Saturday, January 30, 2010

Willoughby Towers





























As amusing as these ornamentations are, I have no clue as to what they stand for or what they represent..

Willougby Towers..
Designed by: Samuel N. Crowen & Associates..
Completed: 1929
Location: 8 S Michigan Avenue..
Willougby Towers is a part of Historic Michigan Boulevard District.. click here.. which was designated a Chicago Landmark: February 27, 2002..

Don't miss out the ghost sign:
Haberdashers
A. Sulka & Company
Shirtmakers
New York, London, Paris..







Thursday, January 28, 2010

River Cottages - by Harry Weese



River Cottage..
Construction finish: 1990
Architect: Harry Weese Associates
Location: 357-365 North Canal Street.




The architect Harry Weese is famous for incorporating triangular and circular patterns in his designs, which breaks away from the usual orthogonal grid patterns. The triangular patterns is visible everywhere in this building.


Weese used it's riverside location to incorporate nautical life in everyday life of residents, by providing for boat docking facilities..


Harry Weeses [1915-1998] was born in Evanston, Illinois.
Some of his well known works in Chicago includes:
  •  200 S Wacker Drive..
  •  Marriott Hotel, Magnificient Mile
  •  Swissoetel..
  •  Time Life building..
  •  Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist..
  •  The first loft conversion in Chicago at Fulton House..
  •  The Metropolitan Correctional Center..
  •  Sterling Morton Library at the Morton Arboretum..
Weese also led numerous restoration projects including..
  •  Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Building in Chicago..
  •  Field Museum of Natural History..
  •  Orchestra Hall..



Fulton House Condominiums..
Address: 345 N Canal, Chicago, IL 60606 ..
Fulton House was the first loft conversion in Chicago of an industrial warehouse to a residential apartment [in 1981] and it was done by the same architect Harry Weese.
Fulton House is just next to the River Cottages, although it's a much older building. It was originally built in the mid 1890's, by Frank Abbott as a 15-story tall building. In 1908 a 16th floor was added and it was converted to a cold-storage warehouse, named North American Cold Storage Warehouse. At that time the windows did not exist. In 1981 it was converted to condominiums by Harry Weese & Associates architects..

The Metropolitan Correctional Center..
Address: 71 W. Van Buren St.
Architect: Harry Weese Associates
Completed: 1975
This reflects the triangular design patter that Weese incorporated in many of his buildings.

Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist..
Address: 55 E Wacker Drive, at Wabash Avenue..
Architect: Harry Weese
Completed: 1968
An example of Weese use of circular pattern ..

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Lincoln Park.. Chicago Landmarks

Lincoln Park.. one of the North side community areas of Chicago... covers a vast stretch of area bounded by Diversey parkway in the north, N. Avenue in the south, Lake Michigan in the east and Chicago River in the west..
Designated Chicago Landmarks in the Lincoln Park area..



Abraham Lincoln Monument..
Sculptor: Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Architect: Stanford White..
Year Completed: 1887
Address: Lincoln Park at North Dearborn Parkway
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: December 12, 2001...
"One of the oldest and most important public sculptures in Chicago, this monument to America’s sixteenth president influenced a generation of sculptors due to its innovative combination of a natural-looking Lincoln — depicted deep in thought as he is about to begin a speech — with a Classical-style architectural setting."
# For more.. click here..



South Pond Refactory..
Also known as Cafe Brauer..
Architect: Dwight H. Perkins
Completed: 1908
Location: 2021 N. Stockton Dr.
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: February 5, 2003..
The building is an outstanding example of the Prairie style architecture.. The second-floor is famous for the "Great Hall", a fine example of Arts-and-Crafts design.
# For more.. click here...



Men's and ladies' comfort station..
Also known as Carson Cottage..
Architect: Joseph Lyman Silsbee ..
Completed: 1888
Renovated: 2007
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: February 5, 2003..
Built in 1888, this more than 100-year-old Victorian-era “comfort station” [public restroom facility] was closed to the public many years ago. After major restoration, the zoo has been using the building for its volunteer gardening program..
# For more.. click here..



Kovler Lion House..
Architects: Perkins, Fellows & Hamilton, architects
Completed: 1912 ..
Location: Lincoln Park Zoo ..
Date designated a Chicago Landmark: Novemeber 30, 2005..
"The building has excellent brickwork and terra-cotta ornament, unique lion mosaics, and a grand interior with a vaulted Guastavino-tile ceiling, an innovative construction technology of the time.."
# For more.. click here..



Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool..
Architect: Alfred Caldwell
Year Built: 1936-1938
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: November 6, 2002 ..
"Caldwell's design draws from an extensive plant palette native to the Midwest landscape and uses stone outcroppings, a pavilion, waterfall and other features arranged around a lily pool to create a "prairie stream," a body of water meant to replicate a creek running through a Midwestern prairie."..
# For more.. click here..


Elks National Memorial Headquarters Building..
Architect: Egerton Swarthout ..
Completed: 1926
Location: 2750 N. Lakeview Avenue
Date designated a Chicago Landmark: October 1, 2003..
"The Elks Memorial is one of the Chicago's most grand commemorative buildings and is an exceptional example of a monumental building in the Classical Beaux-Arts style"..
# For more.. click here..



Kaufmann Store and Flats..
Architect: Adler & Sullivan
Year Built: South half 1883, north half, 1887..
Address: 2312-14 N. Lincoln Ave.
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: April 16, 1996..
"This is one of the oldest surviving buildings designed by Adler & Sullivan, an architectural partnership that helped transform modern architecture"..



Biograph Theater..
Architect: Samuel N. Crowen
Year Built: 1914
Address: 2433-43 N. Lincoln Ave.
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: March 28, 2001..
"Perhaps best known for its historical connection to the infamous gangster John Dillinger, the Biograph Theater is also one of Chicago's oldest remaining neighborhood movie house.."
# For more..click here..



Armitage-Halsted District..
Architects: Various
Year Built: circa 1870 to 1930..
Addresses: Armitage Avenue between Halsted Street and Racine Avenue ... and ... Halsted Street between Armitage Avenue and Webster Street ...
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: February 5, 2003 ..
"These two streets in the Lincoln Park community area form one of the finest nineteenth-century neighborhood commercial streetscapes remaining in Chicago. The district contains an excellent cross-section of residential and commercial building types significant in the development of such streets.."
# For more.. click here..



Arlington and Roslyn Place District..
Architect: Various
Year Built: 1894-1910.
Address: 400-blocks of Arlington and Roslyn, between Clark and Lakeview
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: November 15, 1989..
"These two blocks, which feature uniform heights and building setbacks, exemplify the type of low-scale, high-density residential development that occurred near the city's fashionable lakefront in the late-19th century.."
# For more.. click here..



Theurer-Wrigley House...
Architect: Richard E. Schmidt
Year Built: 1896
Address: 2466 N. Lakeview Ave.
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: August 10, 1979 ..
"This is an early design by Richard E. Schmidt and, possibly, Hugh M.G. Garden, two architects who were part of the influential Prairie School movement of the early-20th century, but whose first projects were in a more traditional mode. This design is based on the architecture of the late-Italian Renaissance, with Baroque-style terra-cotta details.."
# For more.. click here..



McCormick Row House District..
Architect: Colton and Sons..
Year Built: 1884-89 ..
Address: 800-block of W. Chalmers; 832-58 W. Belden; 833-927 W. Fullerton
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: May 4, 1977..
"These row houses were built to provide rental income for the McCormick Theological Seminary, which was located in this vicinity from 1863 to 1975. Designed in a simplified Queen Anne style, with a private street and park in the center of the development, these houses are a fine example of late-19th century residential architecture and planning."
# For more.. click here..



Burling Row House District..
Architect: Edward J. Burling ..
Year Built: 1875
Address: 2225-2245 N. Burling Street ..
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: November 15, 2000..
"One of the city's best surviving row house grouping's from the period after the Chicago Fire of 1871, they were among the first buildings constructed after a city ordinance required "fireproof" masonry construction citywide"..
# For more.. click here..



Old Town Triangle District..
Year Built: 1871-1900
Architects: Various
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: September 28, 1977..
"This area was settled in the 1850s by German immigrants, whose community life centered around St. Michael's Church. The Fire of 1871, however, destroyed all of the houses and most of the church.. In the 1940s, a renewal of community concern brought about one of the nation's earliest neighborhood revitalization efforts, which helped preserve this area's narrow tree-lined streets and distinctive architectural character..."
# For more.. click here..



