ARCH 416

Spring ‘15

Class 11 Rail, Industry, and the

Rise of Chicago

agenda 3.1.15

transport

rivers

canals

railroads

Union Stockyards, Chicago

William Flagler and the Making of Florida

RIVERS

Edward K. THOMAS

View of Fort Snelling, Minnesota

c. 1850

oil on canvas

27 x 34 inches

Virginia Richly Valued...

London: Felix Kingston for Matthew Lownes

1609

Robert Johnson

Nova Britannia: Offering most excellent

fruites by planting in Virginia.

London: J. Windet for S. Macham, 1609.

William Penn

The Benefit of Plantations, or Colonies

London: J. Roberts, 1735.

“The country is well calculated and possesses the

necessaries for a profitable trade. First, it is a fine fruitful

country. Secondly, it has fine navigable rivers extending far

inland, by which the productions of the country can be

brought to places of traffic. The Indians, without our labor or

trouble, bring to us their fur trade, worth tons of gold, which

may be increased, and is like goods found. To which may be

added the grain and provision trade, which we proudly enjoy.

. . . “

Adriaen van der Donck, “A DIALOGUE between A PATRIOT and a NEW-

NETHERLANDER upon the Advantages which the Country Presents to

Settlers, &c” in Description of the New Netherlands, 1655

Map of US Rivers, 2013, based upon NHDPlus (National Hydrography Dataset), and

Strahler number (measure of river’s size).

http://www.somebits.com/weblog/tech/vector-tile-river-map.html

http://www.wired.com/2013/06/infographic-this-detailed-map-shows-every-river-in-the-

united-states/#slideid-152842

Rivers and settlements, as of 1639

George Caleb BINGHAM, Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, 1846

George Caleb BINGHAM

Lighter Relieving the Steamboat Aground

1846-7

CANALSPostcard, Medina, NY

Erie Canal

average transport speed on the Erie Canal was 3 mph

transport through the locks was extremely slow

Erie Canal flowing through downtown Syracuse, NY

RAILROADSGeorge INNESS

The Lackawanna Railroad (detail)

1855

oil on canvas

National Gallery of Art,

Washington, DC

rail technology

steam technology

James Watt: steam engine

steam-powered ships

steam-powered locomotives

steam-powered machinery

rail + industry=density

The Lackawanna Railroad

Painting was commissioned in 1855 by George D. Phelps,

president of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western

Railroad, who intended to use it in company advertising.

Mr. Phelps wanted the painting to show all four of the

company's locomotives and to prominently display the

company's initials (DL&W).

Compromise: one locomotive. To compensate, he added

wisps of smoke in the distance to suggest other engines.

He refused to put the company's initials in the painting.

Never used as an advertisement.

Railroad Growth in USA

1830 23 miles of track

1840 2,800 miles of track

1850 9,000 miles of track

1860 30,000 miles of track

Railroads completed by 1860

Railroads completed by 1890

pattern of growth

existing cities are all on major bodies of water and are

connected with trunk lines

branch lines would connect mines, timberlands, ranching

centers back to the trunk line

mutual reinforcement

the more railroads, the faster and cheaper raw materials and

finished goods can be transported, spurring industrial growth

and urban growth

the more industry grows, the more railroads become a

profitable investment to link one place and another

Railroads were often funded by stock and bond issues.

Corruption, graft, and outright scam artistry were part

of the economic picture.

review of growing cities and

factors fueling growth

explosive urban growth

• industry concentrates people in cities for labor-intensive manufacturing

• manufacturing of all kinds and at virtually any degree of intensity is more labor intensive than long-distance commerce (import/export)

• factory and mill bring workers into the city, while import-export sent as many of its workers outward as it drew to the docks.

factors relating industry and

density• manufacturing brings workers into close proximity in

factories and in workers' housing inside or immediately

beyond the factory gates.

factor 2

trades and industries tend to group together because of

efficiencies gained by locating at or near sources of

capital, labor, managerial skill, information, the products of

ancillary firms, transportation breakpoints, municipal

services

("location economics")

factor 3—secondary

new industries need:

banking

advertising

insurance

shipping

factor 4—tertiary

new workers need:

• housing

• food

• clothing

• entertainment

• organized religious experience

implying further growth of:

• construction industry (carpenters, masons)

• food supply (butchers, bakers, grocers)

• tailors

• actors, musicians, prostitutes

• preachers, charlatans

• con men, criminals

not a coincidence

In 1840s and 1850s manufacturing sector of the economy

grew far more rapidly than agriculture, mining, or

construction, rising from about 1/6 of total commodity

output in 1840 to approximately 1/3 in 1860

These were also the decades of the most impressive

relative urban growth in American history. City and town

populations nearly doubled during the 1840s, and then

increased by about 75 percent (from a larger base) in the

1850s.

