The building was one of the early steel frame skyscrapers of its day, and is considered one of the best examples of the Chicago School of architecture.[3] The building originally had a reddish, terra cotta exterior that, prior to restoration, was somewhat blackened due to decades of Loop soot. It is noted both for its then cutting edge frame and its ornate interior.
Since construction, the building has received numerous awards and honors. It was designated a Chicago Landmark on June 9, 1975, and is considered an architectural masterpiece.[4] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 17, 1973, and named a National Historic Landmark on January 7, 1976.[5] The building's preservation has been a major focus of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation completed an extensive four-year restoration in 2006.
History
The building was named after Father Jacques Marquette, the first European settler in Chicago, who explored the Chicago region in 1674 and wintered in the area for the 1674-5 winter season. It was designed by William Holabird and Martin Roche, with Coydon T. Purdy, architects of the firm Holabird & Roche.[6]
In the 1930s, the building was the downtown headquarters for over 30 railroad companies.[7] Around 1950, the terra-cotta cornice was removed from the Marquette Building when an additional story was added.[8] The building has been in continuous use as an office building since its construction.[3]
In 1977, Banker's Life and Casualty Company, owned by John D. MacArthur, acquired the Marquette Building. After his death in 1978, the building became the headquarters for the MacArthur Foundation, which bears his name.[9]
The lobby of the Marquette Building connects with the D.H. Burnham & Company–designed Edison Building to the west, providing a pedway from Dearborn to Clark.[7] After the September 11, 2001 attacks, many downtown buildings closed to the public, which eliminated warm, dry, indoor walking routes providing shortcuts through full city blocks, but the Marquette Building did not.[10]
Architecture
View from Dearborn North of Adams
The building features several distinct elements that have earned it honors as a Chicago Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, and a National Register Historic Place. It is considered an exemplary model of the Chicago School of Architecture.[3] The architects, Holabird & Roche, used trademark long horizontal bay "Chicago windows" on the Marquette Building.[11][12] These are large panes of glass flanked by narrow sash windows. The grid-like window frames and spandrels are facilitated by the steel structure which enables non-load-bearing masonry walls. The Marquette is 16 stories tall. This was one of the first steel framedskyscrapers.[3] Wave-like moldings decorate the façade, which is made of horizontally banded brown terra cotta.[7] The building is constructed around a central light court and features an ornate, two-story lobby.[8]
Mosaic work
Decorated lobby
Decorated lobby
The ensemble of mosaics, sculptures, and bronze of the Marquette Building entry and interior honors Jacques Marquette's 1674-5 expedition.[13] Four bas relief panels over the main entrance by sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil show different scenes from Marquette's trip through the Great Lakes region,[14] ending with one depicting his burial.[15] The revolving door panels feature carvings of panther's heads.[7] The hexagonal railing around the lobby atrium is decorated with a mosaic frieze by the Tiffany studio depicting events in the life of Jacques Marquette, his exploration of Illinois, and Native Americans he met.[4][7] The mosaics are by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his chief designer and art director, Jacob Adolph Holzer;[16] they contain panels of lustered Tiffany glass, mother-of-pearl, and semi-precious stones.[4]
Restoration
The preservation of this building was championed by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois.[17] In 2001, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, its current owners, began a multi-year renovation.[18] The restoration to the exterior proceeded in two phases: reconstructing the cornice and replacing the 17th story windows to match the original windows; and cleaning and restoring the masonry and restoring the remainder of the windows.[8][19] Restoration architect Thomas "Gunny" Harboe directed this work.
On September 12, 2006, The Commission on Chicago Landmarks honored 21 landmark buildings, homeowners, and businesses with the Chicago Landmark Award for Preservation Excellence at the eighth-annual Landmarks ceremony. The award recognizes work involving notable improvements to individual Chicago landmarks or to buildings within Chicago Landmark Districts.[8][20]
On October 16, 2007, the Foundation opened a new interactive audio visual exhibit on the first floor, detailing the history of the building and its contribution to Chicago architecture. The free exhibit, which is open to the public, will run indefinitely.[21][22]
1 2 3 "Marquette Building". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. Archived from the original on February 3, 2007. Retrieved February 5, 2007.
