Slice of Life: A Man and His Bird

Living on the North Side means becoming familiar with how to pronounce the name "Goethe."  Whether you're into German philosophy, or just trying to find your way around, this is going to come up eventually.

This statue in Lincoln Park has a plaque reading:

To

Goethe

The Mastermind of the

German People

The Germans of Chicago

1913

Slice of Life: Historic High Speed Rail

The current plans to bring high speed passenger rail service to the Midwest aren't bringing us anything news.  In fact, they're just restoring something we once had, but let fall apart.

This is a photograph taken in 1943 of the Midwest Hiawatha as it cruised past Bensenville near what we now call O'Hare Airport.  It was operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul, and Pacific Railroad.  It originated at Union Station in Chicago, where you can still see "Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul & Pacific" etched on a door on the South Canal Street side of the old building.  The train split in Iowa and terminated in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Omaha, Nebraska.

The last "Midwest Hiawatha" run was in 1955.  Over the years it was merged with other runs and other railroads.  Its ghost lives on in Amtrak's California Zephyr route from Chicago to San Francisco.

If you've never taken a train across the country, you really must.  I did it for the first time back in March.  I rode the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle.  It's quite a little adventure.  But be sure to go first class.  The people in coach looked like they were having a bad time.

The Lost Messages of Seahorses

Architects used to love to design buildings festooned with allegorical messages.  Because of an unusual coincidence of timing, technology, and the region's clay deposits, Chicago is one of the great terra cotta cities.

But what message is this building trying to convey through the ages?  The medallion on the left is a sailing ship braving rough seas.  In the center is a pair of canoodling seahorses.  And on the right, a mighty oak tree.

In the 1870's this was the James Stockton & Co. building -- some kind of retail establishment.  Today it's a McDonald's, and its secrets sleep with the Filet o' Fishes.

Tuesday Trivia: Heads of Commerce

Q: You probably already know that there are heads in front of the Merchandise Mart (222 West Merchandise Mart Plaza) representing the leaders of Chicago's industry from back when Chicago was an industrial leader.  But can you name them all?

A: Here is the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame in alphabetical order:

• Marshall Field
• Edward A. Filene
• Julius Rosenwald
• George Huntington Hartford
• Aaron Montgomery Ward
• John Wanamaker
• General Robert E. Wood
• Frank Winfield Woolworth

Tuesday Trivia: Before There Was Illinois

Q: Can you name all the entities that have claimed jurisdiction over what we now know as Chicagoland?


A: 

• Illinois Country (borders undefined)
• Upper Louisiana (part of New France)
• New York (until 1782)
• Connecticut (until 1786)
• Northwest Territory (until 1800)
• Indiana Territory (until 1809)
• Illinois Territory (until 1818)
• State of Illinois (present)

There may be others, but these are the ones we found.  History buffs, feel free to post corrections below.

On Track To The Past

Whether most people see them or not, railroads are still the lifeblood of Chicago's economy.  But there once was a time when train lines were far more intertwined with daily life in the city than they are now.

This old line runs along West Carroll Avenue -- a street in River North many people don't even know exists.  It carried newsprint to the old Chicago Sun-Times Building before trucks made the line redundant.  This was long before the Sun-Times building was torn down to make way for the Trump International Hotel and Tower (401 North Wabash Street).

Mayor Daley would like to use the tracks to run a trolley or light rail service from Union Station to Michigan Avenue.  But these days a lot of Hizzonor's dreams are going unfulfilled for reasons that are beyond the scope of this blog.

Interestingly, the reason the old Sun-Times Building was located along the Chicago River is the same reason the Chicago Tribune's current print house at the Freedom Center (777 West Chicago Avenue) is also located on the river -- so that newsprint could be brought in by barge.  I've never seen any old pictures of newsprint being unloaded at the Sun-Times site, and I've read that the Tribune has never used its barge unloading capability at the Freedom Center.

History Under Your Feet and Over Your Head

Walk down Clark Street in the Loop and if you're not careful, you might just walk right over this.

It's a medallion in the sidewalk  on the west side of the Walgreens (79 West Monroe Street) on the corner of Clark and Monroe.  But oddly, though it takes up most of the width of the sidewalk, it is oriented so that it faces into pretty much the blank side of the building.

That's because in years past, that wall of display windows was the entrance to the Bell Federal Savings Bank.

The building was erected in 1903 and still sports a giant bell hanging from the second-floor corner of Clark and Monroe.  The Weather Bell was a gimmick used to promote awareness of the bank, as it changed color to let people know about the weather.  TV and radio stations in rural parts of the country do the same things with their towers.  But in the heart of the city, you need something a little more down to earth.  Thus was invented The Weather Bell.

