In 1871, Chicago was victim to a massive fire,
known infamously as the Great Chicago Fire. In the years following the fire,
Chicago's population swelled, and the inner city and downtown experienced a
construction boom. Soon the entire downtown was very crowded and busy, and
there was no room anywhere left to build. Within 20 years of the Great Chicago
fire, architects had planned to do something about the problem, and decided
that since the downtown was surrounded on all 4 sides by development, they
would build in one direction, up. While taller and taller buildings had been
built in New York City at this time Chicago took the trend to new levels,
utilizing steel frames to construct the world's first true steel framed
skyscraper The 1885 Home insurance building. Chicago continued to pioneer in
both architecture, and engineering with these new skyscrapers. A group of
architects known as the Chicago School worked to push the limits with tall
buildings, and even helped invent the style of Modern Architecture, by making
these new towers often devoid of historical contexts, and to be as functional
as possible.
In 1890, State
Street was one of the busiest streets in the world, and William Ellery Hale,
who owned the Halle Elevator Company (elevators were necessary in skyscrapers),
bought the 4 story first National Bank building,
at Washington, and state streets. Hale wanted to build a modern skyscraper. Since
the area was so crowded, and tenants did not want to leave the building the top
3 floors were raised on stilts, where the tenants worked until their leases
were up. Meanwhile, the firm Burnham & Root designed and built the building’s
first floor. In 1894, work continued on the upper 14 floors by renowned Chicago
architect Daniel Burnham, and it opened in 1895.
The building was
one of the greatest examples of Chicago style architecture around, and was ultra
modern and functional for its time (it was one of the first skyscrapers to have
both electricity, and phone services for all offices). In fact, it gained its
name (Reliance) because of how functional of a building it was. The plate glass windows were made as large as
possible (to allow lots of light for the workers inside), resulting in the
building being one of the first to have a façade made mostly of windows. Because
of this, it can be considered the prototype of the glass box skyscrapers of the
mid 20th century. The windows themselves were called “Chicago Windows”.
They were divided into 3 parts, a large center glass pane, and 2 sash windows
on either side. These windows were very common in Chicago styled buildings at
the time.
The white glazed
terra cotta exterior also allowed the building to appear lighter than previous
tall structures, and to allow the steel frame behind it to be expressed. Also,
the terra cotta was fireproof, and could be much more easily cleaned than other
materials.
In the early
decades of the 20th century, the building provided great office
space for Merchants, and doctors. However, in the depression, the building
began to fall apart, as it became less, and less attractive for business in the
mid, to late 20th century. Thankfully, it did not suffer the fate of
some other older skyscrapers, such as the Home insurance building (which was
demolished in 1931), and the Chicago Stock exchange (which was demolished in
1972). Instead, the building was added to the National Register of Historic
places in 1970, and became a historic landmark in 1976. However the building
continued to fall into disrepair. Finally in 1994, the McClier Corporation, and
the Baldwin Development Company collaborated to restore the building. The
restoration was completed in 1999, and the building became the hotel Burnham
for 27.65 million dollars. The renovation was championed by preservationists,
and the mayor of the time, Richard M Daley, even won the National Trust for
Historic Preservation Honor award for the city’s role in preservation of the
building, and is considered one of the best hotels in Chicago.
