A. George Miller
Palmolive Building, Chicago
Vintage gelatin-silver print, Circa 1931
14 x 11 inches

September 15, 2000 – November 25, 2000

Chicago’s Jazz Age architecture was simply called Modernistic when it was created in the 1920s, and Modern as it evolved into the Swing era of the 1930s. Whether starkly cubistic or smoothly streamlined, the new office and apartment buildings that redefined the skyline embodied the new language of building until the 1950s.

When Daniel Burnham’s sons assumed control of their father’s firm, they built some of the most flamboyant skyscrapers in the Loop, rivaling Manhattan’s towers and creating instant landmarks. Their Carbide & Carbon Building on Michigan Avenue is often equated with New York’s Chrysler Building in its exuberant use of ziggurat massing, deep sculptural reliefs and polychromatic coloring.

A. George Miller Hall of Science, A Century of Progress vintage Gelatin-Silver Print, 1933 9 x 12 inches

Alfonso Iannelli Proposed Pavilion for Goodyear, 1933 26 x 39 inches

Burnham Brothers, as the firm was later named, also designed the muscular Engineering Building at Wells and Wacker, The Medical Arts Building at Randolph and Wabash, and the never-built 60 story Cuneo Building overlooking Grant Park that fell victim to the 1929 Stock Market Crash. 1933’s great World’s Fair, A Century of Progress, displayed a fantastic new city of the future that became an icon decades later of the new term Art Deco.

For the fair, Alfonso Iannelli designed pavilions for Goodyear, Havoline Oil, Elgin Watches, and Electricity that boldly declared the new modern forms in soaring curves or zig zag radio waves. Iannelli’s streamlined renderings for the Goodyear Pavilion figured in a corporate tug of war between the tire manufacturer and its chief rival, Firestone.

Chicago also demonstrated the new stylistic flourishes in countless small, commercial buildings around the city. Their terra cotta and stone details, cornices and ornamental friezes were captured by photographers hungry for new still-life subjects.

On September 15th ArchiTech presents an exhibition and sale of original design drawings, blueprints and vintage photographs of all these spectacular creations. Deco Chicago will continue at ArchiTech through Saturday, November 25th, 2000.