Modern Arch Tour

Start at SE corner of Wabash and Wacker, in front of the Seventeenth Church of Christ - see VIEW notes before walking to the building :-)

Church of Christ Scientist

@michaelsilverman

Starting point

Add to

Details

VIEW Marina City from the SE corner of Wabash and Wacker

Marina City 1962-67

@michaelsilverman

- Bertrand Goldberg - Revolutionary mixed-use development to save the center city - Innovative technology - reinforced concrete with reusable slip forms - Towers symbolic of trees - Elements of Mid-20th c modern aesthetic even though concrete and round

Add to

Details

VIEW IBM from the SE corner of Wabash and Wacker

IBM Building / AMA Plaza

@michaelsilverman

- Last Building by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - Originally a building for IBM, now a multi-tenant building - Concepts of Mid-20th c Modern aesthetic - "less is more" - True curtain wall. Proportion based on Greek architecture.

Add to

Details

VIEW Trump Tower from the SE corner of Wabash and Wacker

Trump Tower 2009

@michaelsilverman

- Skidmore Owings & Merrill (Adrian Smith & Bill Baker) - Same architect and engineer as Birj Khalifa, the world's tallest building - Symbolism in the placement of gray bands and color of the exterior - Core and outrigger structure with reinforced concrete

Add to

Details

VIEW from SE corner of Washington and Dearborn

Daley Center 1965

@michaelsilverman

- C.F. Murphy (Jacques Brownson) & SOM and Loebl, Schlossman & Bennett - Long spans with only 16 piers - 84 feet between - Cor-Ten steel exterior over structural steel - Public art - Picasso sculpture

Add to

Details

VIEW from Exelon Plaza south of tower on Dearborn

Chase Tower 1969

@michaelsilverman

- Perkins & Will and C.F. Murphy - Parabolic shape to solve wind and economic issues - Before branch banking. All employees in one office - Completely unobstructed floors - Public art - Chagall mosaic

Add to

Details

VIEW from SW corner of Monroe & Dearborn

Inland Steel Building 1958

@michaelsilverman

- SOM (Bruce Graham and Fazlar Kahn) - Simple structure with 7 exterior piers on the east and west sides and 60-foot wide completely unobstructed floors with elevators and services in the tower to the east - First use of stainless steel exterior, colored, UV glass; underground parking; completely A/C - Public art - Lippold's "Radiant One" sculpture and Gehry's desk

Add to

Details

VIEW from a distance from NE corner of Federal Plaza

190 S La Salle 1989

@michaelsilverman

- Philip Johnson & John Burgee - Post-Modern Style - Roof modeled after Burnham's Masonic Temple Building

Add to

Details

VIEW from the Federal Plaza

Federal Center 1964 & 1974

@michaelsilverman

- Mies van der Rohe with Schmidt, Garden & Erikson, C.F. Murphy & A. Epstein & Sons - Ensemble of building precisely crafted to fit together - point out details - Role of plazas in Mid-20th c design - Elements of mid-20th c aesthetic - Public art - Calder's Flamingo

Add to

Details

VIEW from Federal Plaza, west of the Calder sculpture

Willis Tower 1974

@michaelsilverman

- SOM (Bruce Graham and Fazlar Khan) - Mayor Daley's assistance in land assembly - Bundled tube steel structures solved wind and economic issues - Elements of mid-20th c aesthetic

Add to

Details

VIEW from east side of State Street, south of Jackson Boulevard

Harold Washington Library 1991

@michaelsilverman

- Beeby & Babka architecture - Result of competition - Post-Modern Style - Uses symbolism from Chicago's historic buildings to relate to the city Project completed on time and on budget

Add to

Details

VIEW from Monroe, east of Michigan Avenue

Aon Center 1973

@michaelsilverman

- Edward Durrell Stone with Perkins & Will - Standard Oil of Indiana - Steel cage exterior around a central steel core - Originally Carrera marble exterior cladding, but had to be replaced with granite

Add to

Details

VIEW from Monroe, east of Michigan Avenue

Aqua Tower 2009

@michaelsilverman

- Studio Gang & Loewenberg Associates - Loewenberg designed most of the building; Gang did exterior - Exterior symbolic of striated rocks along the shoreline of Lake Michigan - Best skyscraper of 2009

Add to

Details

VIEW from Monroe, east of Michigan Avenue

Millennium Park 2004

@michaelsilverman

- SOM with different designers for each feature - Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Pavilion - Anish Kapoor for Cloudgate (a/k/a "The Bean") - Jaume Plensa for Crown Fountain - Largest green roof in Chicago Continues Chicago tradition of public/private partnership to better the city

Add to

Details

Finish!