A Chicago window is a large fixed glass panel flanked by two narrower sashes of the same height, filling a structural bay. The large pane is a single panel of plate glass, and the flanking elements are vertical double-hung sash windows with no dividing muntins. The fenestration was first used by architect William LeBaron Jenney in the 1884 Home Insurance Building, and immediately after by several of the Chicago School architecture firms such as Holabird and Root in their Marquette Building (Chicago), Daniel Burnham's Fisher Building (Chicago), and Louis Sullivan's Carson Pirie Scott department store. The window design was made possible by advances in glass-making technology and steel structural framing, and became a defining feature of the Chicago school style. The design offered both abundant natural light and practical ventilation. [1] Projecting oriel bays are a common variant of the Chicago window, as seen here in the Reliance Building(1895) by Burnham and Root.
Daniel Hudson Burnham was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the Beaux-Arts movement, he may have been, "the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ever produced."
A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material, a sash set in a frame in the opening; the sash and frame are also referred to as a window. Many glazed windows may be opened, to allow ventilation, or closed, to exclude inclement weather. Windows may have a latch or similar mechanism to lock the window shut or to hold it open by various amounts.
The Chicago School refers to two architectural styles derived from the architecture of Chicago. In the history of architecture, the first Chicago School was a school of architects active in Chicago in the late 19th, and at the turn of the 20th century. They were among the first to promote the new technologies of steel-frame construction in commercial buildings, and developed a spatial aesthetic which co-evolved with, and then came to influence, parallel developments in European Modernism. Much of its early work is also known as Commercial Style.
The buildings and architecture of Chicago reflect the city's history and multicultural heritage, featuring prominent buildings in a variety of styles. Most structures downtown were destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid support to the glazing of the window. Its secondary purpose is to provide structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Horizontal elements separating the head of a door from a window above are called transoms.
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room.
The Monadnock Building is a 16-story skyscraper located at 53 West Jackson Boulevard in the south Loop area of Chicago. The north half of the building was designed by the firm of Burnham & Root and built starting in 1891. At 215 feet, it is the tallest load-bearing brick building ever constructed. It employed the first portal system of wind bracing in the United States. Its decorative staircases represent the first structural use of aluminum in building construction. The later south half, constructed in 1893, was designed by Holabird & Roche and is similar in color and profile to the original, but the design is more traditionally ornate. When completed, it was the largest office building in the world. The success of the building was the catalyst for an important new business center at the southern end of the Loop.
The Reliance Building is a skyscraper located at 1 W. Washington Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The first floor and basement were designed by John Root of the Burnham and Root architectural firm in 1890, with the rest of the building completed by Charles B. Atwood in 1895. It is the first skyscraper to have large plate glass windows make up the majority of its surface area, foreshadowing a design feature that would become dominant in the 20th century.
The Rookery Building is a historic office building located at 209 South LaSalle Street in the Chicago Loop. Completed by architects Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root of Burnham and Root in 1888, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings, and was once the location of their offices. The building is 181 feet (55 m) in height, twelve stories tall, and is considered the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago. It has a unique construction style featuring exterior load-bearing walls and an interior steel frame, providing a transition between accepted and new building techniques. The lobby was remodeled in 1905 by Frank Lloyd Wright. From 1989 to 1992, the lobby was restored to Wright's design.
Burnham and Root was one of Chicago's most famous architectural companies of the nineteenth century. It was established by Daniel Hudson Burnham and John Wellborn Root.
The Marquette Building, completed in 1895, is a Chicago landmark that was built by the George A. Fuller Company and designed by architects Holabird & Roche. The building is currently owned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It is located in the community area known as the "Loop" in Cook County, Illinois, United States.
The Lord & Burnham Building, located at the corner of Main and Astor Streets in Irvington, New York, United States, is a brick building in the Queen Anne architectural style built in the 1880s. In 1999 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was added as a contributing property to the Irvington Historic District in 2014.
In architecture, a transom is a transverse horizontal structural beam or bar, or a crosspiece separating a door from a window above it. This contrasts with a mullion, a vertical structural member. Transom or transom window is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece. In Britain, the transom light is usually referred to as a fanlight, often with a semi-circular shape, especially when the window is segmented like the slats of a folding hand fan. A prominent example of this is at the main entrance of 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British prime minister.
The Everett Building is a 16-story commercial structure at 200 Park Avenue South at the northwest corner with East 17th Street, on Union Square in Manhattan, New York. It was designed by the architectural firm of Starrett & van Vleck and opened in 1908. Goldwin Starrett, the lead architect, had worked for Daniel Burnham for four years in Chicago, and as such the building reflects Burnham's functionalist philosophy. It marked the development of fireproof commercial skyscrapers with open plan interiors and simple, classical exteriors.
The Waterbury Municipal Center Complex, also known as the Cass Gilbert National Register District, is a group of five buildings, including City Hall, on Field and Grand streets in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States. They are large stone and brick structures, all designed by Cass Gilbert in the Georgian Revival and Second Renaissance Revival architectural styles, built during the 1910s. In 1978 they were designated as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are now contributing properties to the Downtown Waterbury Historic District.
The Edward Harden Mansion, also known as Broad Oaks, is a historic home located on North Broadway in Sleepy Hollow, New York, United States, on the boundary between it and neighboring Tarrytown. It is a brick building in the Georgian Revival style designed by Hunt & Hunt in the early 20th century, one of the few mansions left of many that lined Broadway in the era it was built. Also on the property is a wood frame carriage house that predates it slightly. Both buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
The Rensselaer Carnegie Library in Rensselaer, Indiana is a building from 1905. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The building no longer functions as a library; since 1992 it houses the Prairie Arts Council, a local performing arts organization.
Our Lady of Assumption Convent is a heritage-listed former Roman Catholic convent at 8 Locke Street, Warwick, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Simkin & Ibler and built from 1891 to 1914. It is also known as Assumption College, Cloisters, and Sophia College. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
319 Broadway, also known as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Home Office, is a five-story office building on the corner of Broadway and Thomas Street in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is a cast-iron building in the Italianate architecture style, built in 1869–70 and designed by D. & J. Jardine. It is the lone survivor of a pair of buildings at 317 and 319 which were known as the "Thomas Twins". The cast iron for these mirror-twin buildings was provided by Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works. The building was designated a New York City landmark on August 29, 1989.