(Re)building the city
In 1803, Chicago was still only a small outpost of the conquest to the West, called Fort Dearborn. 30 years later, the agglomeration that had sprung up around the fort already had several thousand inhabitants, and this growth was steadily increasing. Building had to be done quickly to meet the demand for housing. In 1832, G. W. Snow, a civil engineer, invented a lightweight studded timber frame that enabled rapid, low-cost construction (the nails were mass-produced and the cleats machine-cut). The town could continue to prosper, so much so, in fact, that the first stone buildings appeared. At the time, the United States had no real national architectural model, so architects were inspired by what was being done in Europe, and in the 1850s and 1860s, it was the neo-Gothic style that took pride of place, with its flamboyant decorations and medieval forms (crenellated towers, etc.). This style is found in two of the city's most famous buildings: the Pumping Station and the Chicago Water Tower, designed by William W. Boyington. Boyington. But in 1871, urban expansion was brought to a halt by a terrible fire that ravaged a large part of the city, revealing the shortcomings of the young city, which had evolved without any real urban planning, mixing rurality and urbanity and multiplying tangles of wooden buildings. The City Council had the Building Code amended to prohibit all wooden structures. New ways had to be found to rebuild the city, taking into account the findings of the fire, the ever-increasing population and the scarcity of space. There was only one solution: build high. In the aftermath of the fire, the swampy depressions on which Chicago was built were filled in, and new masonry systems were created to solidify the foundations of the buildings. With the advent of the elevator, nothing now stood in the way of the race for verticality. Talented architects took up this challenge and made Chicago their laboratory. This was the Chicago School. The term does not designate a movement per se, but rather a group of buildings completed at the end of the 19th century. William Le Baron Jenney is considered the father of the Chicago School. An engineer before becoming an architect, he designed a fireproof metal frame capable of supporting the weight of a tall building, thereby lightening the building, since the walls were no longer load-bearing. In 1879, he designed one of the city's first skyscrapers, the Leiter Building. Only the lower floors are covered with masonry, the rest of the metal structure is visible, and the empty spaces are occupied by large windows. Jenney advocates structural honesty: the structure of the buildings must be apparent and no longer hidden behind abundant decoration. As a result, ornamentation became increasingly discreet, giving way to a key element: the window. This is clearly seen in his Home Insurance Building (1883-1885), the first 10-storey building with a purely steel structure, and his2nd Leiter Building (1889), with its sober façade punctuated by windows. Other leading architects of the Chicago School were Burnham and Root, who designed a number of now-famous buildings, such as the Rookery Building (1885), the Reliance Building (1890-1895) and the Monadnock Building (1891). The two architects innovated not so much in style as in the arithmetical principle of multiplying the basic unit. Designed in this way, the buildings can continue ad infinitum. But the most influential architect of the period was undoubtedly Louis Sullivan, himself a pupil of Jenney. The evolution of his style is highly symbolic. His early buildings were enriched by abundant ornamentation. Sullivan's style is even referred to as "Sullivanesque", characterized by terracotta decoration blending curves and plant motifs, borrowing from Art Nouveau. This is the case in his Auditorium Building (1886-1889), which he designed with another leading architect of the period, Dankmar Adler. While the neo-Romanesque exterior remains fairly sober, the interior is an ornamental debauchery. However, Sullivan borrowed Jenney's quest for verticality through metal framing, making the Auditorium one of the tallest buildings of its time. Gradually, Sullivan turned to an architecture of economy, seeking to create buildings that were initially pleasing in their nakedness. For him, "the skyscraper must be proud and imposing, rising exultantly and forming from ground to summit a unity that not a line disturbs." The facade of the Gage Building (1898-1899) is a first step towards simplicity, with its wide, continuous bands of windows, even if the first floor retains friezes and spandrels. But it was with the Carson Building (1899) that he definitively established both his principles and his reputation. The facade was designed to provide maximum light, thanks to the three-part windows that would come to be known as "Chicago windows", while the load-bearing elements were slimmed down for ever greater lightness. Sullivan is credited with the formula "form follows function", which became one of the guiding principles of modern architecture. Although the authorship is not fully proven, it is at least certain that Sullivan structures his modern facades on the model of the ancient column: base, shaft, capitals, each element linked to a function. The first floor and1st floor, with their large windows, are reserved for stores. Regular grids of windows illuminate the offices on the upper floors, while under the flat corbelled roof a compact floor is reserved for technical installations. In Chicago, commercial buildings became the new architectural form of modernity, "transforming a simple pioneer town into a proud pioneer of cities