. Cities and industries of all sizes and types were

booming, fueled by foreign immigration, mainly from

Ireland and Germany.

Why Chicago, specifically?

The way railroads expanded westward favored Chicago

as a major railroad hub.

During Civil War (1861-5), blockade of the Mississippi

River blockade shut down the river trade.

During Civil War, Union Army ordered vast quantities of

preserved meat. This demand stimulated the growth of the

meat-packing industry.

Rations for Union Army

Marching Ration:

Meat: 12 ounces of pork or bacon, or

1 pound and 4 ounces of salt or fresh beef

Bread: 1 pound and 6 ounces of soft bread or flour,

or

1 pound of hard bread [hardtack] or

1 pound and 4 ounces of corn meal

AND per 100 rations

• 10 pounds of green coffee, or 8 pounds roasted

coffee

• 15 pounds of sugar

• 3 pounds and 12 ounces of salt

Union Stockyards

1864 a consortium of railroads (9 in all, calling themselves

the Union Stock Yard & Transit Co) decided to consolidate

city stockyards in cheap, swampy land outside of the city

boundary. Stockyards linked to trunk line by branch.

• Advantages of this location:

• Next to the south branch of the Chicago River

• connects with Lake Michigan to the east

• connects with Mississippi River to the West through the Illinois &

Michigan Canal.

• Near multiple railroad lines.

• Distant from downtown to prevent complaints.

location of the stockyards and Packingtown (where the workers lived)

John Wellborn ROOT, The Union Stock Yard Gate,

Exchange Ave at Peoria St., c. 1875

Gate is retained today as an historic location.

Union Stock Yard

Opened on Christmas Day 1865

475-acre market located at Exchange and Halsted Streets

by mid-1870s major packers located next to the stockyard

and remained until the late 1950s.

The market closed on August 1, 1971, after handling more

than one billion animals.

By the end of 20th century the stockyard site had become

a successful industrial park.

arrival of meatpackers

1867 Armour

1875 Swift

1880 refrigerated boxcar technology

Morris Company

Hammond Company

Swift Company

Growth of the stockyards by 1878

subsidiary industriesleather

soap

fertilizer

glue

pharmaceuticals

imitation ivory

gelatin

shoe polish

buttons, perfume, and violin strings

"They don't waste anything here," said the guide, and then

he laughed and added a witticism, which he was pleased

that his unsophisticated friends should take to be his own:

'They use everything about the hog except the squeal.'"

—Chapter 3, Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)

Packingtown(later called Back of the Yards)

Annexed by Chicago in 1889.

Settled by Irish and German workers, joined in the 1870s

and 1880s by Czechs.

By 1900 there were Polish, Lithuanians and Slovakian

communities as well, with most communities organized

around churches.

1889 developer Samuel Gross built a subdivision of cheap

workingmen's cottages.

Ethnic neighborhoods, Packingtown, 1909

Little interaction across language and culture.

Residents attended ethnicity-based churches, even saloons

were somewhat segregated

University of Chicago

settlement (1898)

Chartered in 1898 and run by Mary McDowell, a

sociologist at the university, the settlement offered a

playground for children, classes and manual training, and

lectures.

"In a community of such widely different social and

religious elements there is need for a strong centralizing

influence which shall be non-partisan and non-sectarian,

yet in the deepest sense religious, drawing men and

women together on the basis of a common humanity,

emphasizing the fatherliness of God and proving the

brotherliness of man by social service." (McDowell)

Stockyards as Symbol

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906.

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sinclair-

upton/works/jungle/ch03.htm

Christopher Hitchens, “A Capitalist Primer,” The Atlantic (July

2002).

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/07/a-

capitalist-primer/378489/

What does this mean for architecture?

Chicago will be modern.

October 1871 a huge fire destroyed

downtown Chicago.

Wooden structures were obviously

quite vulnerable to fire.

See William Cronon on timber.

An unique opportunity to build a new

type of commercial architecture using

the latest technology. High land

values also drove buildings upward.

Elisha Otis, Patent Drawing for Elevator Mechanism

"Chicago School" of architecture

• architects active in Chicago during the late 19th/early 20th century

• among the first to use new technologies of steel-frame construction in commercial buildings

• developed a corresponding aesthetic

• Architects whose names are associated with the Chicago School include:

• Holabird & Roche

• Burnham & Root

• Adler & Sullivan

• William LeBaron Jenney

Dankmar ADLER

(1844-1900)

Louis SULLIVAN

(1856-1924)

Adler hired Louis Sullivan as a

draftsman and designer in 1880;

Sullivan was made a partner in the firm

in 1883.

