This wonderful presentation was given by Prof. Vince Michael to the students in "The Art of Crossing the Street - Artist as Citizen" class at the School of the Art Institute.

1. Chicago’s Preservation
History
Planning, Building,
Breaking, Rebuilding
Vincent L. Michael
School of the Art Institute

2. Instant City
• Platted by the I & M
Canal Commission in
1830 when it was a
frontier outpost, Chicago
grew more rapidly than
any other city in the 19th
century.
• 1833 - 400 people
• 1837 - 4,000 people
• 1848 - 20,000
• 1860 - 100,000
• 1870 - 300,000

3. Innovation:
Balloon Frame
• The incredibly rapid
growth of the city led to
its first architectural
innovation, the balloon
frame, 1833.
• Michigan and Wisconsin
were deforested to build
Chicago.
• The city was built of
kindling.

4. A Tradition of Destruction
• Chicago was unencumbered by tradition and
dedicated to making money; there were few cultural
pretensions and no concept of preservation.
• When the city burned down in 1871, it simply started
over. Demolition and destruction were a central part of
the city’s identity.

5. Phoenix
• The Fire inspired a generation of architects to come to
Chicago, knowing it would be rebuilt.
• Initially it was rebuilt as a 4-5 story Italianate city, after
1874 of masonry.

6. 1870s Chicago
• Cottages and rowhouses followed the popular styles of
the period, notably the Italianate.

7. American
Architecture,
1880s
• H.H. Richardson
• Louis Sullivan
• Frank Lloyd Wright

8. Chicago School Skyscrapers
• Rising land prices in the small Loop helped develop the first
true skeletal-steel frame skyscrapers in the 1880s.
• This was the first worldwide architectural innovation.

9. Chicago School Skyscrapers
• Auditorium, 1886-1889
• Reliance, 1890-94
• Rookery, 1885-87

10. World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893
The origins of the City
Beautiful: style, but above
all, planning

11. Prairie School,
1900-1917

12. Prairie School,
1900-1917

13. 1903: first failed attempt at preservation
• Enthusiasts in front of
1833 Green Tree
Tavern, city’s first hotel
built at Canal and Lake
Streets by J.L. Kinzie;
later moved to
Milwaukee Avenue.
• George Ade described
it in 1890s as only
building an officer from
Fort Dearborn would
recognize.
• Demolished.

14. The Water
Tower
• A symbol of the city’s
survival after the Great
Fire of 1871, the Water
Tower became
obsolete in 1906 and
needed to be saved.
• It was almost
demolished again in
1918 during the
construction of
Michigan Avenue.
• And again in 1948.

15. The Fine Arts
Building/Museum of
Science and Industry
• Only building to survive World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893,
used as the Field Museum for 25 years, fell into disrepair.
• The AIA held a banquet in its rotunda in 1925, the same year
the South Parks board voted to demolish it.

16. Museum of Science and Industry
• Julius Rosenwald spent $7 million to make the old Fine Arts
Building a science and technology museum based on
Deutsches Museum, Munich and Technisches Museum,
Vienna.
• The entire plaster exterior was rebuilt in limestone and opened
in 1933 for the World’s Fair.

17. 1957: Robie
House
• In 1957 the Chicago
Theological Seminary
decided to tear down
Robie House, which was
being used as a
dormitory.
• Wright himself argued
for its preservation and a
local developer saved
the house, which was
less than 50 years old at
the time.

18. Losing Louis Sullivan: The Garrick
Theater battle, 1961
• Photographer Richard
Nickel had been
photographing and
salvaging Louis Sullivan’s
buildings as they were
demolished in the 1950s
and 1960s.
• When Sullivan’s tallest
building, the Garrick
(Schiller) Theater was
threatened in 1961, Nickel
organized a protest.

19. Garrick Theatre, 1961
• Architects from all over
the world join Nickel’s
protest to no avail.
• Chicago Heritage
Committee formed
• 1957 Landmark status
powerless, theater
building demolished for a
parking garage, with a
concrete face based on a
piece of the original
ornament.

20. Garrick 35 years later
• 1998 - parking garage demolished for a
theater.

21. 1960s: Demolition of Chicago School
skyscrapers
• Republic Building (1905 and 1909, Holabird & Roche)
- 19-story building demolished for a 15-story building,
1961.
• Cable Building (Holabird & Roche), demolished 1961.

22. A Rare Save: Glessner House 1966
• Chicago School of Architecture Foundation formed to
save house, buy from industrial user.
• Starts architectural tours to raise money to save and
restore Richardson’s surviving Chicago building.

23. Prairie School landmarks lost
• Francis Apartments (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1895),
landmarked 1957, demolished 1967
• Edison Shop (Purcell, Feick & Elmslie, 1912)
landmarked 1957 as “a place of dignity and beauty,”
demolished 1967.

24. Adler & Sullivan’s Auditorium Building
• The Auditorium Building (1889) survived largely because it was
too massive to demolish. The Auditorium Theatre Council
saved the theater itself in 1967.

25. Landmarks
Law, 1968
• Commission on
Chicago Historical
and Architectural
Landmarks formed
under law that can
protect buildings.
• Designation begin
about 1970.

26. Early Landmark Designations