Chicago: Civic Opera Building, 1927-29 by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White (early photo)
This building is typical of the architectural firm's schemes from the 1920s. The main shaft is an unadorned cliff of masonry, but bands of ornament below the hipped roof, at the top of the two transverse wings, and surrounding the windows and doors at street level provide the requisite richness for the home of opera. The building's western façade, which faces the river, is also carefully finished, and the limestone cladding and setbacks are an appropriate counterpoint to the similar but more severe lines of the Chicago Daily News Building opposite and across the river.
Alfred P Shaw (1895-1970), chief designer for the project, said the firm chose what is called French Renaissance style, “modernised for adaptation to American skyscraper construction”.
The splendid composition of the Opera House's river façade was somewhat marred after the Second World War by the installation of corrugated structures housing air conditioning equipment on top of the transverse wings framing the opera stage.
The engineering required to construct a building encompassing an office tower, an auditorium with fine acoustics, and a small separate theatre was formidable. The caissons had to be carried to bedrock and the river wall had to be reinforced to prevent damage from errant ships. The opera building remained a highly visible if somewhat solitary pioneer until the early 1980s when developers took renewed interest in Wacker Drive.
(Jane H Clarke, “The Sky's the Limit”, 1990).
Chicago: Civic Opera Building, 1927-29 by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White (early photo)
This building is typical of the architectural firm's schemes from the 1920s. The main shaft is an unadorned cliff of masonry, but bands of ornament below the hipped roof, at the top of the two transverse wings, and surrounding the windows and doors at street level provide the requisite richness for the home of opera. The building's western façade, which faces the river, is also carefully finished, and the limestone cladding and setbacks are an appropriate counterpoint to the similar but more severe lines of the Chicago Daily News Building opposite and across the river.
Alfred P Shaw (1895-1970), chief designer for the project, said the firm chose what is called French Renaissance style, “modernised for adaptation to American skyscraper construction”.
The splendid composition of the Opera House's river façade was somewhat marred after the Second World War by the installation of corrugated structures housing air conditioning equipment on top of the transverse wings framing the opera stage.
The engineering required to construct a building encompassing an office tower, an auditorium with fine acoustics, and a small separate theatre was formidable. The caissons had to be carried to bedrock and the river wall had to be reinforced to prevent damage from errant ships. The opera building remained a highly visible if somewhat solitary pioneer until the early 1980s when developers took renewed interest in Wacker Drive.
(Jane H Clarke, “The Sky's the Limit”, 1990).