You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The birthplace of the skyscraper, Chicago is famous for an architectural tradition that has influenced building around the globe. It is the cradle of modern architecture. It gave rise to the urban office building and to the flowing, open floor plans of today’s homes. Chicago Architecture and Design chronicles the city’s architecture from the 19th through the early 21st century: from the structural simplicity of Chicago School commercial building to the low-slung Prairie School house, from the streamlined Art Deco skyscraper to the minimalist Miesian tower of glass and steel, and all the way through to the strikingly original, diverse designs of the present day’s second modern period. It examines the evolution of modern architecture in the context of broader historical, social, technological, and artistic currents and explores innovations that pushed buildings ever higher. This third edition adds 10 new buildings from the last decade, including Renzo Piano’s Modern Wing of the Art Institute, John Ronan’s Poetry Foundation, and Helmut Jahn’s Mansueto Library at the University of Chicago.
Published in celebration of the university sesquicentennial, this text chronicles Northwestern's history, from the effort to found an institution of the highest order through the rise of the modern university.
The Nation's Largest Retailer wanted the largest headquarters in the nation, and they got it -- in spades. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the 110-story, anodized aluminum-clad Sears Tower occupies three acres in the West Loop. The bundled-tube construction allowed for more windows and more corner offices per square foot. The total area within the Tower is 4.4 million square feet; the Sky Deck on the 103rd floor offers tremendous views and welcomes more than 1 million visitors yearly. When SOM realized that their design was only ten stories short of what was supposed to be the record-breaking height of the World Trade Center then under construction (1,368 feet), they broke the record, coming in at 1,454 feet. The move of Sears and Roebuck employees into the Tower was the biggest corporate move in American history. In the late 1980s Sears and Roebuck left the building, but it continues to thrive, a timeless monument to American ingenuity.
The 100-year history of Schwinn, the best-known name in American bicycling. German immigrant Ignaz Schwinn launched the company that bears his name in 1895 and set the bicycling standard in the U.S. for decades. Lavishly illustrated with original archival material, much of it from Chicago's Bicycle Museum of America, and specially commissioned photography. Covers Schwinn's technical developments, racing history, significant models like the Black Phantom, Varsity, Paramount, Fastback, and many more. Also discusses Schwinn's short-lived foray into motorcycle manufacturing.
Commissioned by Ferdinand Peck and produced by architects Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler--soon to be leaders of the Chicago School--in 1889, the Auditorium Building was a wondrous complex, housing a hotel, offices, stores, and a theater. Adler's engineering skills overcame the problem of a foundation that had to support an unevenly distributed weight; Sullivan designed the stunning theater, which was spanned by four elliptical arches studded with 3,500 incandescent electric lights and decorated with gold leaf. Adler created a hydraulic stage--with twenty-six lifts--and one of the first air-conditioning systems in a public building. Among the many design features in the interior of the Audi...
Newly restored in 1992, the Rookery is one of Chicago's most popular architectural attractions. The building's history of restorations, including an update by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1905, is reviewed in this short picture book. Some of the building's famous highlights include an elaborate oriel stair
Des Moines boasts a remarkable architectural portfolio rich in depth and quality. The town drew wide attention in the nineteenth century with structures like the Iowa State Capitol and the Terrace Hill mansion. Des Moines embraced the City Beautiful movement in the twentieth century and became home to well-known work by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, notably the city's innovative Art Center. A contemporary architectural renaissance produced lauded landmarks like the Meredith Headquarters, the Des Moines Public Library and the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park. Author Jay Pridmore crafts an illustrated survey of the architecture and design of Iowa's largest city.
Many books have been written about the University of Chicago over its 120-year history, but most of them focus on the intellectual environment, favoring its great thinkers and their many breakthroughs. Yet for the students and scholars who live and work here, the physical university—its stately buildings and beautiful grounds—forms an important part of its character. Building Ideas: An Architectural Guide to the University of Chicago explores the environment that has supported more than a century of exceptional thinkers. This photographic guide traces the evolution of campus architecture from the university’s founding in 1890 to its plans for the twenty-first century. When William Rain...
A huge complex spanning two city blocks, the Merchandise Mart is the largest wholesale design center in the world. The brainchild of James Simpson of Marshall Field & Company, it was planned to house Field's huge wholesale division and prop up sagging sales. Executed by the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White--of Opera House and Field Museum fame--the Mart was the world's most complex mixed-use structure: a warehouse, a department store, and a commercial office tower. All this was presented in a successful blend of elements from the Chicago School, classicism, and Art Deco, built on former Chicago & North Western Railway property and air space over the tracks. Unfortunately, Field's suffered from the Great Depression, and so the Mart stood almost empty during World War II. In 1946 Joseph P. Kennedy purchased the Merchandise Mart for $16 million (it had cost $32 million to build). Under Kennedy's managerial flair; the Mart thrived. Renovations between 1986 and 1991 injected new life into the building and today the Marchandise Mart is an enduring monument to the brash, inventive, and successful Chicago spirit.
At the time of its construction, the Marshall Field's Department Store was the largest department store in the world. Photographs and text detail the architectural details of the Chicago landmark. Coverage includes earlier buildings inhabited by the store to recent annexes built into the classic structure. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, O