This upcoming Thursday and Saturday (September 19 and 21) Vincent L. Michael will sign copies of his new book The Architecture of Barry Byrne at St. Thomas Apostle Church, Hyde Park, […]
Category: Chicago
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 9
Palmolive Building, 919 N. Michigan Avenue. Holabird and Root, 1929. Night view from south. (Contemporary post card, collection of Thomas Leslie) The Palmolive’s exterior skin was utterly flat between its […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 8
Champlain Building, corner of State and Madison Streets. Holabird and Roche, 1894 (demolished, 1916). View from southeast. (120 Photographic Views of Chicago, Rand McNally, 1909) . . . . criticism […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 7
Bowen Building, 62-74 E. Randolph. W. W. Boyington, 1872. (Photo Thomas Leslie) Chicago came to be known as a city of steel, but well into the 1880s it remained a […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 6
Chicago Savings Bank, corner of State and Madison Streets. Holabird and Roche, 1905. View from northeast. (Photograph Thomas Leslie) In addition to limiting height, the 1893 code carries stringent new […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 5
Civic Opera, 20 N. Wacker Drive. Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White, 1929. View from southwest. (Contemporary post card, collection of Thomas Leslie) Powered construction, advanced structural engineering, and rapid elevators […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 4
Schlesinger and Meyer Department Store. Detail of Madison Street elevation. (Photograph by Thomas Leslie) It was the eventual expansion of Schlesinger & Mayer’s operations that produced the refined statement of […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 3
Wrigley Building, 510 N. Michigan Avenue, Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White, 1921, view from southeast. (Contemporary postcard, collection of Thomas Leslie) The Wrigley Building’s most striking features, however, were the […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 2
Delaware Block, 36 W. Randolph. Wheelock and Thomas, 1874 (extended later). (Photo by Thomas Leslie) Chicago’s soil was a hurdle to tall construction regardless of building type. Chicago rested up […]
Skyscraper of the Day, Part 1
Mather Tower, 75 E. Wacker. Herbert Hugh Riddle, 1928. View from north. (Photograph by Thomas Leslie) No tower had been built to such slender proportions, and there were few opportunities […]
Q&A with The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers editor Brian Dolinar
Brian Dolinar is a scholar of African American literature and culture from the Depression era. He is the editor of The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers. We asked him […]
The art of José Gamaliel González on display in Chicago
Saturday, August 24 marks the final day of the exhibit José Gamaliel González: The Artist at 80 at the Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery in Chicago. Dr. Marc Zimmerman, […]