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 […]
Tag: architecture
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 […]
Reconsidering the Chicago School of architecture
Thomas Leslie, author of Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934, recently spoke with WGLT-FM public radio about what architecture says not only about a city’s history, but about interpreting an urban identity. “Chicago skyscrapers […]
Where was the birthplace of the skyscraper?
Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934 author Thomas Leslie was on hand for the Association of Preservation Technology Western Great Lakes Chapter and Construction History Society of America’s Skyscraper Symposium. The daylong event […]