Arcaded Away
[Auditorium Building (1889) Adler & Sullivan, architects /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Yesterday we posted about how often the architectural masterpiece known as the
Auditorium Building came close to being demolished. But even after surviving threat after threat, in 1952 the building underwent an alteration that significantly changed it forever when an "arcade" was cut-through the southern bay of the ground floor space of the 1889 building in 1952.
[Auditorium Arcade, Auditorium Building, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
The pedestrian "arcade" was carved out of the Auditorium because of street widening
plan first proposed by the city in 1941. Congress Street ran along the south side of the building and had been an integral part of the Burnham/Bennet Plan of 1909 for a grand boulevard at the center of the city that would lead to an even grander Civic Center. None of that happened quite as planned, but the idea of a central artery along Congress finally took hold and by the early 50s, the street grew from 38 feet wide to 62 feet, which brought the super-highway right to the edge of the building's southern facade. This meant that there was no longer a pedestrian sidewalk between the building and Congress' curb since the new curb line ran right up to the granite walls. So the city created an "arcade" that cut through the first floor and provided pedestrian access without having to demolish the rest of the structure.
[Auditorium Building, southern ground level facade and Auditorium Theatre entry /Images & Artwork:
designslinger]
I keep putting the word arcade in quotes because to me this alleyway isn't exactly what
I would call an arcade. But that's what the city called these corridors when they used easement and right-of-ways to cut openings into five buildings between Michigan and State Street to create new pedestrian sidewalks through these structures.
At least the buildings were saved, but the Auditorium lost one its more famous interior
spaces which ran along Congress for 65 feet starting at Michigan Avenue. The long, narrow Oak Bar & Room, filled with Louis Sullivan's exuberant foliage in wood and plaster was removed for the sidewalk and was hauled away along with a portion of the Auditorium Theatre's ticket lobby. You can see the line of the theater's old, cast iron entry canopy in the rust stains and mortar-plugged holes that still remain imbedded in the grey, granite stone blocks.
See the results of another street widening project at: Missing: Original House Front, and
more on the saga of the Auditorium, Supreme Reprieve.
Posted by designslinger at 10/19/2010 1:50 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Urban Planning, History
Tags: Auditroium Building street widening adaptive reuse theaters Adler and Sullivan hotels
Categories: Architecture, Urban Planning, History
Tags: Auditroium Building street widening adaptive reuse theaters Adler and Sullivan hotels
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