Month: September 2018

The Target store on State Street in Chicago is located at 1 South State Street, on the corner of State and Madison. It is also referred to as the City Target and is located in the historic Sullivan Center building. The building is named after architect Louis Sullivan who designed it. The building formerly housed the Carson Pirie Scott and Company department store.

It was built in 1899 for the retail firm Schlesinger and Mayer. Additions were also made to the building by Daniel Burnham in 1906 and Holabird & Root in 1961. It was sold to H.G. Selfridge and Company in 1904. Selfridge only occupied the building for a few weeks and then sold it to Otto Young who leased the space to Carson Pirie Scott for $7,000 per month. Carson Pirie Scott & Company occupied the building for greater than a century until 2007 when it was sold and then leased to Target which opened in 2012.

The building is one of the classic structures of the Chicago School of Architecture. It is a steel framed structure 12 stories high. A 40 foot water tower was placed on the roof to be used by the building’s sprinkler system in case of fire. That was a lesson learned from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Carson’s closed and left the building in February 2007. The new Target store opened on July 26, 2012. Target leases two floors of the building. Target has met with favorable reviews for the modern design of the interior while preserving the character of this historical building. Other building occupants include the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Gensler Architecture. The Sullivan Building has been a Chicago Landmark since 1975 and is part of the Loop Retail Historic District.

I recently visited the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) at its’ new location along the Chicago River at 111 E. Wacker Drive. It was previously known as the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) and was located at 224 S. Michigan Avenue in the Railway Exchange Building. It is fitting that the new location is by the Chicago River, since the CAC gives River cruises.

The Chicago Architecture Center  is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring people to discover why design matters. The CAC includes two levels of gallery exhibitions.

Level 1 is the Concourse Level and houses the Chicago Gallery, John and Kathleen Buck Atrium, CAC Store and Orientation. Explore this level and you will learn about the architects who shaped Chicago and gave the city its distinctive style and skyline, making it the “City of Architecture.” You’ll also learn about Chicago’s building blocks such as geographical and architectural elements that make Chicago unique. You’ll be exploring five historic Chicago neighborhoods and learn how their buildings and houses have been preserved. You’ll be able to look at common housing types in Chicago and view how Chicago is mapped by viewing a video describing the Chicago City Model (which includes 4,200 buildings). You can also view information about current architectural projects happening in the city currently or in the near future.

Level 2 is the Plaza Level and contains the Usher Lambe Rotating Gallery, Drake Skyscraper Gallery, Arcelormittal Design Studio, and Joan and Gary Gand Lecture Hall. There is a display on Imagining the City of Chicago in 2050, and the Drake Skyscraper Gallery contains large scale models of tall skyscrapers from around the world. You’ll learn about the world’s tallest building, The Burj Khalifa. You’ll also explore technological innovations that enable architects to keep building higher and higher! You’ll learn more about the world’s tallest buildings and Urban Habitat Award Winners. You will also learn about the architects that shaped Chicago architecture and last but certainly not least, if you look out the  windows on the 2nd level of the CAC you’ll see inpiring. views of the buildings along the Chicago River and what is arguably one of the most beautiful spots in Chicago!

The Minnekirken Church is located in Logan Square at 2614 N. Kedzie Avenue, right next to the CTA Blue Line stop. I saw it for the first time on Saturday when I attended the Logan Square 2018 Historic Boulevard House Walk hosted by Logan Square Preservation.  It was built between 1908 and 1912 and was designed by architects Charles F. Sorensen and Mason S.N. Nelson in a Protestant adaptation of Gothic Revival style.

The congregation had actually started in a private home in 1900 before the church was built. The first Pastor was Johan B. Meyer and services were conducted in accordance with traditional services of the Church of Norway. During The Depression the congregation lost the church because it couldn’t pay the mortgage, but they were able to raise enough money and reaquire the church in 1934. It was renamed Den Norske LutherskeMinnekirke, which translates to Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church. It is the only Lutheran Church in Chicago whose primary language is Norwegian and only one of two in the entire U.S. The other is in Minneapolis. In addition to church services, the church hosts activities such as Norwegian cooking classes, concerts and an annual Christmas bazaar and the annual Logan SquareHistoric Boulevard House Walk.

• Note – The exterior photos are mine. The interior are from Wikipedia.

 

100 years ago on September 4, 1918 a bomb blast ocurred in Chicago’s Loop at the old federal building on Adams and Dearborn. The blast ocurred at about 3 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon. The bomb went off in the lobby of the federal building and killed four people. It was a powerful blast that even shattered windows at the Marquette building across the street. The person/s who threw the bomb were never caught.

Authorities believe it was an act of terrorism that had to do with the end of World War I or the labor movement. Police rounded up and took into custody large numbers of people that they believed had any links to these movements. The main suspect group was the Industrial Workers of the World radical labor group. This group denied any involvement.

The people killed were postal workers Edwin Kolkow and William Wheeler and sailor Joseph Ladd, as well as Ella Miehlke.

Walt Disney was a postal worker in the building at the time and just barely escaped the bombing. He said he was in the lobby when it ocurred.

Although the explosion did much damage to the federal building, it didn’t affect it’s foundation, so the building was repaired. It wasn’t torn down until 1965. No one was ever convicted for the bombing.

• Photos are from Wikipedia and are public domain