↑ Pitts, Carolyn (July 28, 1975). "Marquette Building"(pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Inventory Nomination Form. National Park Service. Retrieved May 22, 2012.
↑ "Marquette Building"(pdf). Photographs. National Park Service. Retrieved May 22, 2012.
↑ Schlereth, Thomas J. (2004). "The City as Artifact: The Above-Ground Archaeology of an Urban History". In Grossman, James R.; Keating, Ann Durkin; Reiff, Janice L. (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Chicago. The University of Chicago Press. p.A7. ISBN0-226-31015-9.
↑ "Announcements". John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. September 12, 2006. Archived from the original on March 18, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2007.
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.
William Holabird was an American architect.
Martin Roche (1853–1927) was an American architect.
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The Wainwright Building is a 10-story, 41 m (135 ft) terra cotta office building at 709 Chestnut Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The Wainwright Building is considered to be one of the first aesthetically fully expressed early skyscrapers. It was designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and built between 1890 and 1891. It was named for local brewer, building contractor, and financier Ellis Wainwright.
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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 architectural firm now known as Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm has changed its name several times and adapted to the architectural style then current — from Chicago School to Art Deco to Modern Architecture to Sustainable Architecture.
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.
The Blackstone Hotel is a historic 290-foot (88 m) 21-story hotel on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Drive in the Michigan Boulevard Historic District in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1908 and 1910, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Blackstone is famous for hosting celebrity guests, including numerous U.S. presidents, for which it was known as the "Hotel of Presidents" for much of the 20th century, and for contributing the term "smoke-filled room" to political parlance.
The Printing House Row District is a National Historic Landmark District encompassing four architecturally important buildings on South Dearborn Street, between Jackson Boulevard and Ida B. Wells Drive, in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as South Dearborn Street – Printing House Row Historic District and listed as a National Historic Landmark as South Dearborn Street – Printing House Row North Historic District on January 7, 1976. The district includes the Monadnock Building, the Manhattan Building, the Fisher Building, and the Old Colony Building.
The Arthur H. Compton House is a historic house at 5637 South Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1905 and designed by architects Holabird & Roche, it was the residence of physicist Arthur Compton (1892–1962) from 1928 until 1945. Compton discovered the Compton Effect in 1923, proving that light has both a particle and a wave aspect. Compton received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for this discovery. His house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
333 North Michigan is a skyscraper in the art deco style located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. Architecturally, it is noted for its dramatic upper-level setbacks that were inspired by the 1923 skyscraper zoning laws. Geographically, it is known as one of the four 1920s flanks of the Michigan Avenue Bridge that are contributing properties to the Michigan–Wacker Historic District, which is a U.S. Registered Historic District.
The Chicago Building or Chicago Savings Bank Building is an early skyscraper, built in 1904–1905. It is located at 7 W. Madison Street in Chicago. Designed by the architecture firm Holabird & Roche, it is an early and highly visible example of the Chicago school of architecture.
Robert Bruegmann is an historian of architecture, landscape and the built environment. He is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a specialist on the Chicago school of architecture. Bruegmann is best known for his research on the architectural firm of Holabird & Root, and is also a commentator on urban sprawl.
11 South LaSalle Street Building or Eleven South LaSalle Street Building is a Chicago Landmark building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and that is located at 11 South LaSalle Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. This address is located on the southeast corner of LaSalle and Madison Street in Cook County, Illinois, across the Madison Street from the One North LaSalle Building. The building sits on a site of a former Roanoke building that once served as a National Weather Service Weather Forecast official climate site and replaced Major Block 1 after the Great Chicago Fire. The current building has incorporated the frontage of other buildings east of the original site of Major Block 1.
Jacob Adolphus Holzer (1858–1938) was a Swiss-born designer, muralist, mosaicist, interior designer, and sculptor who was associated with both John La Farge and Augustus Saint-Gaudens before he left to direct the mosaic workshops of Louis Comfort Tiffany, where he was preceded by his friend from La Farge's studio, the German immigrant Joseph Lauber (1855—1948). Holzer worked with Tiffany until 1898.
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