By Bill Coffin, Class of 2004
This is the story of Holabird and Root’s 1929 Michigan Square building told in pictures. You can view the pictures as a simple slideshow, but to experience strolling past the building’s shop windows and opening the doors to its lobby, you’ll need to download the slideshow as a PowerPoint presentation. The link provided at the end of this paragraph takes you to CAC’s Box page. There, click “Download” in the upper right corner (and ignore any invitation to create your own Box account). Open the downloaded PowerPoint file; click “Slide Show” and “From Beginning” in the upper left corner; and then enjoy the show! To get started, CLICK HERE.
Excellent article, Bill,. Well-researched and illustrated. What a loss to Chicago!
Thank you Bill — super Chicago history!!
Encouraging you to convert this to a CAC Live presentation including a fabulous 1920s soundtrack!!
Wonderful presentation — exciting to see how you incorporated colors into the great B/W photos. Thanks so much.
Well done. Thanks for the super presentation.
Thank you Bill! What a fun presentation, with your creative touches. Especially enjoyable is the eye-candy of this treasure building itself.
Everyone should definitely take a couple minutes to see this presentation! Paul Gapp’s comment in the beginning is so apt — evidence of why he won the Pulitzer. (For you youngins, Paul Gapp was the Tribune’s architecture critic prior to Blair Kamin.)
Thank you, Bill!
Pris
What a treasure. Of course, I’m referring not only to the demolished Michigan Square but to Bill Coffin and his research and inimitable style of piecing things together. I’ve read about the Diana Court but could never quite figure out what and where. I cannot say I’m thrilled with what replaced Michigan Square.
Wonderful presentation. I worked for Time Life the summer between high school and college and walked through the lobby every day. It was years later, after it was gone, that I realized what I had been seeing.