Residential eclecticism
In the 1880's and 1890's, skyscrapers were not the only buildings to testify to the city's prosperity. The great industrial and commercial fortunes of Chicago had superb homes built in an amazing variety of styles. One of the most famous houses in Chicago is without a doubt the Glessner House (1886) designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. It impresses with its imposing arches, rough-hewn stonework and recessed doors and windows, a testament to a very personal Romanesque Revival style. The famous Prairie Avenue is also home to a number of homes in the "French" style. Dormer roofs, large chimneys, imposing walls and vertical structure characterize the Chateau Style inspired by 16th century French castles. Mansard roofs, polychromy and abundant ornamentation are found in Second Empire homes. In Hyde Park, Lake View, Forest Glen and Beverly, English styles are preferred by the wealthy. The Queen Anne style features asymmetrical facades, round towers and pedimented porches, while the Tudor Revival is expressed with stucco, rounded turrets and steep gabled roofs. Alongside these sumptuous "isolated" residences, a larger-scale residential architecture developed. The Colonial Revival, a mixture of Federal and Georgian styles, both inspired by English classicism, can be seen in the row-houses, these alignments of red brick houses whose entrances are decorated with columns and transoms. Chicago also saw the development of the famous brownstone houses, a series of middle-class houses built in reddish-brown sandstone, inspired by Venetian palaces, and distinguished by their elevated entrance preceded by a flight of steps. From 1900 on, Chicago became more modern and especially more American with new styles: the American Four Square style, which is characterized by houses with cubic shapes, spacious interiors, a large front porch and very little ornamentation, as can be seen in South Shore or Norwood Park; the Craftsman style, refined and authentic, which can be seen in the houses made of stone, brick or wood in Edison Park or Albany Park; and of course the Prairie Housesstyle imagined by the champion of American modernity, Frank Lloyd Wright, to whom we devote a thematic file. To this eclecticism are added the contributions of the Asian, Slavic and Scandinavian communities that have endowed the city with astonishing pagodas, bulbous or Romano-Byzantine churches and houses with sober and luminous styles. Chicago is a true architectural melting pot!
Thinking the city
In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Fair to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World. The organization of this major event was entrusted to architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham, a leading member of the Chicago School. This popular celebration attracted some 27 million visitors from all over the world. The exhibition is extremely interesting, as it bears witness to a kind of duality in American society, symbolized by the City Beautiful movement, which advocates a more beautiful and functional city. On the one hand, Daniel Burnham took a resolutely modern approach to urban planning, teaming up with landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, considered the father of green infrastructure in the USA. Together, they created a city-within-a-city, with a strong emphasis on green spaces. Olmsted imagined an astonishing green framework made up of parks interconnected by planted boulevards, allowing harmonious cohabitation between cars and pedestrians. These green spaces are designed to anticipate and adapt to the development of the city. Olmsted is also responsible for Washington Park and Jackson Park, linked by one of his famous parkways. He also created canals and lagoons with the aim of "bringing the best of nature to the people". A very democratic vision of urban planning. On the other hand, the architects selected to build the various pavilions and buildings at the show displayed an astonishing architectural conservatism, using and abusing the neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles that were very much in vogue in Europe, with monumental portals and an abundance of sculptures and stucco ornamentation in spectacular buildings, these included the 500 m-long Palace of Industrial Products and the Illinois State Building, whose dome crowned the entire White City, so named because all the buildings were painted an immaculate white, giving the whole complex the appearance of a fairytale town. It's easy to see that, for American society at the time, and despite the advances of modern architecture, a more beautiful city had to be based on classical canons. It's hardly surprising that the very modern Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright both strongly criticized the event, pointing out its "bland academicism denying reality and exalting fiction and falsehood".
