Chicago Open House - October 19, 2013
Every year, the Chicago Architectural Foundation hosts Open House Chicago, a two day event in which the public is allowed to visit many buildings. Having a Saturday free of swimming obligations, we headed down to our favorite Midwestern city for the day.
First stop was the Prairie Avenue District, an area of Chicago that we had never visited. The district is famed for its history, including the 1812 Battle of Fort Dearborn where George Ronan and his 47 Samurai were killed. By the end of the 19th Century things had settled down and wealthy Chicagoans, such as George Pullman and Marshall Field, built mansions on Prairie Avenue.
We began our tour with the John J. Glessner House, a Downton Abbey themed castle constructed in 1887 by a vice-president of International Harvester. The house's unique design was particularly upsetting to George Pullman, who lived across the street - causing him to exclaim "I do not know what I have ever done to have that thing staring me in the face every time I go out of my door." Because he could not tolerate looking at the house, Pullman designed a railway sleeping car so he could spend his nights away from the Glessner House.
First stop was the Prairie Avenue District, an area of Chicago that we had never visited. The district is famed for its history, including the 1812 Battle of Fort Dearborn where George Ronan and his 47 Samurai were killed. By the end of the 19th Century things had settled down and wealthy Chicagoans, such as George Pullman and Marshall Field, built mansions on Prairie Avenue.
We began our tour with the John J. Glessner House, a Downton Abbey themed castle constructed in 1887 by a vice-president of International Harvester. The house's unique design was particularly upsetting to George Pullman, who lived across the street - causing him to exclaim "I do not know what I have ever done to have that thing staring me in the face every time I go out of my door." Because he could not tolerate looking at the house, Pullman designed a railway sleeping car so he could spend his nights away from the Glessner House.
The house that caused George Pullman so much consternation that he would rather face a nationwide strike than sleep next door.
Nearby was the Henry B. Clarke House, which is the oldest surviving residence in Chicago. Built in 1833, it resembled a southern plantation house more than a Midwestern home due to its Greek Revival Style.
Small potatoes compared to the ancient Greek architect Ictinus's Parthenon
Unknown to most Chicagoan, the headquarters of Lollipop Guild was next door to the Henry B. Clarke house until nearby residents complained about the incessant singing that emanated from the building at all hours of the night.
Former headquarters of the Lollipop Guild
Next up was the Keith House, an 1870s mansion converted into an art gallery. Oddly, there was a shower in the public restroom.
The Keith House - surprisingly older than the Rolling Stone with its namesake
We also toured the Wheeler Mansion, another 1870s house turned boutique hotel. While on the second floor, we witnessed people at the house next door smoking pot on their balcony. This caused an aging, hippy appearing man in our room to yell - "hey Norman share some with me!"
The last house we viewed in the Prairie Avenue District was the William W. Kimball House, former home to the piano manufacturer's founder. Built in the Châteauesque style (think of the Château Frontenac in Québec City), Kimball wanted a house that was more glorious than that of Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg. In Kimball's later years, he became a big patron of United States Soccer, being instrumental in bringing David Beckham to play for Los Angeles by offering him a lifetime supply of pianos.
The Kimball House - where pianos melded with international football
Finished with the Prairie Avenue District, we moved onto the Loop and the Blackstone Hotel. Called the Hotel of Presidents, the phrase "smoke-filled rooms" originated here when the 20th Century's greatest president, Warren Harding, was selected as the Republican nominee by a bunch of old white men in one of the rooms. Since a bunch of old white men had never picked a presidential nominee before or after, the Blackstone Hotel became immortal in the eyes of today's Tea Party.
Al Capone would use a baseball bat on guests that were loud and unruly
The Presidential Suite at the Blackstone; also the bed in which both JFK and Jimmy Carter lusted in their hearts after women who were not their wives.
After all this walking around, we had worked up a lusty appetite so we arrived at Kramer's Health Foods. The restaurant / health food store's only clientele appeared to be aging hippies who apparently would never need to use the WC because the place lacked a bathroom. In addition, the vegan ham in my sandwich neither tasted nor had the remote appearance of a meat derived from our porcine cousins.
A restaurant without a loo is not groovy.
After a short walk, we arrived at my favorite building in Chicago, the Fisher Building. Built in 1896 for the paper magnate and great grand-father of Jeff Bridges (who appeared in the the Fisher King), Lucius Fisher, it is the oldest 18 story building in Chicago. Containing lots of aquatic leitmotifs, we were able to tour an apartment and adjoining hallways.
The nearby L causes the Fisher Building to sway back and forth regularly.
Across from the Fisher Building, the Harold Washington Library is the largest public library in the world. If you look carefully, you can see the owl Hedwig (of Harry Potter fame) on the corner of the building; J.K. Rowling was Mayor Washington's favorite English author.
The Fisher Building continues to contain the world's largest valve factory.
After the Fisher King building, we briefly toured the headquarters of the architects, Holabird & Root, located in the Marquette Building - named after the French explorer and basketball scion. In its heydays, the firm designed iconic buildings such as the Palmer House, the Chicago Board of Trade, and of course Solider Field, the backyard of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.
