Monadnock Building - Chicago, IL
Posted by: 
Hikenutty
N 41° 52.690 W 087° 37.718
16T E 447838 N 4636440
The Monadnock Building, the last building designed by John Root, was built in 1892 and is the tallest solid brick masonry building in the world.
Waymark Code: WM1Y33
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 07/31/2007
Views: 88
The following excerpt is from "The WPA Guide to Illinois":
The MONADNOCK BUILDING, 53 W. Jackson Blvd., was studied and highly praised by European critics during the Columbian Exposition. Last and largest of the old type masonry buldings, it has walls 15 feet thick at the base. Its lines are as pleasing now as in 1892 when John Root erected the building. Not only is it devoid of ornament, but all the angles are rounded in a manner that would be called "streamlinked" today. This is especially noticeable in the flaring base, the lower parts of the soaring bay windows, and the subtle swelling at the top that replaces the usual heavy cornice of the period.
The Monadnock is famous for its simplicity of line and is seen as one of the prototypes of the modern skyscraper. The 17 story building stands 197 feet tall and was actually built in 2 phases. The northern half, designed by John Root, is the last loadbearing skyscraper built and was so heavy that it sank into the ground after it was built and required steps down into the building. Originally the building was to have added ornamentation with an Egyptiian motif, but the developer demanded that the building have no ornamentation.
The southern half of the building has the more modern steel frame construction, so the building truly marks the end of one era of construction and the beginning of another.
An interesting fact is that the building's name is taken from a mountain in New Hampshire that became a geological term for a freestanding mountain surrounded by a plain.