A few years later, in 1909, Daniel Burnham once again demonstrated his urban modernity with his Master Plan. He superimposed a plan based on Olmsted's ideas on the original orthogonal grid laid down by Thomas Jefferson in 1785, to ensure that each settler had a well-defined lot on an equal footing with his neighbor, thus making Chicago the first American city to adopt a comprehensive urban plan structured by a system of parks. Indeed, Burnham took up the idea of a green framework, to which he added a protective strip of lake shoreline, considering that Lake Michigan belonged to all its inhabitants and that they should be able to enjoy it as they wished. The plan also called for the creation of new streets, the renovation and widening of existing boulevards, the enlargement and creation of parks, as well as improvements to the road and rail networks, as Burnham's plan allowed for unlimited development of the city along these new vegetated axes. Burnham also redesigned the port facilities and built Navy Pier, a concrete slab over 1 km long supported by almost 20,000 pilings. While the urban planner's approach was highly modern, the architect continued to use the somewhat pompous codes of the neo styles, as evidenced by the grand neoclassical Navy Pier building.
This architectural conventionalism continued well into the 1930s. So, even if skyscrapers represented great structural modernity, their formal language remained deeply influenced by European styles, transforming these giants into Gothic cathedrals of capitalism. The competition launched by the Chicago Tribune in 1922 is the most blatant proof of this. Open to all nationalities, the competition was finally won by Americans Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, with a Gothic-inspired skyscraper with skyward-pointing arches. However, some highly modern designs had been submitted, such as Eliel Saarinen's (which Raymond Hood himself considered better than his own!), a sort of Tower of Babel whose verticality was emphasized by progressively tapering volumes that gave the impression of tapering upwards, like a pyramid, crowned here by a centrally-planned dungeon. With the exception of a few Art Deco elements signalling a certain appetite for modernity, as seen on the Palmolive Building, the Chicago Board of Trade Building, or the magnificent bottle-green Carbide and Carbon Building, crowned with gold, it wasn't until the end of the '30s and the arrival of European architects that modernity made its full entry into Chicago.
Triumph of modernity
Struggling to gain recognition as an architect under the Third Reich, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe left Nazi Germany in 1938 to settle in Chicago. He came here at the request of the Illinois Institute of Technology, for which he designed the master plan of the campus, organized around cubic buildings with a steel frame clad in brick or glass. These buildings are arranged freely around predefined axes, creating a harmonious whole in the heart of the bustling city. Mies van der Rohe began modestly, before making his modernity shine through in skyscrapers that have become legendary, such as the twin towers of the Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1948-1951), a testament to the elegance of an all-glass, all-steel architecture. Particularly noteworthy is the first floor, with its exposed pillars and recessed, all-glass lobby, underlining the ability of iron reinforcements to support enormous masses. Another key element is the curtain-wall façade. At Mies van der Rohe, the heart of the building is a load-bearing steel structure to which the glass façade elements are attached. These standardized panels (identical windows of the same height as the storeys), combined with the regular structure to which they are applied, create a highly homogeneous whole that came to be known as a curtain wall. Finally, Mies van der Rohe's modernity is reflected in his radical approach, based entirely on the honesty of the materials (concrete, steel, glass) and the integrity of the structure. He renounced all forms of ornamentation, including color, with the exception of the natural color of the material. Forms are reduced to a minimum (lines and right angles are favored), the organization of the façade is rationally determined by functional and constructive elements, and the only visible grid is that of the building's framework. A theorist of "less is more" , Mies van der Rohe invented a language of great formal purity that is also found in his domestic architecture.
This approach greatly inspired Eero Saarinen (Eliel's son), who designed the General Motors Research Laboratories (1948-1956) in Warren, Michigan. Here, the spirit of the glass-and-steel constructions is echoed, but with the innovative use of enamelled metal sheets whose chromatic nuances seem to animate the façades, as does the aluminium used on the glittering dome of the convention center. The aim of this forward-looking architecture is to bear witness to the know-how and innovative spirit of General Motors.
Mies van der Rohe, like Saarinen, were both the precursors and protagonists of this post-war international style, blending modernism and scientific techniques. Founded in Chicago in 1936, SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), nicknamed "the General Motors of architecture" because of its size and power, was responsible for some of the most famous international-style buildings of the 60s and 70s. At the time, Mayor Daley reigned supreme over the city, which he sought to transform from top to bottom in order to forget its troubled past. Road, rail, air and river transport all reached record levels, while the city became a champion of modern architecture, as witnessed by the astonishing corncob towers of Marina City, a deliberate nod to the grain-rich Midwest. But let's return to the SOM agency, which designed the John Hancock Center (1969-1970), a veritable 100-storey city within a city, a sort of scaffolding of vertical steel elements drawing a gigantic decorative pattern on the sky, and above all the Sears Tower (1974), which revolutionized the structure of skyscrapers. To reach a height of 443 m, the architects imagined a system of self-supporting concrete tubes integrated into squares forming the base of the building, which overlap and reduce as the tower rises, giving the whole an astonishingly sculptural appearance.
