Writing under the
direction of the Commercial Club of Chicago, Daniel Burnham and Edward H.
Bennett provided a far-reaching plan for the entire Chicago area in their Chicago Plan
of 1909. One can argue about the
magnitude of the plan and its effect on the city’s growth, but there is no
arguing about this statement, “Michigan Avenue is probably destined to carry
the heaviest movement of any street in the world. Any boulevard connection in Michigan Avenue which fails to
recognize the basic importance of the avenue will be a waste of money and
energy. Any impairment of the
capacity of this street at any point along its entire front, any weakening of
this foundation, is an error of the first magnitude.”
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| The swing bridge at Wells Street with Northwestern Depot beyond |
Chicago, in
confronting the weight of these words, had a problem with Michigan Avenue – the
Chicago River. Michigan Avenue
already ran from the river all the way south to the city limits by the year of
the Great Fire in 1871. But,
heading north, there was no dependable way to cross the river. Bridging the river came in the form of
swing bridges, the most important one being at Wells Street, a structure that
led to the Northwestern Railroad’s terminal at Wells and Kinzie.
But the swing
bridges were cumbersome and subject to frequent breakdowns. As long as they
were the principal means of crossing the river, Michigan Avenue would not be
extended north, and the wealthy residents of the city would continue to build
their mansions south of downtown in what is now the Prairie Avenue Historic
District.
Various schemes were
hatched to solve the problem, including a plan to build a tunnel under the
river at Michigan Avenue. Then on
May 31, 1903 The Chicago Tribune
ran an editorial stating that the only way to create a unified Michigan Avenue
was to condemn the land on the north side of the river and build a bridge
sufficiently large enough to carry both passenger and freight traffic.
“The scheme is
practicable,” the editorial declared. “With energy and determination it can be
carried out. It may seem
expensive, but the cost will be a trifle as compared with hundred of street
improvement which are going on in London and Paris at the present time.”
 |
| Pont Alexandre III detail (JWB, 2010) |
Finally, 17 years
after the editorial and over a decade after the Chicago Plan was published, Chicago got its bridge. Edward H. Bennett, who wrote the
Chicago Plan with Daniel Burnham designed the bridge, taking inspiration from
the Pont Alexandre III in Paris.
Pine Street, a narrow street on the north side of the river leading to the
pumping station and waterworks, became the northern extension of Michigan
Avenue, and the city was transformed.
Within ten years at
least a half-dozen great skyscrapers were erected near the bridge before the
construction stopped as a result of the worldwide Depression. These were great buildings, meant to
showcase the power of the firms they housed, but more than that, meant to prove
to the world that Chicago could hold its own with any city on the planet. They were designed with magnificence in
mind, majestic to the eye and built with the latest innovations in engineering.
Nowhere do they
declare this combination of beauty, power, and innovation more emphatically
than in their crowns. To look at
the tops of these buildings was to realize that Chicago was more than just a
stacker of wheat and player with railroads. This was a city on the move.
Here’s what I mean
. . .
 |
| The Wrigley Building Clock Tower (JWB, 2010) |
The Wrigley
Building was begun in 1921 and finished in 1924. Charles Beersman, working for the great firm of Graham,
Anderson, Probst and White modeled the tower of the south building after the
Jeralda Tower in Seville Spain, choosing French Renaissance detailing for this
study in shimmering white terra cotta.
 |
| The 360 N. Michigan Belevedere (JWB, 2010) |
The London
Guarantee and Accident Building, now 360 North Michigan, was finished in
1923. Alfred Alschuler, a prolific
designer who created buildings ranging from the Brach Candy Factory to the
K.A.M. Isaiah Israel synagogue in Hyde Park, created a building that spoke at
once of power and timelessness.
The belvedere atop the building is said to reference the Choragic Monument
of Lysicrates in Athens.
 |
| Tribune Tower complete with flying buttresses (JWB, 2010) |
Two New York
architects, John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, split a fifty thousand dollar
first place prize for their winning design for the Chicago Tribune’s
headquarters, which was finished in 1925.
Hood was designing radiator covers for the American Radiator Company
when his design was chosen from 258 entries sent in from 23
countries. The unadorned shaft of
the building reflects the art deco style of the 1920’s, but the flying
buttresses and neo-Gothic mass at the top of the building clearly proclaimed a
publisher who saw himself as doing important work with universal implications.
 |
| Dinkelberg's fantastic dome atop 35 E. Wacker (JWB, 2010) |
Frederick
Dinkelberg and Joachim Javer designed the Jewelers’ Building across the river
and just up Wacker Drive from Alschuler’s London Guarantee Building. Dinkelberg had
worked his entire career for Daniel Burnham, even designing the Flatiron
Builidng just off Madison Square Park in New York City. The Jewelers' Building, now 35 East Wacker, was
long on engineering – it was the first large building in the city with indoor
parking – and long on classical design, forty stories of it. Hard to believe that Dinkelberg’s widow
had to take a collection among Chicago architects to scrape together enough money
to bury her husband when he died in 1935.
 |
| The Burnham Brothers' Triumph (JWB, 2010) |
Finally, the
building that looks great in the sunshine, the art deco headquarters for the
Carbide and Carbon Corporation, now the Hard Rock Hotel, just south of the
bridge on Michigan Avenue.
Designed by the sons of the great Daniel Burnham, Daniel and Hubert, the
study in black granite, green terra cotta and gold leaf was finished in 1929.
That’s real gold up there on the top of the building, a summing up of all the
excess that was the 1920’s, excess that turned into a mocking symbol as the country and
the world slipped into the hard times of the 1930’s.
Chicago got its long-awaited bridge in 1920. In the ten years that followed the city got far more than an easy way to cross the river.
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2 comments:
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