The Raging Firestorm
Artwork: designslinger]
We have watched the LA Basin fill with smoke this weekend from our apartment perch up
in the Hollywood Hills. The fires are raging several miles away, and although we can't see any of the flames, the smoke has crept into our area and the air smells awful. Hundreds of homes are now piles of ash and their occupants are faced with choices none of us ever want to confront. After losing so much, do you come back and rebuild, or decide that this is one experience you never want to live through again.
via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Watching the smoke slowly creep up towards us, I thought about the people who watched
the smoke fill the sky from hundreds of mile away as the city of Chicago burned to the ground in 1871. Hundreds of thousands were left homeless after that cataclysmic firestorm, and the commercial district was completely destroyed. Once the dust settled (literally) the business community, along with governmental institutions, as well as the average citizen, decided to make a commitment to create a city that would rise majestically from the ashes. And, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. While Chicago suffers from many of the ills that large urban centers experience, it has the most dynamic and significant architectural heritage of any city in the country.
down Market Street toward the Call Building, 1906, sfpl.org; View down Market Street toward Call Building with redone
1930s exterior, 2007, inetours.com /Artwork: designslinger]
The people of San Francisco didn't suffer enough surviving the devastating effects of the
great earthquake of 1906, but then had to deal with the raging fire that followed. Huge swaths of the city lay in ruins after the quake, but many structures that remained standing were swept away by the fire. The Call Building was a Market Street landmark in 1906. Built in 1898, it was the tallest building west of Chicago and home to the Morning Call newspaper. It survived the earthquake, even though it moved 2 feet, but then suffered more damage when it caught on fire. Claus Spreckels owned the building, as well as the paper, and decided to repair the building rather than tear it down. Although it made it through 2 natural disasters, it couldn't survive the economics of the marketplace. The building was purchased by Albert Roller in the late 1930s and he had the dome removed, floors added, the remaining architectural detail stripped, and gave the building an updated "modern" look. It survives today as the tall, Art Deco-ish building you can see in the right hand photo in the above panel.
burning during the Great Fire, luminarium.org; Contemporary view of St. Paul's Cathedral, fenners via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
The city of London almost disappeared from the English countryside when it went up in
flames in 1666. The building stock consisted primarily of wood and plaster, with some brick and stone structures interspersed among the tightly packed city. When the fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane, it spread quickly and eventually engulfed the most prominent, architecturally significant building within the confines of the City: St. Paul's Cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren was given the task of designing and constructing a new house of worship on the same site. The stunning cathedral building, opened to the public on December 2, 1697, has been undergoing an extensive restoration and conservation program in celebration of it's 300th anniversary.
The city of Los Angeles has not witnessed the same kind of fires that almost completely
destroyed these other cities. But for the people who have lost so much over this past weekend, they will have to make the kinds of decisions that Chicagoans, San Franciscans and Londoners have made before them.
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