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Newsletter the Society of Architectural Historians VOL. XXXI NO.6 DECEMBER 1987 _ liTI(ITAS RRmrms UERU51BS ~ NEWSLETTER THE SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS SAH NOTICES still here. What such surveys miss is the !ivan's Stock Exchange in 1971 , Hugh depth of quality in the city's architec­ Miller prepared a study for the Depart­ 1988 Annual Meeting-Chicago, Illinois ture. Not only the big names but the less ment of Interior indicating the preser­ (April 13-17). Richard Betts, University of Illinois, will be general chairman of well known offices produced work of vation and conservation steps that conviction and power. If you have some the meeting. Wim de Wit, Chicago should be taken to prevent additional time to do some homework, consider Historical Society, will be local chair­ losses. It included a basic dozen build­ looking at photographs by Erich Men­ man. Headquarters for the meeting will ings, all of which still survive, and many delsohn, Harry Callahan, Arthur Sie­ be The Palmer House. This year there of which have since been extensively gel, Lyonel Feininger and Aaron Sis­ will be four sessions running simulta­ restored. kind. Read the parts about Chicago in neously, and Saturday tours are being The proscenium arch murals in Adler planned for the North Shore area, East Simone de Beauvoir's memoir America & Sullivan's Auditorium Building have Chicago, and Racine. A special two-day Day by Day, as well as Nelson Algren's recently been restored. Additionally, Chicago, City on the Make. Read Jane tour of the Architecture of the Illinois the coffered and vaulted ceilings and and Michigan Canal is also being final­ Addams' essay on George Pullman. If wall surfaces of the top floor dining ized. A program announcement will be room in the hotel section now used by sent to the entire membership in Jan­ Roosevelt University have been re­ uary. Members abroad who wish to stored. The architect for these is John have the program sent airmail should Vinci. Sullivan's Carson, Pirie, Scott has notify the SAH office as soon as possi­ had the ground level metal finish re­ ble. stored, also by Vinci. Burnham's Fisher Building has had some of its terra cotta cleaned and restored. Holabird & 1989 Annual Meeting-Montreal, Can­ ada (April 12-16). Slobodan Curcic, Roche's Gage Group, with the north­ Princeton University, will be general ern-most facade by Sullivan, has been chairman of the meeting. Phyllis Lam­ cleaned this summer. Jenny's Second bert, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Leitner Building is in the process of will serve as local chairman. Headquar­ renovating the ground floor into shops ters for the meeting will be the Meridien with back offices above, following the Hotel. departure of Sears a few years ago. Jenny's Manhattan Building has been 1988 Foreign Tour-Northern Italy (June cleaned and converted to residential use & 12-20). Henry Millon, Dean of the by Wilbert Hasbrouck. Holabird Center for Advanced Study in the Vi­ Roche's Marquette Building was ac­ sual Arts, will be the tour leader, assist­ quired by the MacArthur Foundation ed by Martha Pollak, University of and the facade and lobby cleaned and Illinois, Chicago Circle. The tour will restored by Holabird & Root. operate daily from Turin, and will ex­ Detail of the front entrance of H. H. Rich­ The Monadnock Building, north half tensively cover the architectural mon­ ardson's Glessner House, home of the Chi­ by Burnham & Root, south half by uments of the Piedmont. cago Architecture Foundation. Holabird & Roche, is in process of restoration. The decorative use of cast your local paper carries the columns of aluminum for stair stringers is just one URBAN UPDATE: CHICAGO Mike Royko, read them. For a good of the discoveries that have been made Elaine and Kevin Harrington, with the survey of local building activity, check in the process. It is now known that even local committee, look forward to wel­ out issues of Inland Architect (the Jan./ the north half of the southern addition coming the Society to Chicago this April. Feb., 1988 issue will have an update on by H & R has, like the B & R section, an There will be many tours planned for us. new buildings in the Loop), Chicago exterior masonry bearing wall. Also it is To prepare you for the city's architectur­ Architectural Journal, The Chicago Ar­ now possible to see the building in its al richness, Kevin Harrington has written chitecture Annual, and the annuals of four parts, each named for a New En­ this installment of Urban Update.