Mid-North District..
Address: Bounded by Fullerton, Armitage, Lincoln and Clark ...
Year Built: 1865-1900
Architect: Various
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: August 31, 1977 ...
"The streets feature a cross-section of architecural styles and building types from the late 19th-century, including pre-Fire of 1871 wood cottages, Italianate-style rowhouses and masonry residences designed in Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque styles"..
# For more.. click here..



Yondorf Block and Hall..
Address: 758 W. North Ave
Architect: Frederick Ahlschlager
Year Built: 1887
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: July 25, 2001..
"..an important example of a "public hall" building, an important building type in 19th-century Chicago that typically contained meeting rooms used by civic and fraternal organizations. The building is unusual in that it contains a rare surviving second-story theater that is virtually intact."

List of Chicago Landmarks in the Lincoln Park area..
# Abraham Lincoln Momument
# Alfred Caldwell Lilly Pool..
# Arlington and Roslyn Place District..
# Armitage-Halsted District..
# Biograph Theater..
# Burling Row House District..
# South Pond Refectory /Cafe Brauer..
# Carlson Cottage Comfort Station..
# Elks Memorial..
# Kaufmann store and flats..
# Kolver Lion House in Lincoln Park Zoo..
# McCormick Row House District..
# Mid-North District..
# Old Town Triangle District..
# Theurer-Wrigley House..
# Yondorf Block and Hall

Below are some landmarks I have yet to see...
# Arlington-Deming District
# August Dewes House
# Bissell Row House District
# Fremont Row House District
# Henry Gerber House
# Historic Chicago Firehouses
# Reebie Moving & Storage Building

REF:
# Chicago Landmarks.. click here..
[All the quotes are taken from this official website of the City of Chicago..]

Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park.. is one of the North side community areas of Chicago... It covers a vast stretch of area bounded by Diversey parkway in the north, N. Avenue in the south, Lake Michigan in the east and Chicago River in the west.. This area was primarily forest with stretches of grassland until the late 1820s when the Europeans arrived.
Today it has many places of interest.. raning from zoo, conservatory, museum, parks to churches and universities..
Here are a few..





Chicago History Museum..
Formerly known as the Chicago Historical Society..
It was renamed the Chicago History Museum in September, 2006..
Address: 1601 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60614..
Founded in 1856, much of the early collection by the museum was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The Chicago Historical Society built a fireproof building on the site of its pre-1871 building..
The current home of the Museum was constructed in 1932 .. The Museum houses some of Chicago's most important collection of materials related to local history .. For me, the biggest attraction was the first passenger car on the Chicago 'L' system [in 1893]..





Abraham Lincoln Monument..
Sculptor: Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Architect: Stanford White
Year Completed: 1887
Address: Lincoln Park at North Dearborn Parkway
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: December 12, 2001 ...
# For more.. click here..





Lincoln Park Zoo..
2001 North Clark Street · Chicago, IL 60614..
Founded in 1868, the Lincoln Park Zoo is the oldest free public zoo in the country..





Lincoln Park Conservatory..
Architect: Joespeh L. Silsbee
There are four display houses: the Palm House, Fern Room, Orchid House and Show House -
I've been to this place many a times, mostly to the Orchid House and Show House.. Awhole lot of photos taken in the Orchid House is posted in my blogby the same name..The Orchid House..





The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum..
Address: 2430 North Cannon Drive Chicago, IL 60614..
It's again one of the places I've been to many many times, mostly to the Butterfly Haven.. Almost all the photos in my blog, The Butterfly Haven.. click here.. has been taken at this Nature Museum..





Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool..
Architect: Alfred Caldwell
Year Built: 1936-1938
Location: At the north end of Lincoln Park Zoo at Fullerton Parkway..
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: November 6, 2002..
If you like a quiet, peaceful place, this is it!
# For more.. click here..





Elks National Memorial Headquarters Building..
Architect: Egerton Swarthout..
Completed: 1926
Architects: Ottenheimer, Stern & Reichert,Egerton Swartwout..
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: October 1, 2003..
The Elks Memorial is one of the Chicago's most grand commemorative buildings and is an exceptional example of a monumental building in the Classical Beaux-Arts style...
# For more.. click here..

# Chicago History Museum..
# Lincoln Memorial..
# Lincoln Park Zoo..
# Lincoln Park Conservatory..
# The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
# Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool
# Elk Memorial
# Moody Church
# St. Michael's Church
# St. Paul University