Pop-Up Art in the Loop
[Pop-Up Art Loop, 28 S. Wabash Avenue window (2010) Heads, blown glass, Pearl Dick artist /Image: designslinger]
Have you heard of Pop-Up Art? It's an installation happening in cities around the world in
response to all the vacant retail space created by the big economic disaster we're in right now. There is a version in Chicago brought to you by the Chicago Loop Alliance which organizes the presentation of artist's works in a variety of locations throughout downtown Chicago. This gallery of artwork recently popped-up in a series of vacant storefronts along Wabash Avenue.
[J.P Atwater Building (1877) John M. Van Osdel, architect; Haskell Building (1875) Wheelock & Thomas, architects;
Images & Artwork: designslinger]
This group of buildings are some of the last remaining commercial structures still standing
in downtown Chicago built soon after the Great Fire in 1871. What makes these 3 structures such treasures are that they give those of us interested in such things, an example of the type of building that filled the business district immediately following the Fire. The J.P. Atwater Building was designed in 1877 by John M. Van Osdel, Chicago's first registered architect. The adjacent Haskell Building was built in 1875 for Frederick T. Haskell and designed by one of the city's busiest architectural firms of the era, Wheelock & Thomas. Atwater was an attorney from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. who saw a very good investment opportunity in the exploding growth of a city in the process of rebuilding itself. Haskell, like many fellow Chicagoans at the time, was an entrepreneur who new a good thing when he saw it.
[Barker Building (1875) Wheelock & Thomas, architects, Lower facade (1899) Louis H. Sullivan, architect /Image
& Artwork: designslinger]
John H. Barker joined in on the action and constructed a building next door to Haskells,
commissioning the same architects Wheelock & Thomas to design the Barker Building for him.
In 1896 the nearby Schelsinger & Mayer Department Store was looking to expand, so they
took over the leases of the Barker, Haskell and Atwater buildings with a plan to join to with their existing property around the corner. The company announced big plans for their new leasehold, a marble structure which would be built at four stories with an additional six stories to follow. Needless to say that never happened. Instead the company had architect Louis Sullivan design a two story storefront facade to fluff-up the old Barker Building and visually tie it into the first phase of a large, new department store building he was constructing for the company on Madsion near State familiarly known today as the Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. store.
[Interiority/Exteriority, Kyunghwa Shon artist, Liene Bosquê artist, 18 S. Wabash Avenue windows /Images:
designslinger]
The building fronts you see today containing the Pop-Up exhibits were recently restored
under the supervision of Harboe Architects with some surprising discoveries. Needless to say the buildings had gone through a number of "updates" over the years. The cast-iron Sullivan ornamentation was covered in layers of paint and completely covered over in the case of the Haskell Building which was where the surprise laid buried. No one knew that there was a Sullivan decorated panel on the Haskell until the rehab was underway and on a hunch, a section of a 1930s redo was removed and a rusty bit of Sullivan ornament popped-up and saw the light of day after being buried for decades. Artists Kyunghwa Shon and Liene Bosquê pay tribute to Mr. Sullivan's artistry in Interiority/Exteriority.
See our post about the Carson's store at: Relics of Retail.
Posted by designslinger at 7/12/2010 2:00 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Art, Preservation
Tags: storefront art Wheelock and Thomas Louis Sullivan Barker Haskell Atwater Buildings John M. Van Osdel
Categories: Architecture, History, Art, Preservation
Tags: storefront art Wheelock and Thomas Louis Sullivan Barker Haskell Atwater Buildings John M. Van Osdel
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