Of course, Bell Savings is long gone.  It was eaten by Standard Federal Bancorp, which was eaten by ABN Amro, which regurgitated it as part of LaSalle Bank, which has since been eaten by Bank of America.

Remarkably, Bank of America still operates the Weather Bell and it still lets people know if it's going to rain or get appreciably warmer or colder decades after it was first put into service.

Feeling the Blues on Clark

How's this for a picture of the blues?  It's the branch of Blue Chicago at 736 North Clark Street all shut down and gated.  The 536 North Clark Street joint is still open, but the gift shop that was once next door is also shuttered.

There's virtually nothing left of Chicago's blues heritage (not even a radio station), so it's sad to see one more piece of it fade away.

The Names They Are a Changin'

A lot of cities I've lived in (and I've lived in a lot of cities) have changed the names of their streets over time.  I've always been impressed that Chicago hangs on to its street names longer than most of the other places I've lived.  Perhaps its because in Chicago an "Honorary" street name sign can be added to a block or two without having to change the street's official name.

But last week while wandering around I stumbled across two deprecated street names still living on old buildings.

The first was on the block with Blue Chicago.  The peeling paint proclaimed the address as "536 Heritage Place."  Was Clark Street once known as Heritage Place?  I checked the Chicago Tribune archive and found no reference to Heritage Place.  I asked the Municipal Reference Team at the Chicago Public Library (your tax dollars at work!) and got this response:

As far as we can tell Clark Street has never had another name. Clarke [sic] street was shown on the original plat maps of Chicago. See the Encyclopedia of Chicago at: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10634.html

Prior to the Great Fire of 1871 Clarke Street had been extended north and south to at least the five hundred numbers. Since most or all of the buildings on Clark were burned during the fire, your building would have to been more recent, and definitley been built on Clark.

See for example: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10343.html

Furthermore we are unable to find any evidence of any street named "Heritage".

I'll do a little more research on this, but if anyone can explain this, please leave a comment below.

The second location was up near the Lincoln Park Zoo.  The building at 2100 North Lincoln Park West has carved on its south side "Garfield Avenue" indicating that the street we now call Dickens once bore the name of a president, not a scribe.

It happened around 1934.  In that year, the City Club of Chicago came up with a list of 41 street names it considered confusing, duplicative, or redundant.  One of them was Garfield Avenue.  The City Club proposed changing Garfield Avenue to Dickens because of confusion with Garfield Boulevard in the Garfield Park section of Chicago.

Not surprisingly, there were Chicago Aldermen against the change.  Alderman Caughlin was quoted in the July 27th, 1934 edition of the Chicago Tribune as saying, "If a dozen streets named Lincoln were in Chicago... I wouldn't favor a change in any of them."

Other streets that got their names changed include Grove Avenue, which became South Clark Street; Center Street, which became Armitage Avenue; and Austin Avenue which became what we now know as Hubbard Street.

That's an interesting point because Hubbard Street is what lent its name to the series of freeway underpasses known as "Hubbard's Cave."  You can read the article we wrote last month about the history of Hubbard's Cave.  And by coincidence, just today while strolling along Wacker Drive I cam across this plaque noting the location of "Hubbard's Folly:"

So, who the heck was Hubbard?

He was Gurdon S. Hubbard (I've also seen it written "Gordon S. Hubbard"), the owner of Hubabrd & Company, who was a pioneering businessman.  And by "pioneering" I mean he opened shop in Chicago back when there wasn't much here but Indians, fur trappers, and wild onions.  His specialty was meat packing and this hog butcher to America went out of business around the time Philip Armour left the California gold fields for Chicago and became "Hog Butcher to the World."

Video: New Book About Soldier Field

There always seems to be a new book coming out about Chicago and its buildings.  The latest one focuses on Soldier Field.  It's called Soldier Field: A Stadium and its History. Its author, Liam Ford, was interviewed about it on WTTW's Chicago Tonight program:

Flying Into the Past

I'm not much on the 1960's and 1970's design aesthetic.  Perhaps I'm just too young to appreciate the sleek lines and curves that were once considered so daring and provocative.  Some people call it "Jet Age."  Some call it "Googie."  Some like to argue about the boundaries of such descriptions.  For those sorts of people, they should hop on a 146 bus and visit the old Meigs Field (1400 South Lynn White Drive).

Today, of course, CGX called Northerly Island and is mostly a park, a meadow, and a bird sanctuary that for some reason doesn't seem to attract as many birds as you might think it would.  The old Meigs terminal and control tower are still there.  The control tower has been taken over for storage by the Park Department.  The terminal, however, is open to the public as one of the city's park fieldhouses.

There's not much going on inside, but there are restrooms and meeting rooms, and activity spaces.  But most importantly, you can still get a sense of what the place was like when it was humming with activity and imagine the buzz of propeller planes landing just outside.

