900 W. Randolph, 1908

Back to the Fulton Market.  This 1908 building was a Commission House designed by architect Ivar Zarbell and primarily accommodated wholesale produce. Architects who designed small-scale industrial and commercial structures seldom achieved the name recognition of those working in the Loop or designing luxury apartments, but their buildings define enormous areas of the city.  And although these buildings were primarily intended to be functional, they're not without architectural interest.  For a fantastic analysis of the history and architecture of the Fulton/Randolph Market area see the designation report written by my colleague Matt Crawford.

I've added some grey tones, and I'll probably add color at some point.  But I think this image gives a good sense of the historic character of the area.  This building is already being modified to accommodate an upscale restaurant, which has been typical for the rapid development of the area.

 OK, finally finished the colorized version!

West Loop Column Capitals

Column capitals were once very functional.  They signified where the structural load of a building was transferred into the column and down to the foundation.  Typically the capital would be broader than the column to make this transfer more effective.  As buildings became larger more robust structural systems were needed and columns became mainly decorative, although still useful (and popular) in a design sense.  But once free from structural constraints what should  a column look like? The West Loop area has an enormous variety of column ornamentation for building types which hadn't even been conceived until relatively recently.  Many column types have been adapted to these industrial and warehouse buildings.

Cast Iron Column Capital at 210 N. Green

To the right is a cast iron column capital found on a former meat packing building built in 1904.  Cast iron is a great material for decorative uses, since it can be molded into almost anything.  Complex elements like this were typically fabricated from separate pieces that were bolted (or welded) together.  This one uses a number of classical details, such as dentils, egg and dark molding, an oddly shaped keystone, and oak twigs bundled together into a fascia.   It also has some strap-work trim in a diamond pattern.  Although many cast iron columns support a portion of the facade to allow storefront openings, this building has a reinforced concrete structure.   The shaft of the column is only a couple of inches thick.  Interestingly, there's a stone version of the same capital on the upper floors.

Terracotta Column Capital at 564 W. Randolph

The column to the left is kind of a masterpiece. It's an engaged octagonal column, with geometric ornamental mixed with classical details.  The radiating brackets are decorated with Greek keys, and over-sized dentils hang from the bottom.  I don't know whether to describe this as Art Deco, Prairie, or Classical.  Which is kind of the point. This column encloses the steel which actually supports the building.  And again, this is a relatively delicate ornamental material sculpted to match the scale and muscularity of this 1930 warehouse building, but without resorting to established stylistic schemes.

Terracotta Capital at 150 N. Clinton

This column is the strangest one yet.  There's a stepped molding at the top of the column, and a bizarre terracotta medallion below.  The column itself is edged with scalloped terracotta bands.  This one doesn't even pretend to have structural pretensions.  I can't really figure out the ornamentation scheme.  Are those classical festoons arranged on a platter?  Perhaps this is a Louis Sullivan inspired design run amuck  Maybe Art Nouveau...  Again, this is found on a large warehouse building from the 1930s.

Some more column capitals to follow at some point...

Infrastructure #1

Last year I contributed an illustrated article to AREA Chicago, which is a free local newspaper that publishes a variety of articles with a strong activist bent.  Each issue has a particular theme.  The upcoming issue is "Infrastructure."  I'm sure many of the articles will focus on social and political infrastructure, but I hope they won't overlook good old-fashioned built environment, which is my special interest.  So I'm putting together a series of graphics which I'm going to offer for their use. 

For previous issues I submitted drawings I thought would showcase my work.  But a newspaper really isn't the best format for complex graphics.  What works are high contrast images which can be used to break up the text and illustrate broad themes.  So I'm trying to do that. Not my best work, but my best work suited to the medium.  Unfortunately this 1" x 10" format is not at all suited to Blogger.

The image above is taken from Lake Avenue west of the Loop. It's one of those streets that makes me hum the opening to "Taxi," with the elevated tracks overhead. I believe the equipment on the rooftop is for creating concrete mixes. But I may be wrong.