Trying to find a more modern architectural firm, we visited Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture, designers of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
Early model of the Burj Khalifa at the headquarters of Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture. The property's developers, Emaar Properties, wanted something a little taller so Adrian Smith went back to the drawing board and conceived a building slightly taller.
After looking at models of the Burj Khalifa and other post-modern skyscrapers, we craved more traditional buildings so we set off to Randolph Tower. This historic Gothic Revival skyscraper was built in 1929 for the Steuben Club of Chicago to promote the loyalty of German-Americans to America after the bad rap they received in World War I.
The Steuben Club decided that the best way to demonstrate their loyalty to the ideals of America was to recruit Americans of German heritage who were engaging in time-honored American occupations, such as that of bank robber. Thus, the Steuben Club became a hang-out for gangster John Dillinger, who dated one of the coat-check girls.
Long after the Steuben Club was gone, the 45 story building fell on hard times and chunks of the terra cotta facade began falling off in the 1990s. Luckily, the building underwent a beautiful renovation in 2012 and now serves as a residential apartment building.
Upon arrival at Randolph Tower, we took two different elevators to the apartment's fancy club house high above the street, which was littered with relics left over from the days of the Steuben Club.
Clubhouse of the German-Americans
Tree brought over from Berlin to promote German-American friendship
Dillinger used this spot as a look-out from the Feds
Matching his and her lounge chairs commissioned by Dillinger his coat-check gal
Sheep brought over from Hamburg as a show of German-American friendship
Life-size chess pieces constructed in Munich to symbolize the Kaiser's magnificence
Having had our fill of German-American heritage, we walked across the Chicago River to the world famous Merchandise Mart Building.
Smiling because the Dave Matthews Band wasn't dumping waste into the river today
The world's largest building until the Pentagon, the Merchandise Mart was built in 1930 by Marshall Fields to centralize Chicago's wholesale goods business. It was so large that it had its own zip code until 2008 and is still a leading retailing and wholesale destination.
Owned by the Kennedy family for 50 years, Joseph Kennedy had eight huge bronze busts of famous American merchants placed outside to become the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame. Through the years, the Hall of Fame has generated much controversy; Edward Filene objected when his bust was placed in the basement and David Letterman called it the Pez Hall of Fame because the busts atop tall vertical pedestals resembled the candy's dispensers. The Hall of Fame's ignominy was complete when it became the favored resting spot for the Windy City pigeons.
The Pez Hall of Fame, Joseph Kennedy's greatest contribution to American culture
Karl Marx, one of America's greatest merchants
Former Sears Roebuck president, Robert Elkington Wood, was secretly a stool pigeon
After seeing the Pez Hall of Fame, we entered the Merchandise Mart to tour 1871, which is a sort of club for digital start-ups and is named after the year in which the Great Fire of Chicago occurred. The lobby on the main floor of the Merchandise Mart is as vast as the building itself and interestingly appeared in the Coen Brothers film, the Hudsucker Proxy.
Wishing Tim Robbins would appear and say "You know, for kids"
Following our tour of what was once the world's largest building, we walked about a mile south down Michigan Avenue to see what was once the world's largest auditorium, housed in the creatively named Auditorium Building.
Located at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway, the building was completed in 1889 by the famous architects Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. Intended to make high culture accessible to the working classes of Chicago, the building ultimately became more accessible to Deadheads when the Grateful Dead played there 10 times in the 1970s.
Today, the building is home to Roosevelt University, a progressive University named after Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, which purchased the building in 1947 for the massive sum of one dollar. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the actual auditorium because it was closed after noon and had to settle on seeing the university's gorgeous library on the 10th floor the building.
The library's stunning view of Buckingham Fountain inspired noted Roosevelt University alumni Al Bundy to include the fountain in the opening credits for Married . . . with Children.
For the last building of the day, we walked to the nearby Fine Arts Building. This 10 story building constructed in 1885 was known as the Studebaker Building because it was built to display carriages for the wagon and automobile company of the same name.
In 1898 is was converted into an artist's colony and has remained dedicated to the arts for over 100 years, housing art galleries, dance studios, and musical instrument makers. Famed Wisconsin architect Frank Lloyd Wright had an office there in the early 1900s.
Although the building was supposedly was recently renovated, it contains a huge crumbling and abandoned theater and faded but ornate Art Nouveau motifs and murals. Despite the disintegrating nature of the building (or maybe because of them), the building was my favorite of the day due to its fascinating character. It even had a lift that still had a live elevator operator who made small talk with you while taking you to the heights of the building.
Door that was the inspiration for the Hall & Oates song, Private Eyes,
Lee was a distant cousin to the Stradivarius family
Frank Lloyd Wright's favorite Arabian style door
Beautiful remodeling work in the Fine Arts Building
Only those wearing Elevator Shoes allowed to press this button
Waiting for her favorite elevator operator to take us to the heights
Castles, skyscrapers, gangsters, and of course corny jokes, our tour of Chicago's buildings had it all and we look forward to coming back again for the 2014 Open House Chicago.
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