Auditorium Building
Adler and Sullivan
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Date
1866-1889Description
South arcade, horizontal view of the southeast corner, depicting the two components of the arcade: a flat arch opening crowned by an arched opening; The Auditorium was built for a syndicate of businessmen to house a large civic opera house; to provide an economic base it was decided to wrap the auditorium with a hotel and office block. Hence Adler & Sullivan had to plan a complex multiple-use building. Fronting on Michigan Avenue, overlooking the lake, was the hotel (now Roosevelt University) while the offices were placed to the west on Wabash Avenue. The entrance to the auditorium is on the south side beneath the tall blocky seventeen-story tower. The rest of the building is a uniform ten stories, organized in the same way as Richardson's Marshall Field Wholesale Store. The interior embellishment, however, is wholly Sullivan's, and some of the details, because of their continuous curvilinear foliate motifs, are among the nearest equivalents to European Art Nouveau architecture. (p 179-180) Source: Roth, Leland M.; A Concise History of American Architecture, 1st ed., New York : Harper & Row, c1979 (0064300862 (pbk.) ) (accessed 12/1/2007)
Type of Work
auditorium; mixed-use developmentSubject
architectural exteriors, music, Performing arts, Richardsonian Romanesque, Romanesque Revival, Chicago School
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only