It is a remarkable structure that I hope the city continues to preserve.  And with its proximity to the Museum Campus, maybe some of the unused space could be converted into a Midwest aviation museum.

Slice of Life: The Polish Alma Mater

The great thing about signs carved in stone is that they so often outlive those for whom they were carved, and thus leave us a trail back into history.  This sign for the "Polish Alma Mater" was spotted above the door of a commercial building built in 1896 at 1643 West Milwaukee Avenue in Bucktown.  It reminds us that this section of Chicago used to be a lot more Polish than it is now.  This building once housed a Macierz Polska -- a Polish aid society.  Many immigrant groups form these when they come to a new country.  You can see a number of current examples down in Chinatown.

Historic Video of the Unveiling of Chicago's Picasso

There's a video on YouTube showing the unveiling of the massive Picasso sculpture in front of the Daley Center back in 1967.

Video: Chicago "City of Superlatives" in 1948

This video is making the rounds these days, and I thought people here on the Chicago Architecture Blog would enjoy it.

It's a travel film produced in 1948.  It's a great look at where Chicago was just 60 short years ago.  The city looks very different, and very familiar now.

Tuesday trivia: Tragic blimp accident edition

Q: What was the name of the blimp that caught fire, raining flaming wreckage on the Loop and killing people in a bank building?

A: The Wingfoot Air Express.

It happened July 21, 1919.  Read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingfoot_Air_Express_Crash

Who Loses With The Willis Tower?

With The Willis Group moving hundreds of its employees into the Sears Tower and changing the name to Willis Tower, there are a lot of people shaking their heads.  Not just because of the name change, but because it's going to leave a bunch of buildings with hundreds fewer people in them at a time when it's tough to lease office space.

The big losers are:

10 South LaSalle Street 

The Unitrin Building (One East Wacker Drive) 

Gateway Center III (222 South Riverside Plaza) 

and two suburban locations.

Willis Tower Official Release

Here's the text of the official press release about the Sears Tower becoming Willis Tower.

Willis Group Holdings to Move Chicago Area Offices to Sears Tower;
Building to Be Renamed Willis Tower

Global Insurance Broker Will Occupy Multiple Floors in Iconic Building This Summer

New York, March 12, 2009 – Willis Group Holdings (NYSE: WSH), the global insurance broker, today announced that Willis will become a new tenant of Sears Tower, and under an agreement with the building’s owners, the Chicago icon and tallest building in the Western Hemisphere will be renamed Willis Tower.

Willis plans to consolidate five area offices and move nearly 500 Associates into Willis Tower, initially occupying more than 140,000 square feet on multiple floors. Willis said its move to the new space, at $14.50 per square foot, will result in significant real estate cost savings, and that there is no additional cost to the company associated with renaming the building.

“Having our name associated with Chicago’s most iconic structure underscores our commitment to this great city, and recognizes Chicago’s importance as a major financial hub and international business center,” said Joseph J. Plumeri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Willis Group Holdings. “We are delighted to be making this bold move and firmly establishing our leading presence in one of the nation’s biggest insurance markets, and it will be wonderful for all our Associates to work under one roof.”

The building, first opened in 1973, is recognized worldwide as a center for business, and an architectural signature of Chicago’s skyline. “We are proud to add the Willis name to the tower, and welcome the company and its 500 Associates to this premier Chicago address,” said John Huston, Executive Vice President of American Landmark Properties, Ltd., part of the real estate investment group that owns the building. “This key new tenant underscores the importance of the building as a destination for successful businesses.”

“We are thrilled that Willis Group will be consolidating their Midwest operations in Chicago, demonstrating their commitment to this city by retaining almost 500 jobs here in addition to planning for future job growth. Their decision speaks to the quality of Chicago’s workforce, and our vibrant and supportive business community. We welcome this strong global corporation and look forward to working with Willis in the years to come,” said Rita Athas, Executive Director of World Business Chicago.

Relocating to Willis Tower will be three current Willis HRH offices in Chicago, located at 10 South LaSalle Street, One East Wacker Drive and 222 North Riverside Plaza, along with two suburban locations – in Oak Brook and Lombard. The move is expected to be completed by late summer. The company’s North American business is now known as Willis HRH following Willis’ October 2008 acquisition of insurance intermediary Hilb Rogal & Hobbs (HRH). Chicago is the headquarters of Willis HRH’s Midwest Region.

“This move will be a huge benefit to our Associates,” said Don Bailey, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Willis HRH. “Working even more collaboratively and closely together as a ‘One Flag’ team, we will be able to provide even better service and offer more innovative solutions to our clients. As we seek new growth opportunities, we’ll also benefit from having greater brand recognition in this market. Willis Tower will make us a household name among our clients, prospective clients and in the larger business community.”

