Free previewStop 4 of Chicago Loop Architecture Walking Tour
The Cornice That Came Back
You're standing on West Adams Street at Dearborn, in front of the Marquette Building. Look at the windows first. Each bay is a wide pane of glass with a narrow window on either side. Chicagoans call that a Chicago window, and this building is one of the best places in the city to see it.
You just left the Monadnock, where Burnham and Root stacked brick until the walls had to be enormously thick at the bottom. The Marquette went up in 1895, built by the George A. Fuller Company and designed by William Holabird and Martin Roche. It's 16 stories too. But here a steel frame carries the weight. The brown terra cotta walls hold up nothing but themselves, so the windows could grow wide. That grid of glass on the front is the frame showing through.
The Marquette was a working building, and it lived like one.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 4 of Chicago Loop Architecture Walking Tour (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
