The Monadnock Building

Monadnock Building

House Divided:" the Monadnock Building

Period

Today, the Monadnock Building's location in Chicago, Illinois' downtown Loop district places it squarely in the heart of the financial section of the city. However, at the time this section of Chicago was still expanding and "few Chicagoans had faith in the proposal to locate a new building so far south" of what was then the existing commercial core of the city in 1884, when the construction of the office building was first proposed ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, p.1). Not until 1889 were the plans to build in the area finalized, after skyscrapers began to creep into the district.

The aspirations that brought the building into being were artistic as well as commercial -- to create an architectural spectacle and also draw tenants and make revenue for the Boston-based developers brothers Peter and Shepard Brooks. The Monadnock's period and design locate it at the tail end of 19th century architectural grandeur, because of its impressive size and its elaborately crafted south half. But its older northern half, with its subtly curving lines and faint traces of Egyptian architecture act as a harbinger of the later modernist period and the Frank Lloyd Wright Chicago School. The lack of breaks and projections and utter continuity of line makes this part of the building look much younger than its construction date (Roth 176).

Precedent

The Chicago-based architectural firm of Burnham and Root was selected to design the new building. "Burnham and Root had previously done two other [successful] commercial projects for [Peter] Brooks and [his agent Owen] Aldis: the Montauk Building in 1882 and the Rookery Building in 1886" ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, p.1). The primary architects, John Welborn Burnham and Daniel Hudson Root, originally wanted to create a tall, pylon structure of Egyptian design, with elaborate ornamentation and different shadings of surface texture and materials similar to but even more ambitious than the Montauk, but Peter Brooks insisted on an utterly Spartan concept (Roth 176). Brook's one concession to practicality was to allow the inclusion of bay windows when Owen Aldis pointed out that this would make the building more marketable, given that employees within the structure were likely to want more light while working ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, pp.3-4).

Later Citations

The ultimate fusion of spare grandeur combined with slight curves that still reflect the original 'pylon' design are what make the north half Monadnock so revolutionary. It was originally supposed to be even taller but Brooks finally settled on a sixteen story structure, with a seventeenth 'attic' floor in the Southern parapet ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, p.3). Its north side design is both subtle yet oddly haunting. The final overall result, because of the fusion of styles, is holistically something both prototypically modernist and classical at once, a jarring juxtaposition of forms. The distinct differences in style reflect the fact that architects were switched mid-stream during the Monadnock's construction. The northern side of the Monadnock was solely Root, and based upon a masonry-style artifice, but Root died of pneumonia before he could finish the entire building ("History," Monadnock Building, 2008). The southern half, based on a steel frame, was finished by the architectural firm Holabird & Roche and is far more classical in nature ("History," Monadnock Building, 2008).

Although Root was already a well-established Chicago architect, the north side of the Monadnock "emerges as a definite departure from the mainstream of Root's practice and the rest of the contemporary Chicago school at the time, with only its "carefully conceived proportions" and sculptural form harkening back to earlier Root works ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, p.5). Root created the illusion that the structure 'grew' organically from massive granite blocks of the ground floor, while the "inward curve of the wall at the second story" suggests a pylon without making explicit pastiche or parodic references to the Egyptian era ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, p.2). Likewise, "the outward flare of the parapet, the gentle chamfering of the building's corners, and the rhythm of uniform oriel windows...seem to grow from the wall surface" as do the contours of brick beside them ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, p.2).

When completed it was marveled that: "here, in a span of 400 feet, the unassuming expertise of Holabird and Roche sensitively combines with a distinctly atypical scheme from Burnham and Root. The work of both firms has much to do with Monadnock's integral role in early modern architecture" ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, p.5). The building was highly praised and tenants flocked rent space between its walls, as they still do today in Chicago.

Lasting Influences

However, later design assessments of the Monadnock have tended to stress the differences between the two sides of the office building, rather than their similarities. The newer, more traditional design by Holabird and Roche had more immediate influence upon the Beaux-Arts style of later Chicago buildings such as the "Tacoma (1889), the Marquette (1895), the Cable (1899), the McClurg (1900), and the Republic (1905)" ("Monadnock Building," Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, 2008, p.5). And Holabird and Roche did create one technical improvement by replacing the more traditional masonry construction of the older north side of the building with the southern side's steel frame. They also used more narrow piers and broader window openings than the brick masonry.