By Thomas R Stelmack, Class of 2017
Chicagoans are justly proud of the city’s high-tech skyscrapers of steel and glittering glass. But we also hold close our architectural heritage. Of particular interest to me are those that channel medieval Europe’s grand cathedrals with their pointed arches and spires, and flying buttresses that support tall walls filled with elegant stained glass. They were Skyscrapers of Stone that dominated Europe for over five centuries.
By my count, Chicago currently has 97 Gothic-influenced structures. Buildings on our tours represent seven different Gothic styles: French, English, German, Spanish (Moresco), Castellated, Venetian (including Victorian and Ruskinian), and Collegiate.
The European Gothic style is first seen in the church of St. Denis (1142) in Paris. The style continued to develop from the 13th to the 16th centuries. Gothic architecture remained essentially dormant from the latter 16th until the 19th century. At that time two authors began romanticizing[i] the era of medieval feudalism. Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, the Mysterious Mother (1764) and Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1819) are both filled with romantic images of an earlier time. The Gothic revival, inspired by this medieval architecture and lore, was developed predominantly in Great Britain and North America. Here are some highlights of Gothic buildings in Chicago.
An early Gothic structure is Adler & Sullivan’s 1882 Jewelers Building at 19 S. Wabash. It is a Ruskinian Gothic design (High Victorian, similar to Venetian Gothic). Another early design is William Boyington’s Castellated Gothic entrance to Rosehill Cemetery (1864) along with his Water Tower (1869) and Pumping Station (1866). This style demonstrates strength by the presence of battlements in the solid parapets that hide roofing extending to round or octagonal turrets.
A notable example of French Gothic that resembles Rouen Cathedral’s Butter Tower is the Tribune Tower (1925; Howells & Hood). The ornamentation includes window traceries characterized by their flamboyant stalactite (top down) and stalagmite (bottom up) elements and fleur-de-lis embellishments. The ornamental “flying buttresses” that adorn its upper section are more generic Gothic. As part of the Historic Skyscraper tour, The Fisher buildings (Charles Atwood, 1896 & Peter Weber, 1907; 343 South Dearborn Street) on CAC’s Historic Skyscraper tour are neo-Gothic, with ornamentation similar to that found in the 15th century style of the Flemish city of Bruges[ii] and the French Normandy city of Rouen.
The Spanish Gothic style culminated with the cathedral in Seville (begun 1401); its Giralda Tower is built on the ruins of a mosque. It is a Moorish and Gothic fusion called Moresco[iii]. Chicago’s Wrigley Towers (1921, 1924) are a mixture of Spanish styles with the clock tower resembling the Giralda Tower.
On the Historic Treasures tour is Chicago’s most pronounced example of Venetian Gothic, the Chicago Athletic Club (1893; Henry Ives Cobb) at 12 S Michigan. Influenced by French design, there is also a more horizontal application of ogee-dominated arches on windows and entrances, more like the English style. It also introduced colorfully displayed elements of masonry and resembles the Ducal Palace in Venice.
Collegiate Gothic, a design often[iv] used for government and academic buildings, has origins in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A rectangular pattern of buildings, a “quad”, was often used. Entrances to the central open area are often framed with several pointed arches, nested within each other. Crenelated parapets extend above the roof line. Tracery is often used between sections of glass in a predominant window. Other windows were tall and divided by wood or lead. These elements reference morality and rigidity, connoting the same values for these institutions. These qualities were considered important for universities that hoped to entice alumni donations[v].
The Collegiate Gothic at the University of Chicago was influenced heavily by Henry Ives Cobb between 1891-1930, as he developed the quadrangles of the campus, a common element of this architecture. James Gamble Rogers did extensive work at Yale starting in 1917 and was one of the most preeminent architects during the 1920’s known for Collegiate Gothic architecture. Since Chicago was influenced by many Yale grads, buildings on Northwestern’s campus followed suit.
I’ve reference only a small sample of Chicago’s buildings inspired by the revival of Gothic architecture. You’ll find below a chart of Gothic Revival buildings on various CAC tours. And now I hope you’ll be interested in visiting these buildings and pointing out these fascinating features during your tours.
CLICK HERE for a selected list of Gothic-inspired buildings on CAC tours.
References:
[i] https://study.com/academy/lesson/gothic-revival-architecture-characteristics.html
[ii] https://www.emporis.com/city/100528/bruges-belgium
[iii] Smith, T. Roger. Architecture Gothic and Renaissance Kindle Edition location 1843. Chapter 8.
[iv] https://study.com/academy/lesson/collegiate-gothic-architecture-style-history.html
[v] https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/how-gothic-architecture-took-over-the-american-college-campus/279287/
Many thanks, Tom, for your fascinating article and helpful reference. Happy New Year!!
Wonderful survey of our Gothic and Gothic revival history in Europe and in Chicago.
Mary Brugliera
Thanks, Tom, for your informative article.
Regarding the use of Gothic in colleges – it, along with neo-Classical, were dominant in American colleges in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But some people thought that other approaches should be used. Harriet Monroe, founder and editor of Poetry Magazine, wrote an article for the Chicago Tribune issue of July 13, 1913, titled “Do Greek or Gothic Buildings Express American Ideals?” She starts by quoting Charles Hodgson (of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge) saying he couldn’t do anything in college architecture for a client who should object to both Greek and Gothic. Several paragraphs down she writes
” … the question arises, how far do these Greek or Gothic buildings express the modern American ideals? Are they intimately and profoundly ours, a natural growth of our soil and frames of our life? Do we even succeed in adopting these motives and making them ours as graciously as did the colonial architects of Dartmouth college or the University of Virginia? In the campus of these two colleges one feels an American tradition … Will our successors of the twenty=first century get a similar impression of authenticity, of assimilated and digested ideals, in the campus of Chicago, or Berkeley, or Columbia?
Of course, Mr. Hodgson and other architectural standpatters may ask how we are going to get, in university architecture, anything more authentic, more directly expressive, than they are giving us. The only way we can get it, of course, is by wanting it; by wanting it so hard that we will encourage our most original architects to give it to us. If John Root had lived, the creator of the Monadnock might have found something as new and proud and beautiful to say in scholastic architecture. If the trustees of the University of Chicago had been adventurous enough to trust Louis Sullivan with their project, it is certain that he would have given them neither Greek nor Gothic and quite possible that his gift would have been something which tourists of the far future would visit as eagerly as we visit Oxford.
Still more radical would be the college board who should entrust their campus to Frank Lloyd Wright. The result might not be at once recognizable as the expression of our age and people, but at least it would represent a strong individual, one with an original system of design, which has caused certain foreign critics to salute him as one of the three or four greatest living architects. And there is Walter Burley Griffin, a brilliant young Chicago architect, who has planned the new capitol of Australia – what have we done to show as much confidence in this original designer of neither Greek nor Gothic?”
I am certain that Monroe’s late brother-in-law John Wellborn Root, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Walter Burley Griffin would have agreed with her.
FLW did design a college campus. It’s in Lakeland FL. Here’s a link:
https://www.flsouthern.edu/arts-centers/frank-lloyd-wright/home.aspx
Hi Tom,
You might enjoy: “Skyscraper Gothic: Medieval Style and Modernist Buildings” by Kevin Murphy and Lisa Reilly published in 2017.
Best in the New Year!
peace
BK
Great article, Tom! I hope in 2021 you will do a new version of the Chicago Gothic bus tour! Lots more that could be shown in close proximity to each other.
Thanks for your research and your photos, Tom! Much appreciated.