Studying the Reliance Building

This semester at UIC, my friend Lauren and I have been doing a research project on the Reliance Building for our Tech class.  The building is very different from all other buildings being studied by our peers, which include the Mercedez Benz Museum by UN Studio, the IAC building by Frank Gehry, and Eberswalde Library by Herzog and deMeuron (sorry I couldn't find a good website for this one, but please look it up!).

Lauren, finding some old info
on the Reliance Building

The Reliance Building, unlike all of these, is over 100 years old, and in Chicago, which meant that Lauren and I got to be more hands-on than any of the other groups in learning about our building.  We went to the Art Institute Library to play history detectives of sorts, and looked through lots of old documents about the building, both from when it was first built and when it was restored in the 1990's.  We also got to interview Gunny Harboe, of Harboe and Assoc., who headed the restoration project.  He took his lunch hour one day to show us a whole slideshow and answer all of our questions about the facade system.  It was a really great opportunity.

The model we're planning to build
of the Reliance, in Rhino.

Also, since it is right here in downtown Chicago, Lauren and I went right in and asked if we could look around on the upper floors, which Gunny had suggested we do.  It was restored to be a hotel in the 1990's, and it is now called the Hotel Burnham, after Daniel Burnham.  The original style of the upper floors, which started out as offices, has been kept; the doors all have frosted glass windows.

For Valentine's Day, I was treated to a night at the Hotel Burnham.  It's the second time I've gotten to play tourist in Chicago by staying at a hotel downtown.  I had dinner at the Atwood Cafe (named for Charles Atwood, who took over the design of the Reliance Building after Root passed away) and stayed in a historical suite on the 11th floor.  Here are some of the pictures I took while I was there. 

View across the street, to the Marshall Field's
(begrudgingly, Macy's) building at night.

view south, on State Street, at night

view north, on State Street, at night

view north, on State Street, in the morning

upper hallways, still looking like office building floors

the downstairs lobby, originally planned to show off
Hale's (the building owner's) own elevator design.

Krause House

Earlier today, I met up with my friend Brittany in Lincoln Square, a very cute neighborhood in Chicago, a little northwest of where I live.  After a nice lunch at Cafe Selmarie, where we both had the salmon club sandwich, we wandered around looking in some cute stores.  Brittany was looking for some inspiration for a friend's birthday gift, and we found some in a few stores along Lincoln Ave., including Enjoy, an Urban General Store.

            I was very pleased to stumble upon the Krause Music Store, which I had learned about this past year in my architecture history course.  It was Louis Sullivan's final commission.  It was finished in 1922, but recently restored in 2007 so that the facade we see today is how Sullivan designed it back in the early 20th century.   Too bad the natural lighting wasn't conducive to getting a really great picture!

            You will notice that the detailing in the stone is very typical of Sullivan's designs, reminding me a lot of the ironwork on the exterior of the Carson Pirie Scott building (see below), downtown, one of Sullivan's most famous buildings.  It's worth noting that these two designs were done about 20 years apart.  Not to say Sullivan was a "one trick pony," because if you see some of his other work, it can be vastly different, but he definitely had a style that he liked.

This is a picture I took back in 2005, when it was actually still Carson Pirie Scott, and Marshall Fields was just up the street.  Nostalgia!

One small piece of mail for man . . .

One giant envelope for Wicky.
Yesterday I sent in my deposit to . . . the University of Illinois in Chicago!  It came down to UIC and IIT, so lucky me, I am staying in Chicago no matter what.  I love this city and I can't imagine many better places to study architecture.  I went to open houses at each school, both in the fall and in the past few weeks, and in the end I just had a better feel for UIC.  I got to speak with a lot of current students and professors and just thought the people seemed like a lot of fun, and that's what this is all about, right?

            And in case you popped over to this page for a look at some architecture, here's a picture.  This building was built in 2009, designed by Jeanne Gang.  It's the tallest building in the world to have a woman as lead architect.  And it's right here in my city of Chicago, called Aqua.