Building Boom
[Delaware Building (1874) Wheelock & Thomas, architects /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
By the time the Chicago Fire petered-out on October 10, 1871 the entire business
district of the city was a heap of charred stone and brick. The devastating, physical aftermath of the fire was on the scale of a Hurricane Katrina, if Katrina had also completely leveled the French Quarter, Downtown, and the Garden District, plus some. But as soon as rubble clearance began on October 11th, a building boom got underway unlike anything the country had ever seen before, and the only intact survivor of that time standing in that same business district, now known as the Loop, is the Delaware Building.
[Bryant/Delaware Building (1874/1888) Wheelock & Thomas/Julius H. Huber, architects Chicago /Images &
Artwork: designslinger]
Designed by the very busy architectural partners Wheelock & Thomas, the then named, 5-story tall, Bryant Building was constructed on the site of the destroyed Bryant Block at Randolph and Dearborn Streets, in a florid, Italianate, Second Empire style which was at the height of its popularity in the 1870s. In 1888, when the Real Estate Board moved in, the 1874 version of the Bryant went through a major interior overhaul and two stories were added. You can see the addition if you know where to look. It's very noticeable when you realize that the corner bay of the original building is at a flat angle, while in the addition architect Julius Huber rounded the corner of the two new floors. Some square footage was lost in the 1920s when the new Masonic Temple building housing the Oriental Theatre was constructed next door and two bays of Randolph Street frontage was removed.
[Delaware Building, 36 W. Randolph Street, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
The first Bryant building didn't survive the Great Fire, but as the Delaware the old building has survived 136 years of the complete and total architectural transformation of the neighborhood around it. Now a city and national landmark, hopefully it will stand at the corner of Randolph and Dearborn for at least another 100.
Posted by designslinger at 10/11/2010 2:02 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Preservation
Tags: commercial architecture Second Empire Wheelock and Thomas Chicago Loop Chicago Fire aftermath
Categories: Architecture, History, Preservation
Tags: commercial architecture Second Empire Wheelock and Thomas Chicago Loop Chicago Fire aftermath
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