1891 Monadnock Building
Monadnock Building
Address: 53 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago
Year Built: North half 1889-91; south half 1891-93
Architects: Burnham & Root; Holabird & Roche
The Monadnock Building, presently the site of the offices of Beem Patent Law Firm, was designed by Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root. Construction began in 1891 and was completed around the time of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Architect Louis Sullivan recalled in his Autobiography of an Idea 309 (Am. Inst. of Architects 1922, 1926) the "16-story solid masonry office building to be called the 'Monadnock'...a big jump from nine stories...an amazing cliff of brickwork, rising sheer and stark, with a subtlety of line and surface, a direct singleness of purpose, that gave one the thrill of romance."
Other architectural commissions of Burnham & Root included the Masonic Temple (demolished), Reliance, Rookery, St. Gabriel's Church, and the Union Stock Yard Gate. After Root’s death, D.H. Burnham and Co. continued to make its mark on Chicago and across the country with department stores such as Marshall Field's (Chicago), office buildings, and public parks, fieldhouses, railroad stations and city halls.
Burnham was best known for his influence as a city planner. He supervised the laying out and construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and, in 1909, Burnham and his assistant Edward H. Bennett (Michigan Avenue Bridge) prepared The Plan for Chicago, which is considered the nation's first example of a comprehensive planning document. Burnham also worked on other city plans, including ones for Cleveland, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Manila in the Philippines.
“Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood.” – Daniel Burnham.
The north half of the Monadnock building was built without the use of steel in the walls (although steel was used in horizontal supports), making it the tallest office structure ever built of masonry construction. The walls at the base of the north half are over six feet thick, as can be seen by examining the window wells or stepping back to view the building in perspective. After the death of Burnham’s partner Root, design and construction of the south half of the building was taken over by Holabird and Roche, who used a steel framework with a brick veneer, resulting in a more vertical exterior wall, not so thick, and permitting the use of larger windows.
In a Number 1 national bestseller, Devil in the White City, Erik Larsen describes Burnham's designs for the Monadnock Building and the contemporaneous introduction in the early 1890’s of electrical lighting, the elevated train (or “el”) and the 1893 Columbian Exposition (or world's fair). In a tribute to American inventiveness, Larsen tells the story of American engineer George Ferris's answer, in the form of the enormous new Ferris Wheel, to the Eiffel Tower. At the end of his acknowledgements, Larsen observes that "one thing today's Chicago exudes, as it did in 1893, is a sense of place," and he goes on to “confess a shameful secret: I love Chicago best in the cold."
Visitors to the Monadnock Building may find interesting the “Sam Spade” (referring to one of Humphrey Bogart’s most memorable movie roles) look of the offices, featuring specially made “cracked ice” glass, transom windows, 1890’s wattage light bulbs, functional large double-hung windows, working mail chutes, multiple staircases (two in the grand style and two concealed), and the use of cast aluminum (then a very expensive new technology) on the first floor.