Postmodernism and the contemporary period
From the end of the 70s, some voices began to be heard, criticizing the functionalism and the sometimes disturbing uniformity of the international style: this is the beginning of postmodernism which operates a return to historicist references. This style multiplies the references to the harmonious canons of Antiquity or to the neoclassical style. While modernist architecture rejects it, postmodernism makes a great place to ornamentation. This return to historicist monumentality was even taken up by the SOM agency (even though in 1983, the agency gave the city the very modern One Magnificent Mile tower, which was astonishing for its tubular structure!) The Harold Washington Library is a fine example of the postmodern style with its glass and metal attic, its triangular pediments and its monumental bays ending in semicircular arches. Like all American metropolises, Chicago's skyline is constantly evolving as a result of the race for height by large capitalist companies. Among the tallest towers of the city, let's note the Two Prudential Plaza (303 m) or the Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower (243 m). Alongside these giants, renowned architects have put their signature on more "modest" but elegant buildings, such as Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion - a huge brushed stainless steel bandstand in the heart of Millennium Park ; the luminous wing of the Art Institute of Chicago designed by Renzo Piano - a wing that houses the city's architectural treasures, such as the monumental entrance to the Chicago Stock Exchange, destroyed in 1971; or the McCormick Tribune Campus Center created by Rem Koohlaas, whose astonishing steel tube covering part of the railroad tracks will be remembered for keeping the campus quiet. Today, Chicago is multiplying projects combining rehabilitation and new construction, as shown by the conversion project of the Old Chicago Main Post Office. Completely renovated, the old building, with its superb marble lobby, is now home to some very chic office spaces. But the objective is also to add new buildings housing housing and shops, as well as a double skyscraper project, one of the towers of which should exceed 600 m, thus becoming the tallest building in the USA. To be continued..
Detroit, the phoenix
Detroit has suffered the full force of the so-called "shrinking cities" phenomenon, which refers to major cities that have experienced a significant decline in population, but retain infrastructures designed for more inhabitants, and which are therefore difficult to maintain. Today, many of the city's districts and monuments are derelict. But like the phoenix that rises from its ashes - the city's motto is "We hope for better times, it will rise from its ashes." - Detroit is launching numerous rehabilitation projects to save its unique heritage, as witnessed by the legendary and impressive Michigan Central Station (46,000m2) built in 1913 in a Beaux-Arts style blending Greek and Roman influences and saved from demolition in 2018 by Ford. Billionaire Dan Gilbert has also bought up a number of abandoned buildings and begun construction of a gigantic skyscraper to replace the large shopping mall destroyed in 1998. Alongside these redevelopment sites, Detroit also boasts a rich history. The Motor City is home to an astonishing number of eclectically styled mansions, symbols of the wealth of the automobile industry's great fortunes. The historic Boston Edison district is home to a large number of them. The city's skyline, meanwhile, features some iconic skyscrapers, such as the Guardian Building (1928-1929), nicknamed "the cathedral of finance" because of its cross-shaped form, which blends Gothic inspiration with Art Deco decoration. The building's entrance is decorated with a goddess surrounded by two Indian chiefs. This reference to Native American culture is echoed in another building, the Penobscot Building (1928), named after a New England tribe and featuring numerous Native American motifs. These references to U.S. history are a sign of a certain modernity, even though neo buildings such as the neoclassical Chrysler House (1912) and the neo-Renaissance Whitney (1915) and Ford (1909) Buildings had proliferated until then. From the 1970s onwards, the city revived the race for height with the Renaissance Center(GMRENCEN), a sort of city within the city made up of seven skyscrapers, the tallest of which reaches 222 m, or the 189 m One Detroit Center. But the architect who has had the most lasting impact on the city's history is Albert Kahn. Firstly, because he endowed it with its most emblematic building, the Fisher Building, considered the city's greatest objet d'art due to the opulence of its decoration, as evidenced by its imposing entrance hall with its barrel vault built with 40 different types of marble. Secondly, because he revolutionized industrial architecture, designing modular buildings with plenty of natural light to improve working conditions while delivering the performance required by the automotive industry. The River Rouge plant in Dearborn and the Packard Motor Car Company plant in Detroit are fine examples. Detroit is constantly transforming itself without ever denying its history.