Willis HRH is the leading retail insurance broker in the Chicago market, arranging property and casualty and other insurance coverage for businesses of all sizes – from large corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The majority of Willis HRH Associates moving to Willis Tower work in the company’s retail brokerage business, which is supported by Willis’ key specialist capabilities in such areas as construction, executive risk, healthcare, property, real estate and employee benefits.

Willis Tower also will be home to Willis Commercial, a business unit dedicated to serving the insurance needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. Willis Commercial utilizes the technology platform and capabilities of the company’s Chicago-based InsuranceNoodle™ unit, a web-enabled wholesaler of commercial property and casualty products that Willis acquired in 2007. In addition, Willis’ Innotech business, a high-tech service center for healthcare benefits clients, will be housed in the Willis Tower offices.

The building is owned by 233 S. Wacker Drive LLC, a real estate investment group formed in 2004 to purchase the tower. Ownership includes New York City-based partners Joseph Chetrit; and Joseph Moinian and Steve Bederman of The Moinian Group; and Yisroel Gluck and John Huston, of American Landmark Properties, Ltd., based in Skokie, Illinois. U.S. Equities Asset Management LLC, headquartered in Chicago, provides management and leasing services to the property. Michael Kazmierczak, Senior Vice President, U.S. Equities, represented the building in negotiations. Josh Kuriloff, Vice Chairman, and Kent Ilhardt, Executive Vice President, Cushman & Wakefield, represented Willis.

Willis HRH is the North American retail brokerage business of Willis Group Holdings. The unit has more than 200 local offices across the United States and Canada, offering a full range of insurance and risk management services, specialist expertise and global resources to large corporate, middle-market and small business clients.

Willis Group Holdings Limited is a leading global insurance broker, developing and delivering professional insurance, reinsurance, risk management, financial and human resource consulting and actuarial services to corporations, public entities and institutions around the world. Willis has more than 400 offices in nearly 120 countries, with a global team of approximately 20,000 Associates serving clients in some 190 countries. Additional information on Willis may be found atwww.willis.com.

It's Official: Sears Tower to become Willis Tower

Yesterday we told you about the article in the Wall Street Journal that stated if The Willis Group decided to consolidate its regional offices in the Sears Tower instead of the Citigroup Center that the building would be renamed Willis Tower.  Well, it actually happened.

The Willis Group is moving 500 employees from a several other buildings into the Sears Tower and it got the naming rights in the process.

Willis is paying $14.50/square foot for 140,000 square feet of office space in the Sears Willis Tower.  The owners of the building threw in the name for free.

It remains to be seen wether there will be an outcry over the name change, but considering all the corporate identities and other bits of Chicago history that have been lost over the last decade, there's little chance this won't go through.

Watch out, Wrigley Field .

Where the Beach Used To Be

Years ago, Michigan Avenue was merely Pine Street.  Before that, it was a beach and the waters of the Lake Michigan would lap against the shore right about where Water Tower Place is now.

Back then Holy Name Cathedral (735 North State Street) was just a chapel in Our Lady of the Lake [Michigan] University.  The college has since moved out to the 'burbs.

A lot has changed along the Lake Michigan shoreline, but there are still hints if you know where to look.

In Lincoln Park there is a long berm that looks like it serves no purpose other than to keep the snow from blowing in from the lake.  But it's actually an ancient sand dune that helps mark the edge of what was once the Lake Michigan shoreline.

If you're intrepid enough, you'll find a marker in Lincoln Park showing you exactly where the water used to be.  It reads,

"Abandoned Shoreline of Lake Michigan

This ridge is an ancient beach of sand bar of Lake Michigan whose waters reached this point 8,000 years ago when the lake level was 20 feet higher than now.  Clark Street runs north top this ridge.  The park ponds lie between such old beaches, abandoned by the shrinking lake.

The outer boundary of Diversey Harbor and the boat slip running south of it to North Avenue are man-made land.

The Chicago Park District"

A Fisher of Compliments

Chicago is one of those places where it pays to look up.  Sure, no one wants to look like a tourist, but at the same time many of the city's architectural delights aren't at eye-level.

Case in point: The Fisher Building.  This Chicago School masterpiece is loved by architecture enthusiasts around the world.  But unless you live in the building you may not have noticed that it's best face is actually hidden beneath the elevated tracks on Van Buren street.  The snowycam photo above simply doesn't do the relief justice.  The building's main entrance on Dearborn Street lacks the elaborate ornamentation.  Instead, it's saved for the dank, noisy side.

In a way, this makes sense.  At the time the Fisher Building was erected (1906) there was probably streetcar tracks running on Van Buren, and not the elevated structure we see today.  So the building actually did put its best face forward.  It's just that the world revolved away from it.