Architects:
\nDaniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912)
\nJohn Wellborn Root (1850-1891)
\nCharles Bowler Atwood (1849-1896)<\/p>\n
Name of the building:
\nReliance Building<\/p>\n
Site:
\nWashington St.,
\nLoop Historical Retail Disctrict,
\nChicago, Illinois<\/p>\n
Client:
\nWilliam Ellery Hale (1836-1898)<\/p>\n
Engineer:
\nEdward Clapp Shankland (1854-1924)
\nGeorge A. Fuller (1851-1900)<\/p>\n
Other actors:
\nBaldwin Development Company (restoration project leader)
\nMcClier studio (restoration co-designer)
\nUBM Inc (restoration co-designer)
\nT. Gunny Harboe (restoration supervisor)<\/p>\n
Start of construction works:
\n1891<\/p>\n
Project variations:
\nRoot\u2019s first version of the project was a 16-th story tower building. Only the ground floor was built before the architect\u2019s premature death. The design work resumed in 1894, but sadly there was no trace left of Root\u2019s drawings of the upper floors. The new project was designed by Atwood, maintaining the structural grid set by Root but using new construction technologies.<\/p>\n
End of construction works:
\n1891 conclusion of ground floor construction works
\n1894 conclusion of the upper floor construction works
\n1895 official grand-opening<\/p>\n
Restoration:
\nIn 1994 the City of Chicago funded the building\u2019s renovation, which primarily involved the exterior and interior cladding.<\/p>\n
Recognition:
\n1976 designated as Nation Historic Landmark of United States<\/p>\n
Construction system:
\nIron structure vertically composed of pillars having an H section on the ground floor and gray columns on the upper floors.
\nThe horizontal bracing along the facade is reached through plate girders. The internally placed beams are connected horizontally by tie rods.
\nThe pillars and the structure on the outer edge of the building are covered in terracotta tiles for fireproofing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Springs up by magic” – spuntato come per magia, cos\u00ec titolava The Chicago Tribune nel 1894, raccontando le ingegnose vicende costruttive che portarono alla realizzazione in tempi brevissimi del Reliance Building, torre per uffici del distretto commerciale di Chicago. Al tempo la citt\u00e0 divenne culla del movimento Chicago School, formato da talentuosi architetti alla ricerca di un linguaggio architettonico per la nuova tipologia del grattacielo che offriva elevate possibilit\u00e0 di sperimentazione tecnologica nella sua ancora inconclusa espressione formale, seppur vincolata dall\u2019influenza speculativa della committenza americana.<\/p>\n
Alla sua inaugurazione nel 1895, la nuova torre in vetro e terracotta smaltata brillava bianca fra le costruzioni in mattoni rossi di Chicago, sollevando diverse critiche: ammirato per i suoi inusuali metodi di costruzione, la sua apparente fragilit\u00e0 venne inizialmente etichettata come simbolo della povert\u00e0 formale dell\u2019era industriale e priva di bellezza estetica. Ancora prima del suo completamento, nel 1894 M. Schuyler lo defin\u00ec perturbante e, in un saggio del 1896 sul lavoro di Daniel Burnham, descrisse la facciata snella e vetrata dell\u2019edificio come il fallimento del tradizionale ruolo portante del muro. Visto dal critico troppo industriale nella sua costruzione, pi\u00f9 simile a un ponte che a un\u2019architettura, lo additava come un\u2019abdicazione all\u2019autorit\u00e0 muraria in favore degli espedienti tecnologici. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":552,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-71","projects","type-projects","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","architect-burnham","year-1890-1895"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailsinsection.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/projects\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailsinsection.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/projects"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailsinsection.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/projects"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailsinsection.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailsinsection.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailsinsection.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}