CHICAGO SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE

CHICAGO SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE

• Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and

one style is referred to as the Chicago School.

• Much of its early work is also known as Commercial style.

• The first 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, developed a
spatial aesthetic which co-evolved.
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• Use of steel-frame buildings with masonry cladding
(usually terra cotta)
• Allowing large plate-glass window areas
The Chicago Building by Holabird & Roche
(1904–1905) is a prime example of the
Chicago School, displaying both variations of
the Chicago window.

Chicago School window grid

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• Limiting the amount of exterior ornamentation
• Sometimes elements of neoclassical architecture are used in
Chicago School skyscrapers
• Many Chicago School skyscrapers contain the three parts of a
classical column. The lowest floors functions as the base, the
middle stories, usually with little ornamental detail, act as the
shaft of the column, and the last floor or two, often capped with a
cornice and often with more ornamental detail, represent the
capital.
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Architects whose names are associated with the Chicago School include

• Henry Hobson Richardson: was a prominent american architect.

• Dankmar Adler: architect and civil engineer. Partner of Sullivan

• Daniel Burnham: American architect and urban designer

• William Holabird: American architect

• William LeBaron Jenney: American architect and engineer

• Louis Sullivan: influential American architect

LOUIS SULLIVAN
 LOUIS SULLIVAN
• Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an
American architect
• “Father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism“
• He is considered by many as the creator of the modern
skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago
School
• mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright
• Along with Wright and Henry Hobson Richardson, Sullivan is one
of "the recognized trinity of American architecture".
• The phrase "Form follows function" is attributed to him.