Dale Johnson
Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 @ 5:57am
Rating: Five stars. This is one of my three favorite buildings in the Loop. Anyone who is downtown has to go inside and view the spectacular mosaics surrounding the lobby as well as the bronze cast animal heads. It is a show in itself. Along with the Monadnock Building, which is actually two buildings. Half of the building is the last load bearing skyscraper in the Loop, with six foot thick walls to take the load. The other half of the building is built using the then new technique of steel framing that went on to become the standard method of building skyscrapers worldwide. The third of my favorites is the Rookery Building at 209 S. LaSalle. I worked in this building for five years and it was always a joy to come to work. You have to see it to believe its delights. Burnham and Root had their offices in this building when they designed the World Columbian Exposition (White City) in 1892, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus discovering the New World.I used these three buildings as a basis for a college thesis on the development of architecture along with all of the newer building at that time like the Hancock, Sears Tower, First National Bank building, Federal Detent Facility etc. I took all of my own photos and my thesis turned into a lecture on skyscraper architecture which received a standing ovation from my fellow classmates.There is so much architectural history to be found in downtown Chicago that you could spend months visiting buildings. I know I spent most of my lunch hours for six months on this project because I loved the subject so much.
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Dale Johnson
Five stars.