In turn, Sullivan was a significant mentor

to Wright, whom he hired as a young

draftsman at Adler & Sullivan.

Sullivan & Adler, Wainwright Building

St. Louis, Missouri

1890-1

clear division in functional parts

"Form ever follows function"

Innovative structural elements

raft roofing of reinforced concrete

braced, riveted steel frame

wall bays carried on spandrel

shaft angles

First 2 storeys make up the base

Then horizontal ledge which provides flat

surface base for pilasters

Unusually high cornice brings

perpendicular momentum to a stop

Sullivan & Adler

The Guaranty Building,

(Prudential Building)

Buffalo, New York

1894

The top level houses mechanical devices such as elevator engines and water tanks. Its appearance proclaims its difference in function from the rest of the building.

A succession of workers offices fill

the upper stories and are modular and

repetitive in appearance.

Street level spaces for shops, banks,

and public commerce. These are large,

open spaces “liberal, expansive and

sumptuous” that will flow up into the

second storey.

1. The basement was the mechanical and utility area. Since this

level was below ground, it did not show on the face of the building.

2. The next zone was the ground-floor zone which was the public

areas for street-facing shops, public entrances and lobbies.

3. The third zone was the office floors with identical office cells

clustered around the central elevator shafts.

4. The final zone was the terminating zone, consisting of elevator

equipment, utilities and a few offices.

The supporting steel structure of the building was embellished with

terra cotta blocks. Different styles of block delineated the three

visible zones of the building.

Terracotta

Flexible in color and patterning.

Brownstone was the earliest type. Dark red or brown block which

was not necessarily glazed, it was used as imitation sandstone,

brick or with real brownstone.

Fireproof terracotta was developed as a direct result of the growth

of the high rise building in America. Cheap, light and fireproof,

the rough-finished hollow blocks were ideally suited to span the

I-beam members in floor, wall and ceiling construction. Certain

varieties still in production today.

elaboration of ornamentornament must be of the building, integral to

structure, rather than merely applied over it.

reflected functional aspects of the building,

distinguishing entranceways, busy public areas,

thoroughfares

plain surfaces of his buildings ornamented with lush

decoration

usually cast in iron or terra cotta

ranging from organic forms to geometric interlace

Louis Sullivan: "the damage wrought by the World’s

Fair will last for half a century from its date, if not

longer."

Burnham & Root

The Rookery

Chicago buildings

William LeBaron Jenney, Home Insurance Building (1885)

Burnham & Root, The Rookery

Burnham & Root, Monadnock Building

Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York

Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1894–1972)

Auditorium Building (1889) is an early example of splendid acoustical engineering.

Auditorium building 1889

EXTERIOR-

Typical semi circular arches

-inspired from the roman arches.

Granite masonry for first 2 floors

Ashlar masonry for upper storeys.

Thicker foundations.

10 floors+tower(water tank)

ENTRANCE-

Entrance lobby

-seems to be borne

down by wt of bldg

• Staircase- narrow-deviation

from european standards

-grand ceremonial staircase.

AUDITORIUM-

4250 seats

broke away from traditional horse shoe plan

- no side seats.

But stage comparatively small and lacking in storage space

Stage-system to fly out the sides of the proscenium arch to make

stage area continuous with rest of the auditorium

Acoustic tunnel – conical

-diminishes reverberation by decreasing the volume of auditorium

-to control the flow while improving diffusion of the sound

Stairways and public area- did away with all walls so sound

could flow away till the rear part of the great theatre

Stage directly visible from foyer on first floor

4000 light bulbs light up the auditorium

Ventilation and lighting system passes

through the arches

Function- focus light on stage

Form-arches and bulbs fixed along their

lines.

Rest of auditorium lighted in same way

only lighting and arrangements change.

Curve due to pressure of the first balcony-

not hidden from sight and used as a visible

member in design

Offices-smallest part of

building-least space taken.

Hotel -wide entrance large balconies

daylight, richly decorated staircase

dining room on 10th floor-roosevelt

university now uses as library.

Banquet hall later added by Adler and decorated by Sullivan placed

on 7th floor roof of auditorium- now used by university as concert

hall

1947-roosevelt university took over

1918-Sullivan left office in tower.

Hotel expanded as new building erected

across road connected by underground

tunnel but became successful

independently-identical façade was

designed.