CHICAGO SCHOOL

Beginning in the early 1880s, the Chicago School

pioneered steel- frame construction and, in the
1890s, the useof large areasof plate glass.

These were among the first modern

skyscrapers.

The Chicago school of Architects defines a

group of architects and engineers who in the
late 19th century developed the skyscraper.
Marina City Tribune towers

Chicago in 1885 was the scene of a great

building boom.

The new construction activity was more

than a rebuilding in more permanent
materials.
Chicago Library
 Piling up stories to structures of 18 or more
floors accessible by the elevator that had
been developed in the 1850’s and 60s.

The first modern architectural movement

was generated in this cauldron is due to
several factors, not the least of which
was the prevailing cultural climate.

William LeBaron Jenney's

Home Insurance Building of 1885 is often
considered to be the first to use steel in its
structural frame instead of cast iron, but this
building was still clad in heavy brick and
stone.
In the history of architecture, the Chicago School
was a school of architects active in Chicago at the
turn of the 20th century.

They were among the first to promote the new

technologies of steel-frame construction in
commercial buildings.
They developed a spatial aesthetics which then
came to influence, parallel developments in
European Modernism.
While the term "Chicago School" is widely used to
describe buildings in the city during the 1880s and
1890s.

Some of the distinguishing features of the Chicago

School are the use of steel-frame buildings with
masonry cladding (usually terra cotta), allowing
large plate-glass window areas and the use of
limited amounts of exterior ornament.
Sometimes elements of neoclassical
architecture are used in Chicago School
skyscrapers.
Many Chicago School skyscrapers contain the
three parts ofaclassicalcolumn.
The first floor functions as the base, the middle
stories, usually with little ornamental detail, act as
the shaft of the column, and the last floor or so
represent the capital, with more ornamental
detail and capped with cornice.

Chicago Building
The "Chicago window" originated in this
school.
It is a three-part window consisting of a
large fixed center panel flanked by two
smaller double-hung sashwindows.
The arrangement of windows on the
facadetypically creates agrid pattern.
The Chicago window combined the
functions of light-gathering and natural
ventilation; a single central pane was
usually fixed, while the two surrounding
panes were operable.

Chicago Window
These windows were often deployed in bays,
known as oriel windows, that projected out over
the street.
Some of the more famous Architects whose names are
ChicagoSchool buildings associated with the Chicago
include: School include
Louis Sullivan'sCarson, Pirie, Henry HobsonRichardson,
Scott &Co.
Building Dankmar Adler,
Reliance Building
Daniel Burnham,
Chicago Building William Holabird, William
Brooks Building LeBaronJenney, John Root
MonadnockBuilding Louis sullivan
WainwrightBuilding

Frank Lloyd Wright started in the firm of Adler and Sullivan

but created his own Prairie Style of architecture.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who had run the Bauhaus in Germany before coming to Chicago, is
sometimes credited with
the rise of a second "Chicago school" between 1939 and 1975.
Monadnock Building
Home Insurance Building Reliance Building
Reliance Building Marquette Building
Richardson's Marshall field store
 MONADNOCK BUILDING
ONE BUILDING WITH TWO FACADES

• Built in two phases,the Monadnock Building

functions as one large structure. However,
the facades of each phase couldn’t look more
different.
• The Monadnock’s northern half wears a
daring, stripped-down facade, while its
southern half is adorned in traditionally inspired
ornamentation that expresses its metal
structure.
• Each half, in its own way, demonstrates the
transition happening during its time.
• The northern half, completed in 1891 and
designed by Burnham & Root, has exterior walls
that layer brick on top of brick, in the load-
bearing tradition.
• The southern half, completed in 1893 designed
by Holabrid and Roche
• It’s a structural metal frame , with thin brick
masonry covering it
• This building was the first one to get wired with
electricity