155 North Wacker Drive Building

 by: chicago designslinger

 [155 North Wacker Drive Building (2009) Goettsch Partners, architects /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Once upon a time, the leg of Wacker Drive running alongside the south branch of the Chicago River was called Market Street. An appropriate name since the thoroughfare was lined with brick warehouses and heavily trafficked with wagons moving goods to and from markets near and far. Unfortunately by the 1950s many of the old warehouses were underutilized, and large trucks were much harder to maneuver on the street than horses and wagons. In the early 50s the city began extending the 1920s-era, double-decked portion of  Wacker Drive, which already ran along the river's main branch, and took it around the corner, ran the stacked roadway south, and Market became Wacker. In 1974 Sears Tower opened at 233 S. Wacker, and the former warehouse district began a towering transformation. Today the Drive is lined with high-rise office buildings, and 155 North is one of its latest additions.

  [155 North Wacker Drive Building, 155 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Designed by Goettsch Partners, the project embraces cutting-edge technology and was awarded a Gold LEED certificate. In 2009, when the building was completed, Chicago had the largest number of LEED certified buildings in the country, 86, followed by Portland, OR. with 73. LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and a LEED certificate is something that responsible architects, builders, and developers aspire to when designing and constructing a project these days.

[155 North Wacker Drive Building, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

The ground floor arcade and glass-walled lobby, help open-up a packed urban corner. It also allows for a great view from, and into, a pocket park created by the developer and the city, providing a bit of green space in the dense office tower district. The pocket concept isn't something new, but it was an attempt to introduce a little bit of breathing room into a growing skyscraper-filled landscape. There were those who thought that the demolition of the surrounding old, loft-style, warehouse buildings had more to do with the developer's desire to wipe the slate clean at the building's eastern end and provide better views of the multi-million dollar investment. But people seem to enjoy having the opportunity to take a break in the park, even if it means sitting on a hard, not-so-comfortable, slab bench.  

Wrigley Building

 by: chicago designslinger

 [Wrigley Building (1921/1924) Charles G. Beersman; Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, architects /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

In October 2006, Bill Wrigley, Jr. II turned over the reins of running his great-grandfather's chewing gum concern to a non-family member, and for the first time in its history the William Wrigley, Jr. Company didn't have a Wrigley in the CEO's chair. In April 2008 Mars Inc., makers of candy and assorted goods, bought Wrigley for $23 billion in cash, but Bill kept his title as chairman, thereby keeping the family name connected to the business. In January 2010 however, Wrigley sent an inter-office email to employees informing them that he would be stepping down as chairman at the end of the month, and there were no more Wrigleys at Wrigley. Then, on September 19, 2011 it was announced that Mars had sold the iconic terra-cotta building bearing the Wrigley name to a group of Chicago investors for a reported $30 million, which had cost the first William about $7 million ($93m in today's inflated dollars) to build in the early 1920s.

 [Wrigley Building, 410 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Wrigley started his company selling soap and baking soda, and as an incentive to buy the product placed a stick of chewing gum into each package. When the gum proved to be more popular than the soap or soda he got into the gum manufacturing business. The view from his is downtown business office on the south bank of the main branch of the Chicago River looked north across a waterway lined with warehouses and ships moored along the river's banks loading and unloading freight in buildings like the one occupied by the soap maker James S. Kirk Company. When the city of Chicago announced plans to build a bridge spanning the water route and joining Michigan Avenue with Pine Street, the chewing gum magnate saw potential in the run down industrial site across the way.

[Wrigley Building, National Register of Historic Places, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

He purchased long term leaseholds on the land and hired the classically-inclined architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White to design the building. A young up-and-coming architect, Charles G. Beersman, was given the assignment and construction of the clock-towered structure rose up at the northwest corner of the nearly completed bridge. The glistening structure proved to be a powerful draw and a very worthwhile investment. By the time the building opened in 1921, the Wrigley company occupying floors 14, 15 & 16, and the remainder was leased to other tenants. The glistening structure proved to be a powerful draw and a very worthwhile investment. The company took over floors 14, 15, & 16 and before construction was completed in 1921, 95% of the unoccupied office space in the tower was leased. So in 1924 the North Building was opened, and in the early 1930s a sky bridge was built connecting the pair.
The new owners plan on a complete overhaul of the interior for the 21st century, and have made an application to have the building designated a historic landmark - something the Wrigleys never sought to do. The remaining Wrigley/Mars employees still occupying office space in the building will move to a research center that the company owns on the city's near north side on Goose Island. Will the Wrigley remain attached to the popular landmark? Only time will tell. Sears vacated their tall tower in 1992, but the name stuck until 2010. Marshall Field's occupied the corner of State and Randolph for 138 years before being renamed Macy's on State Street. In New York, the F.W. Woolworth company hasn't been in their purpose built corporate headquarters building for decades, but the name has stuck - and perhaps the Wrigley name will as well.   

