Doren Shaw's modesty will forever be forgotten. With his understanding that a statement of neither mass nor form, can be the statement of most value.

But excuse the digression. I'm back to the Edison Building. Where I find that I may have the post I was looking for. Daniel Burnham is dead. Not as long dead as Manfredi or Caravaggio, but dead just the same. So is Mies, for that matter. But each has left a record whose value is that it might speak to us from another time. Another place or circumstance. Teach us something new. Fresh. Something we may have forgotten. I like the Edison Building. Like it without logic or just-ification. But the reason for its importance is that it stands among others. Who are loved equally well. And, also beyond reason.

I would hope to find, some years from now, that the Edison Building's base/plinth has been entirely restored, its masonry maintained, and its cornice replaced to match in care and quality the adjacent work at the Marquette Building. And the facade renovations, across the street, at the Federal Center. And that these, together, might stand - for at least another lifetime - in their perfect opposition. Cupid's bum on the Left. Revelation on the Right.

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DANIEL BURNHAM. The Edison Building. The Pride of Lions

This is the day that I've decided to start the book "Peirce Anderson in Chicago." Anderson was Burnham's lead designer after 1908, and the design partner at Graham Anderson Probst and White until his death. The idea has been churning for some time, but strangely enough, or proudly, it is the comparison of these three lions that has posed the questions that need to be answered. From Marshall Field and Company (1902) through the Illinois Merchant's Bank (1924) changes, methodical and small brought Peirce Anderson to his position as one Chicago's most influential 20th Century Architects.

Piano Nobile. Agora. Two windows per bay. Three windows per bay. Horizontal window emphasis. Vertical. Ornate stone. Smoothe. Solid Cornice. Balustrade. Each explored and analyzed. All attempted. And shown below: the Lions. At the Edison Building the ring is suspended from an open mouth. At People's Gas the ring is tightly clenched. At the Continental and Commercial National Bank, there is no lion's ring. These are not accidents.

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The progression shows the same care as a Mies corner, modified almost imperceptibly from the Federal Center to the IBM Building. Just in a different, more distant language. One we may no longer understand. 

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DANIEL BURNHAM. The Edison Building. Pilasters

I know that Ron Huberman and the Board of Education are up to their elbows in alligators. But it wouldn't be too much to ask them to start planning a careful masonry restoration program on this very important Daniel Burnham Building. It could take a couple of years just to establish the scope of work and  a hoped-for budget.   And by then the Board just might be back "in the black."   ......and so might we all.
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These pilasters spring from a line in the sky formed by cornices and lintels that band the top and bottom of the 16th floor. Additional mass is introduced at this level by dropping from 3 windows per bay to two. (That Lions Face gets the additional space.) The dark green curtain wall is pulled back from the building line for depth and shadow. It also gives contrast to the (once) white pilasters. 
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Nicely done.

With this post I've proven my over-active imagination. Samuel Insull couldn't have wandered the 21st floor of THIS building. Technology and a zoning code that believed the sunlight was the right of every property owner held the Edison Building to just nineteen stories.

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DANIEL BURNHAM. The Edison Building ....In the Loggia

The history of Chicago buildings is usually quite clear. And although occupancy and construction dates can vary from source to source, generally, the story isn't too far beneath the surface. The Edison Building, however, seems to have some history. Originally constructed as the Commercial National Bank, it soon thereafter became the Edison Building. It is now occupied by the Chicago Board of Education. This building has ghosts hidden in its extensive remodellings. I imagine Samuel Insull wandering the 21st floor, whistling Puccini and plotting.... And while I'm a dyed-in-the-wool, spot-on, on-message, stick-to-the-facts-please, no monkey-business Architect, I'll be heading to Graceland soon to see Mr. Insull's grave. ....and Peirce Anderson, who appears to have had a major role in the "Edison's" design.

