When It Rains, It Pours
[Morton Salt Building (1958) Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, architects /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
When the architects at the office of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White chose stainless steel panels to cover the curtain wall of the Morton Salt Company's new headquarters building in 1956, the material had been around for decades and wasn't exactly a new application for a building facade. They chose the fabricated metal because of its strength and durability, and as a design feature the crisp, shiny surfaces of the undulating panels and window trim were a nice compliment to the sleek lines of a modern mid-20th century building.
[Morton Thiokol Building, 110 N. Wacker, Chicago /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
The connection between salt and the name Morton began when Joy Morton used his savings to buy into a Chicago-based salt company in 1880. He eventually turned the small business into the Morton empire, whose young girl protected from the rain by a large umbrella while inadvertently pouring salt from a Morton container became the defining icon of table salt. By 1904 he was using his hard earned cash for investment opportunities and joined in with a consortium of investors to construct a building on Michigan Avenue designed by architect Daniel Burnham. The Railway Exchange would house the offices of six major railroad lines, Burnham's architectural practice, and in 1905 the offices of the Morton Salt Company. Burnham's lead designer at the time Ernest Graham, who carried on the Burnham tradition after the great man's death by founding the firm of Graham Anderson Probst & White, went on to design the Morton Building in 1926 when the salt king gave up his Michigan Avenue address for one on Washington Street.
[General Growth Properties Building, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Fifty years after the Morton and Graham names were first linked, the salt concern's new headquarter's building on Wacker Drive was ready for occupancy in the summer of 1958. Once inside workers were welcomed by a large mural created by Mexican artist Alfonso Pardinas, a white glass tile abstraction of piles of salt, while from the exterior, passersby would see a color coordinated series of fiberglass draperies in beige, orange, green and yellow hanging in the window openings. Morton was on the move again in 1987, and after relocating into another new building mall giant General Growth Properties eventually moved in. It is their name that covers the original M-O-R-T-O-N inscribed in the limestone facade, although last year it looked like the real estate investment trust's post-modern signage was ready for the rubbish heap. Apparently they're doing better now as they emerge from the largest bankruptcy filing by a real estate company in U.S. history and the sign is there, for now. The Morton name remains attached to a large piece of property in the Chicago surburb of Lisle where Joy Morton's former estate became the Morton Arboretum, honoring his father J. Sterling Morton who created Arbor Day, a nationally recognized holiday. And of course there is still the young girl holding an umbrella in the rain while salt spills from a container on Morton packaging around the world, because, When it rains, it pours.
See more on Morton & Burnham's building at: Railway Exchange.
Posted by designslinger at 12/6/2010 3:59 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Art, Decorative Arts
Tags: Daniel Burnham DH Burnham Co Graham Anderson Probst and White commercial architecture Wacker Drive
Categories: Architecture, History, Art, Decorative Arts
Tags: Daniel Burnham DH Burnham Co Graham Anderson Probst and White commercial architecture Wacker Drive
I had a relative who worked for Morton Salt at the time this building was built. If I remember correctly, the land it is built on belongs to the city and was leased for a term of 99 years for $1.00. I assume this was done as a way to encourage development at a time when virtually nothing (the Prudential Bldg. excepted) had been built downtown since the depression.
We love it when a posting finds someone who writes us with a personal connection to a building. As for the city and a 99 year lease, when Morton made plans to move to Wacker the property was occupied by a surface parking lot and, according to press reports at the time, the owner of the lot secured a 99 year lease with the salt company. The double decking of south Wacker was nearing completion and the city was looking for new construction to replace the old manufacturing buildings lining their new street scape. So they may have been involved in some way. And, thanks for the comment and the visit!