A "Chicago in Stone and Clay" Companion, Part MON-A: A Great Upward Sweep of Brick | Monadnock Building (1891; additions in 1893)
This series complements my award-winning guidebook, Chicago in Stone and Clay: A Guide to the Windy City's Architectural Geology. Henceforth I'll just call it CSC.
The CSC section and page reference for the building featured here: 7.6; pp. 106-108.
Looking southwestward at the northern and eastern elevations.
It's world-famous for its design as an early skyscraper with load-bearing masonry walls. While it does in fact have some interior support provided by iron beams and columns, the structure's outer shell does most of the work, and the visceral impact of its dark and massive construction can only be fully experienced by visiting the building in person.
Designer John Wellborn Root did employ some lighter-toned Graniteville Granite quarried in the St. Francois Mountains of Missouri, but the bulk of the original Monadnock and Kearsarge sections is built of deep-brown Chicago Anderson Pressed Brick. In contrast, the Wachusett and Katahdin additions at the southern end of the block, were clad with matching Tiffany Pressed Brick manufactured in Momence, Illinois.
The massive Anderson brickworks complex was located on the bank of the Chicago River's North Branch. The firm most often used as its base material underclays (ancient soils) and marine shales extracted in the great coal-mining district of the Illinois Basin. These dated to the Pennsylvanian subperiod (Upper Carboniferous period),
On the other hand, the Tiffany works—not to be confused with Louis Comfort Tiffany's ornamental-glass and faience company headquartered out East—used clay mined on its own property, apparently from Quaternary glacial or postglacial sediments. When fired, this turned a standard red color; but when combined with manganese, it produced the required brown color instead.
For more on the geology of this architectural masterpiece, see my book Chicago in Stone and Clay, described at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765063/chicago-i... and at raymondwiggers.com/publications-of-raymond-wiggers/.
The other photos and discussions in this series can be found in my "Chicago in Stone and Clay" Companion album. In addition, you'll find other relevant images and descriptions in my Architectural Geology: Chicago album.
A "Chicago in Stone and Clay" Companion, Part MON-A: A Great Upward Sweep of Brick | Monadnock Building (1891; additions in 1893)
This series complements my award-winning guidebook, Chicago in Stone and Clay: A Guide to the Windy City's Architectural Geology. Henceforth I'll just call it CSC.
The CSC section and page reference for the building featured here: 7.6; pp. 106-108.
Looking southwestward at the northern and eastern elevations.
It's world-famous for its design as an early skyscraper with load-bearing masonry walls. While it does in fact have some interior support provided by iron beams and columns, the structure's outer shell does most of the work, and the visceral impact of its dark and massive construction can only be fully experienced by visiting the building in person.
Designer John Wellborn Root did employ some lighter-toned Graniteville Granite quarried in the St. Francois Mountains of Missouri, but the bulk of the original Monadnock and Kearsarge sections is built of deep-brown Chicago Anderson Pressed Brick. In contrast, the Wachusett and Katahdin additions at the southern end of the block, were clad with matching Tiffany Pressed Brick manufactured in Momence, Illinois.
The massive Anderson brickworks complex was located on the bank of the Chicago River's North Branch. The firm most often used as its base material underclays (ancient soils) and marine shales extracted in the great coal-mining district of the Illinois Basin. These dated to the Pennsylvanian subperiod (Upper Carboniferous period),
On the other hand, the Tiffany works—not to be confused with Louis Comfort Tiffany's ornamental-glass and faience company headquartered out East—used clay mined on its own property, apparently from Quaternary glacial or postglacial sediments. When fired, this turned a standard red color; but when combined with manganese, it produced the required brown color instead.
For more on the geology of this architectural masterpiece, see my book Chicago in Stone and Clay, described at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765063/chicago-i... and at raymondwiggers.com/publications-of-raymond-wiggers/.
The other photos and discussions in this series can be found in my "Chicago in Stone and Clay" Companion album. In addition, you'll find other relevant images and descriptions in my Architectural Geology: Chicago album.