SAMUEL INSULL  President, Chicago Edison

Photo Credit Wikipedia

But today, we consider the Edison Building's loggia. This design may have been a prototype for Burnham's Oliver Building ca 1910 in Pittsburgh (See Kristen Schaffer's "Daniel Burnham, Visionary and Planner" p154.) The loggia is consists of a cornice, arched supports, pilasters, a transitioning base, and a turn-of- the century curtainwall. Below are detailed views of the arches. (Much of the Cornice has been removed).

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Buildings that have been "intensely" designed, (the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, for example) show dimples, dirt, moisture, and bird droppings more easily than less considered structures. The Edison Building suffers this same fate. The facade is in need of restoration. Even Photoshop can't hide the deferred maintenance.

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DANIEL BURNHAM.The Edison Building.......... In the Details

Discussing the variation of theory and reason in Architecture sometimes needs to take backseat to the Architecture itself.    I saw a nasty confrontation on Facebook yesterday between Modernists and Contextualists. (Arghhhhhh -- "The Idiots")   And so today, there is no theory. Only pictures.  Details in stone -- that once generated angry discussion, a not-so-subtle play of politics, un-ending argument, alcoholism, loss, vicious victory (really vicious), and envy -- will today present themselves as simple shape and light, softened with the patina of the century.

Mies said "God is in the Details."  Surely he is mistaken.  Surely, it is the Devil.

DANIEL BURNHAM. The Edison Building. Variations on a Theme

A Play in Five Acts. A Sonnet with patterned rhythm and rhyme. Both allow creativity within a framework. And Variations on a Theme.

The Edison Building is immediately recognizable as a Daniel Burnham Building. Tripartite Design. Classic Details. Monumental Cornice. And home to an important turn-of-the-century Chicago corporation. What is not so obvious to the modern eye, are the variances from one Burnham building to the other. In this case a piano nobile rests on a simple base, not on the ground. Corinthian Columns, flattened at the solid corners support a continuous lintel. Office windows span each bay in groups of threes. The loggia is arched; the Building's surface heavily textured. Each decision was consciously made.

These kinds of arbitrary aesthetic decisions seem foreign to us. Until we look across the street, and attempt to recreate the historical precedents that surround Mies' late mid-century Federal Center, or attempt to follow the decision process that wrapped a steel H-section in layers of fireproofing and cladding to mimmick cladding and structure. Or conclude that black was the only appropriate building color.

The design processes, including the arbitrary decisions made in the name of the current definition of "beauty", remain fundamentally the same.

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The Edison Building has been much changed. Its towering loggia is now dwarfed by surrounding buildings. The original banking room is gone. And the cornice. And a black band (that once housed a snow-melting heatlamp) wraps the building at the base of the columns. Some column piers have been reduced or relocated. Still, enough remains to give a good sense of what the Building once was -- and what the 1905 definition of "beauty" might have included. Use these links for an historic look at the first floor COLUMN BASE and the ORIGINAL CORNICE.

Laughing, even at myself, I have to admit that Mies was right. "God is in the Details, " he said. I'll be presenting additional details from the Edison Building in future posts.

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DANIEL BURNHAM. The Edison Building Patterns and the Play of light

I can't shake it.

I keep hearing the echoes of last week's CAF tour guide pointing at the the Art Institute of Chicago, and mumbling something about how bose- zarts has nothing original. Nothing creative.

Below are ornamental patterns from the Conway Building (1913), People's Gas (1910) and the Commonnwealth Edison Building (1905), all designed by D.H. Burnham and Company. The range of pattern is remarkable. Especially when considered that they are used consistently on the intermediate shaft of all three buildings.

I have to wonder if these complex patterns were most important in the designer's mind -- or if the play of light across their complex geometries and its effect on each building as a whole was the raison d'etre.
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COMMONWEALTH EDISON (above)

PEOPLES GAS (below)

THE CONWAY BUILDING (ABOVE)

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Daniel Burnham's raison in 1905 was the Plan of Manila. Daniel was about to make it......big time. For the second time. And Peirce Anderson was earning his position as partner in charge of design. Anderson's design influence on the firm becomes unmistakable during this period. Commonwealth Edison clearly bears his signature.


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