![]() The Dexter Building under demolition following the fire. | |
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General information | |
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Location | Chicago |
Opened | 1887 |
Demolished | 2006 |
Design and construction | |
Architect | Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan |
The Dexter Building was a landmark building located at 630 South Wabash Avenue, in the South Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. The building was designed by the firm of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, and built in 1887. [1] [2] Prior to its destruction in 2006 it was one of the earliest surviving Louis Sullivan buildings, and was considered a precursor of the nearby Auditorium Building. It was designated as a Chicago Landmark in 1996 and was described by the Landmarks Division of the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development as an "irreplaceable link in the chain of work of one of the nation's most important architectural partnerships". [1] [2] It was distinctive in its use of exterior perforated girders, prefiguring designs of seven decades later. [1]
The building was commissioned by Wirt Dexter, a Chicago attorney and real estate developer. Originally it was used as a factory and showroom for the R. Deimel & Brothers furniture manufacturing firm. From 1967 it was the home of the George Diamond Steak House, and the upper floors later housed the Sawyer Secretarial College.
On October 24, 2006, scrap dealers were cutting up a boiler in the basement for salvage with acetylene torches that sparked a large fire. The fire was allowed to get out of control and gutted the building. [3] At its peak, the fire, which started in the basement at around 3 pm, was a five-alarm fire, the Chicago Fire Department's highest level of alert, with over 250 firefighters responding. [2] Following the fire, the surviving shell of the building was too unstable to save and was demolished. At the time of the fire there was no insurance on the building. [3]
The Wirt Dexter Building can be seen in the near background of one scene in the 2001 movie Just Visiting.
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km2) of the city, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, and the wooden construction prevalent in the city led to the conflagration. The fire leapt the south branch of the Chicago River and destroyed much of central Chicago and then leapt the main branch of the river, consuming the Near North Side.
Louis Henry Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come to be known as the Prairie School. 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, although he credited the concept to ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. In 1944, Sullivan was the second architect to posthumously receive the AIA Gold Medal.
Dankmar Adler was a German-born American architect and civil engineer. He is best known for his fifteen-year partnership with Louis Sullivan, during which they designed influential skyscrapers that boldly addressed their steel skeleton through their exterior design: the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri (1891), the Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1894), and the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York (1896).
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The Gage Group Buildings consist of three buildings located at 18, 24 and 30 S. Michigan Avenue, between Madison Street and Monroe Street, in Chicago, Illinois. They were built from 1890–1899, designed by Holabird & Roche for the three millinery firms - Gage, Keith and Ascher. The building at 18 S. Michigan Avenue has an ornamental façade designed by Louis Sullivan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 14, 1985, and was designated a Chicago Landmark on September 11, 1996. In addition, it is a historic district contributing property for the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District.
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The Sullivan Center, formerly known as the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building or Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Store, is a commercial building at 1 South State Street at the corner of East Madison Street in Chicago, Illinois. Louis Sullivan designed it for the retail firm Schlesinger & Mayer in 1899 and later expanded it before H.G. Selfridge & Co. purchased the structure in 1904. That firm occupied the structure for only a matter of weeks before it sold the building to Otto Young, who then leased it to Carson Pirie Scott for $7,000 per month, which occupied the building for more than a century until 2006. Subsequent additions were completed by Daniel Burnham in 1906 and Holabird & Root in 1961.
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