S. Karpen & Bros. Building, Chicago

 by: chicago designslinger

 [S. Karpen & Bros. Building, Chicago (1899) Hessenmueller & Meldahl, architects /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

This small 7-story gem of a building didn't always look like it could barely breathe squeezed in between two towering skyscrapers. The little structure began life in 1885 as the Hotel Richelieu, book ended by buildings of similar height, and one of a number of hotels that once lined this portion of Michigan Avenue. The Richelieu was known for it's kitchen, providing elegant Parisian fare to a discerning clientele, which included the likes of theater diva "The Divine Sarah" Bernhardt.

  [S. Karpen & Bros. Building, Chicago, 318 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Unfortunately the Richelieu couldn't survive on fancy food alone, and the establishment closed its doors in 1895. Just up the street, located at the intersection of Adams and Michigan, S. Karpen & Bros. were looking for a new home for their furniture business. They'd sold their building and the leasehold on the land they occupied to the Peoples Light, Gas & Coke Company who wanted to locate their new headquarters on the property. The Karpen's in turn, purchased the Richelieu and hired architects Hessenmueller & Meldahl to give the building a complete makeover.

  [S. Karpen & Bros. Building, Chicago, Historic Michigan Boulevard District, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

The interior of the hotel was gutted and reworked into a large open floor plans to provide the kind of space needed for a warehouse and showroom. The exterior facade was removed, a floor was added, and the Michigan Avenue facade was finished in a decorative, creamy, terra-cotta cover. The Karpen's business flourished, becoming the largest upholstered furniture manufacturer in the world. In 1910 the company moved, once again a little further down Michigan Avenue, and this Karpen became the Findlay. In the early 1980s the building was refurbished and the first two floors were given the new limestone facade when the city's Housing Department moved in for a long stay. Today the structure sits empty, part of a condo conversion project which included its tall, next door neighbor the former Straus Building. Unfortunately it seems that the smaller portion of the real estate venture is on hold while it waits for better economic times.

Isaac N. Camp Row Houses

 by: chicago designslinger

 [Isaac N. Camp Row Houses (ca. 1873) Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Today when you walk down busy Monroe Street, it's hard to imagine that when Isaac Camp moved into the tall, Italianate row house in the early 1870s the building was located on the outskirts of the city of Chicago. Business was booming in the midwestern outpost, and Camp was in on the action. His business was pianos and organs, and was brought into the musical instrument world by partner Hampton L. Story in 1868. By 1884 Story was ready to move on and Story & Camp became Estey & Camp, which cranked out over 7,000 pianos and organs a year.

  [Isaac N. Camp Row Houses, 1526-1528 W. Monroe Street, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Camp's next door and wall sharing neighbor was John Crighton of Crighton & Rathborne, flour inspectors. The company worked with members of Chicago's burgeoning Board of Trade making sure wheat futures and their products were legit. The Camps and Crightons were on the outer edge of high society but were socially prominent enough to get a mention now and then in the pages of the city's society columns. This is how we know that in 1874 when the Crighton's daughter Belle got married in the Monore Street house, Mr. & Mrs. Isaac Camp were not only in attendance but gave the newlyweds a silver card-case as a wedding present.

  [Isaac N. Camp Row Houses, National Register of Historic Places, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Camp died at home on July 12, 1896 followed by his wife Flora a few months later. The Crightons moved on to a more fashionable neighborhood and the Monroe Street group fell on hard times. But times have changed once again, and today the row has been spruced up and converted into residential and office condominiums.

William J. Onahan Row Houses

 by: chicago designslinger

 [William J. Onahan Row Houses (ca. 1875) Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

This entire row of houses, named for William J. Onahan, was home to the Onahan family who occupied the two-story dwelling at the east end of the row, at the far right side of the photo. Onahan came to Chicago via Liverpool in 1856, entered the commission business, became very active in local Irish organizations, was president of the Union Catholic Library Association, served two long terms as the City Collector, was named a Count of the Roman Catholic Church by the Pope, and got a Chicago public school named after him.

[William J. Onahan Row Houses, 1254-1262 Lexington Street, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

The row was built sometime in the 1870s, after the big fire of 1871, and the name of the architect who designed them has been lost to history. Onahan's name first shows up at No. 37 Macalaster Place (the old address and street) in the 1880 census along with with his wife Margaret, 13-year-old daughter Mary and his mother-in-law. When he died at home in 1919, his house number had changed to 1254 and Macalaster was often spelled as Macalister.