- The the Chicago Chapter, A.I.A. for the last gland mountain-Monadnock, Kear­ Editor few years. sarge, Wachusetts and Katahdin. Architecture is Chicago's great art. Much has been happening to the Burnham & Co.'s Railway Exchange Many of the monuments you first en­ great buildings of Chicago in recent has recently been cleaned and rehabili­ countered in Giedion or Benevolo are years. Following the destruction of Sul- tated by Frye, Gillan, Molinaro. In addition they restored the lobby light Delaware Block, the Springer Block, has difficulty keeping some offices court to the original plan specifications. and the Unity Building), now claim above 60 degrees in the winter, are such Holabird & Roche's McClurg Build­ they cannot find another point of access disasters that the state has recently ing is one of only two on Miller's list for delivery trucks than the corner oc­ brought suit against the architect, engi­ that has not had such recent work. cupied by the McCarthy. This claim is neer, and contractor. Burnham & Co.'s Reliance Building is questionable and may only be more cat New buildings are to be found else­ the other with no good news to report. and mouse. A few years ago the city's where in the Loop. Just opened is 190 The current owner is not interested in private landmarks group attempted de­ South LaSalle, Philip Johnson's first either selling or rehabilitating the velopment, proposing to trade the design in the city. His partner, John building, although when that decision is McCarthy Building in exchange for Burgee is a native of Chicago. This taken there are several developers in funding the rehabilitation of some building's developer, John Buck, has the city eager to buy and restore the movie theatres in the area. When the recently been hired by the Chicago building. developers discovered that the preser­ headquartered American Medical As­ Burnham & Root's Rookery, with vation community was negotiable, the sociation to develop the several square ground floor renovations by Frank theatres were not saved, and the blocks they own just north of the Chi­ Lloyd Wright and William Drummond, McCarthy remains in trouble. Further, cago River and west of Michigan Ave­ has more recently been cleaned by Wil­ the City Director of Planning is in­ nue. Buck has commissioned Kenzo bert Hasbrouck. Currently Booth Han­ creasingly revealing herself as a cham­ Tange to create the master plan for the sen (the firm of SAH board member pion of new development at the ex­ site. Kevin Roche, who studied at MIT Laurence Booth) is engaged on a com­ pense of preservation. Planning in under Mies in the late '40s, is the plete interior rehabilitation for the Chicago is at some distance from the designer of a very large mixed use building's new owner, the resuscitated impressive moratorium on unnecessary project just now rising next to the main Continental Illinois Bank. new buildings recently instituted in San branch of the river. Kohn Pederson This is a good point for a transition to Francisco. Chicago's buildings are so Fox, whose 333 West Wacker at a bend the problems of preservation in Chi­ good and deserve better treatment by in the river, has been well received, has cago, and the Rookery is a fine exam­ the current planning establishment. a large mixed use project under con­ ple. Recently the land lease expired and The Chicago Theatre has just been struction on North Michigan Avenue, the building came into the city's pos­ renovated (along with the Page Build­ and foundations begun on what will session. Always a successful office ing, the only cast iron front still stand­ become a three tower grouping (as high building, some argued it should remain ing in the Loop), and the Public Library as sixty-five stories), on the block south in city hands to be restored and main­ by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, has of the Sears Tower. That colossus has tained as an example of the city's com­ been converted to new use as a cultural recently had its entry sequences rede­ mitment to preservation as well to be center by Holabird & Roche. But the signed, and as befits the mail order the source of significant long term ren­ Chicago Building by Holabird & pioneer, the new Wacker Drive en­ tal income. Instead, the argument that Roche, across State Street from Carson, trance resembles a giant mail box. the building should continue in private Pirie, Scott, was recently denied land­ Local architectural firms are adding hands has prevailed-as a demonstra­ mark status because its owner, the new buildings to the Loop, including tion of the interest of the city's business Board of Education, did not wish its the just started AT&T complex by and professional community in preser­ options limited. SOM, the just completed Ru blof build­ vation. With its recent Federal shoring, The most widely debated new build­ ing by Perkins & Will, Murphy/Jahn's the Continental Bank, whose own ing in the Loop is Helmut Jahn's State Chicago & Northwestern Tower, Fuji­ headquarters is across Quincy Street of Illinois Office Building.
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