Minneapolis, land of starchitects
The architectural heritage of Minneapolis is astonishing, taking visitors on a journey back in time. The military fortifications of Fort Snelling, the original outpost built by the pioneers, stand alongside the impressive Richardsonian Romanesque City Hall, with its arched entrance, columns and turrets, and the superb contrast between the red of its façade and the green of its roof; the State Capitol Building, modeled on St. Peter's in Rome, with its dome and immaculate marble, meets St. Paul's Cathedral, the3rd largest in the USA, with architecture influenced by the French Renaissance; the Lakewood Chapel, with its mosaics and domes reminiscent of Saint Sophia, dialogues with the Foshay Tower, the city's iconic Art Deco skyscraper. This rich heritage no doubt explains why the city was an early magnet for the greatest names in architecture. Minneapolis is home to the only example of collaboration between Eliel and Eero Saarinen: Christ Church Lutheran. In 1949, Eliel Saarinen designed a church that exemplified his approach to architecture. For him, "if the building is honest, the architecture is religious". His church, with its interplay of light and natural materials (brick, stone, concrete, wood), is a haven of tranquility and simplicity. In 1962, his son Eero added a building with large interior spaces designed as a light well to accommodate the congregation. This unique building played a major role in the emergence of modern religious architecture in the USA. In the 60s, Japan's Minoru Yamasaki designed the building now known as Voya Financial 20 Washington, a landmark because of the 63 concrete and quartz columns surrounding it and the impressive portico designed to complete the Nicollet Mall perspective. In the 90s, Minneapolis became a Mecca for starchitects. In 1993, Frank Gehry created the Weisman Art Museum, a building of brick and steel, all in convolutions, which stands in opposition to the ordered rationality of modern architecture. In the 2000s, César Pelli designed the Central Hennepin County Library, with its beautiful light and terrace garden; Jean Nouvel designed the Guthrie Theater, whose architecture was conceived as a dialogue with the site's industrial and natural history, the theater recalling the city's silos from afar and its lobby rising like a bridge to the waterfalls; and the Swiss architects Herzog & De Meuron created the Walker Art Center, whose large bay windows invite contemplation.
Milwaukee, architectural laboratory
Like all major cities in the region, Milwaukee has its share of neo buildings, witnesses to the Gilded Age, a period of great prosperity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Pabst Mansion and City Hall, with their gabled roofs typical of the Flemish Renaissance Revival style; the Milwaukee Public Library and its Italian Renaissance Revival; the Pfister Hotel and its Romanesque Revival; the Mitchell Building in the Second Empire style; and the Queen Anne and Greek Revival houses in the village of Cedarburg are superb examples. The city also boasts some fine examples of Art Deco, such as the Wisconsin Gas Building with its cascading form and jazz-influenced brickwork. What's less well known is that Milwaukee is home to the largest collection of American System-Built Homes, visible on West Burnham Street and Layton Boulevard. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, this was the very first low-cost housing system in the USA. Wright's aim was to enable even the most modest of people to find decent housing. He teamed up with developer Arthur L. Richards to build partially prefabricated, do-it-yourself houses that could be assembled on site. The houses were modeled on the Prairie Houses, with their flat roofs and central fireplaces. The system was to spread throughout the country, but the project was halted by the First World War. Milwaukee also boasts some very interesting examples of the Brutalist movement of the 1960s, which favored the use of raw materials, simplicity of form, no concealment of technical infrastructure and freedom of plan. These include the Milwaukee County War Memorial by Eero Saarinen, the Sandburg Residence Hall and the Milwaukee Main Post Office. Last but not least, don't miss the Pavillon Quadracci, the extension to the Museum of Art designed in 2001 by Santiago Calatrava. Like a glass-and-steel boat with a sail inflated by the wind, its silhouette is one of the most iconic components of the city's skyline.
