Skyscraper

by Dan Cruickshank

Chicago's beautiful Reliance Building, sixteen storeys tall, was designed in 1890 by John Root and completed in 1895 by Charles B. Atwood. In its construction – metal frame, large areas of plate glass, fire-proof brick and terracotta cladding – it pioneers all the key elements of twentieth-century high-rise architecture, and many of the tenets of Modernism.

Cruickshank reflects on the extraordinary architectural, artistic and engineering world of the 1890s and its great figures such as Daniel H. Burnham, Louis Sullivan and William Le Baron Jenney. He looks forward to the Reliance building’s immediate progeny, such as the 1902 Flatiron Building in New York and to the hubristic high-rise architecture of the twenty-first century.

This is also the story of Gilded Age Chicago, which was burned to the ground in 1871. The city – corrupt, violent and fabulously wealthy – was ready to try anything, even revolutionary forms of architecture.

Genres: Architecture

304 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2018

About the author

Dan Cruickshank (1949 - ) is a British art historian and BBC television presenter, with a special interest in the history of architecture.

He holds a BA in Art, Design and Architecture and was formerly a Visiting Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Sheffield and a member of the London faculty of the University of Delaware. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a member of the Executive Committee of the Georgian Group and on the Architectural Panel of the National Trust.

Reviews

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a biography of a building - the Reliance Building at 1 West Washington Street in Chicago. The building was completed in 1895 and is the first fully articulated example of what came to be the 20th century steel frame glass fronted skyscraper that continues to dominate the skylines of all major cities in the world today. There are, of course, lots of candidates for the title of “first skyscraper” but Dan Cruickshank’s case for the Reliance Building is rich and persuasive. (The term itself has a long history that predates architecture and goes back to masts on ships, among other sources.). What is more amazing to me is that I pass by the building frequently in downtown Chicago and never recognized its importance - who knew?

Like most good biographies, this is a complex story and the author builds his case. First there is the Chicago Fire and the building boom that followed. If you want to pick a trivia fight with someone, ask about why Chicago is called the “Second City”. Is it due to historic population rankings compared with New York or because the first city burned down in the great fire of 1871? This story has been told before but the author does a good job of explaining why the new buildings in Chicago tended to be tall. Then there is the Colombian Exposition of 1893. This story is also well known, perhaps most recently in Erik Larson’s “The Devil in the White City”. Mr. Cruickshank is effective in conveying the architectural issues fought out around the fair - the struggle between the classicism of the building at the fair - and lots of public buildings and museums afterwards - and the steel and glass modernist buildings that were also gestating in Chicago at the time and later rose to positions of dominance in the field. The author is especially good at explaining how many of the essential Chicago School architects were also primary contributors to the architecture of the World’s Fair. Finally, you get the Reliance Building itself, along with its subsequent influence on later skyscrapers in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere. A strength of the book is Cruickshank’s discussion of how the tensions that he chronicles around the different architectural approaches evolving in Chicago in the 1890s continued in various forms in the 20th century until they returned to New York and Chicago under the influence of Mies Van Der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and others in mid-century. So what gets presented her is at the same time a story of particular people in particular situations as well as a global clash of big ideas followed by all in the profession.

I am no architect but I found the book accessible and intriguing - although I got lost in some of the floor plans. The book is interesting on its own terms and provides good insights into how buildings and architecture relate to a larger business community. While the book is not a page turner, it is not overly technical and is fun to read, with lots of good illustrations and photos.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully rendered, the Head of Zeus publication of this book highlights Cruickshank’s fast-paced recounting of the preamble, realization and impact of the Reliance Building in Chicago. He touches on both the personalities and architectural influences that motivated these buildings. I especially enjoyed his description of the Columbian Exposition “White City,” as he thoughtfully writes not only of the architectural debates that led to the fair’s buildings, but also the roles of women and African Americans in the fair.

He also does a nice job in tying the Reliance Building to subsequent work by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Gropius and Le Corbusier.