    [William J. Onahan Row Houses, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

But before Onahan's name was attached to the row, the Chicago Tribune reported on July 22, 1879 that "three marble-fronted houses Nos. 37, 39 and 41 Macalister place fronting Vernon Park were sold to John Coughlan for $7,800." Coughlan lived two doors down in a large, single family home on the corner of Macalister at No. 31. So although it appears that John Couhglan owned three of the five houses in the row when the census taker registered the Onahan's as the inhabitants of No. 37, today the entire row bears the name of the former City Collector and Catholic Count.

John Coughlan House

 by: chicago designslinger

 [John Coughlan House (ca. 1872) Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

The John Coughlan house sits at the corner of Lytle and Lexington Streets on the Near West Side of Chicago. In 1871, the year before the businessman bought the property and built his Italianate, two-story with basement, single family home, the Great Fire had started just blocks away on DeKoven Street.

  [John Coughlan House, 1254 W. Lexington Street, Chicago /Images & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

The house sat on what was then known as Macalaster Place overlooking a small park. In the 1850's Philadelphian's Charles Macalaster and Henry Gilpin bought large tracts of land at the western edge of the 20-year-old city. They laid out a street grid, placed a park at it's center, and donated the small greenspace to the city in 1860. The street bordering the southern boundary of Vernon Park was called Gilpin Place, and at its northern border, Macalaster Place. Coughlan purchased lots 24 and 25 of Block 5 of Macalaster's subdivison of the Vernon Park Addition in 1872.

  [John Coughlan House, Chicago / Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

In the intervening years as the population soared, the neighborhood became one of the city's larger Irish immigrant enclaves. Macalaster morphed into Macalister, Coughlan's address changed from No. 41 to number 1246, the neighborhood became primarily Italian speaking, and the street name was changed to Lexington. In the late 50s and early 60s, Leonard Currie, Dean of the School of Architecture and Art at the nearby University of Illinois, Chicago Circle Campus purchased the old Coughlan house and renovated the 80+ year-old building, which he sold in 1981. Vernon Park was renamed Arrigo Park in honor of  life-long resident and Italian-American activist Victor Arrigo and the old Italian neighborhood is now dominated by residents affiliated with the ever expanding university, or by people who just want to live in a thriving urban community.

Old Colony Building

 by: chicago designslinger

 [Old Colony Building (1894) Holabird & Roche, architects /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Named the Old Colony building in 1894 by owner and Bostonian Francis Bartlett in recognition of his home state and the old Plymouth Colony, the northeastern U.S. connection played a major role in architect's Holabird & Roche securing the commission. There were just a few degrees of separation between the designers and the owner, and from that circle some of Chicago's most renowned buildings were produced.

  [Old Colony Building, 407 South Dearborn Street, Chicago /Images & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Before Martin Roche joined William Holabird as a partner, Holabird was teamed-up with Ossian Simonds. The partnership didn't last too long as Simonds the result of Simond's growing repsonsiblities in overseeing the design of the recently opened Graceland Cemetery - final resting place for some of Chicago's wealthiest citizens. Bryan Lathrop, who had recently arrived in Chicago at the close of the Civil War in 1865, joined his uncle's real estate firm as well as becoming the general manager of Graceland. In 1875, Lathrop  married Miss Helen Aldis, whose family ancestry took her back to the shores of 1630s Massachusetts. Helen had brother, Owen, a Boston attorney active in real estate ventures, who worked as the agent for a pair of Boston-area brothers busy gobbling-up chunks of Chicago real estate. Aldis left Beantown for Chicago and teamed-up with his brother-in-law, who had a better handle on the Chicago marketplace. The Brooks/Boston/Aldis connection led to Lathrop's partnership with Mr. Francis Bartlett, another East Coast investor interested in making money in the exploding Chicago market. It was through his role as the head honcho of Graceland, and his association with Simonds, that Lathrop met Holabird & Roche, who introduced the architects to Bartlett and Aldis, who then introduced them to the Brooks brothers. It was how the Old Colony got built, as the the multiple corners of a square-in-the-circle drew together.

  [Old Colony Building /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

When Bryan Lathrop opened his offices in the newly completed Old Colony Building in 1894, the front entrance was on Van Buren Street. But after the steel supports of the city's famous elevated line passed with feet of the Van Buren facade a few years later, the entryway was sealed-up and converted into a storefront. And although the Van Buren entrance didn't survive into the 21st century, the building's round corner bays are now the sole survivors of an architectural feature once found on a number of buildings in Chicago's downtown business district. The Old Colony has seen better days, but a recent cleaning of the facade by new owners has put a shine back on the old place, and may be a sign of brighter things to come.