Chicago Architecture 1872-1922: Birth of a Metropolis

by Musée d'Orsay, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago has long been considered the capital of American architecture. This city and its suburbs are world-famous for their Chicago School commercial buildings and Prairie School residences. From the re-building after the Great Fire of 1871 through the 1922 international competition for the Chicago Tribune tower, architects flocked to the city not only from across America, but also from Europe, to aid in the development of these schools. Figures such as Louis H. Sullivan, Holabird and Roche, William Le Baron Jenney, Burnham and Root, and Frank Lloyd Wright became household names in the history of Chicago's contributions to American architecture. But less familiar names - among them, German emigres Augustus Bauer, Otto Matz, and Peter Weber - also played a significant part in these developments. Interchanges between Chicago and, particularly, northern Europe ranged from the presence of several German architects in the city during the nineteenth century through the many Chicagoans who studied in Europe at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and returned home to make their city a "Paris on the Prairie." Chicago Architecture, 1872-1922: Birth of a Metropolis accompanies a major traveling exhibition of the same name. Including twenty essays by leading specialists, it surveys those international interactions which helped Chicago to become the mid-western metropolis that it is today. This lavishly illustrated volume, which also contains an extensive catalogue section and an annotated bibliography, provides a contribution of lasting value to the scholarship on this important topic.

Genres: Art

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of articles that covers a broad range of topics including working buildings, the various international influences on Chicago and the works of famous Chicago based architects like Wright and Sullivan. There are humbler, less famous buildings illustrated which gives a more balanced view of the historic windy city. Includes a fair amount of period colored prints and hand tinted photos and is well illustrated.

The bit on Chicago architects designing Australia's capitol was a strange factoid and I enjoyed many of the other articles. I admit to skipping the bits on Wright and Sullivan, I've read far more in depth books about them.