Glasgow?

Glasgow or some other Charles Rennie MacIntosh fantastical construct?





So, Glasgow or..Chicago?

Endangered!

This fine building off Addison (just west of Halsted, behind the police station) is reputedly in danger of demolition. I wish there was an easy way to stop that from happening. It has some very distinct Jugendstil, or more accurately, Sezession details and the detailing varies per entry (of which there are several.

The Sunroom - Part I

One of the most distinctive - and defining - characteristics of early 20th century residential architecture in Chicago and a paragon, local sign or epitome of domesticality is the sunroom. These rooms are either at the front or back of a residential building, however, in this post we are going to address the front, as the rear sunroom is actually often just an enclosed back porch. They occur all the way from bungalows to high rises (though it may takes some sleuthing to determine this).

They were even noted at the time of construction as being noteworthy in the national, serious, architectural press. "Special attention should be called to the extensive use of the run parlor, sometimes taking the whole end of a room, or being added to the front and covering portions of the living room and dining room" (1) was written about the apartment houses of this area. Many apartment buildings have these "sun parlors" throughout the city, and without further ado, here are some examples.

Here is an earlier red brick example with colonial inspired brickwork, Dutch Colonial, in fact, with windows in the living room on either side of the sunroom. The brickwork is also heavily accented with varied soldier courses and rowlock courses along with limestone trim. The eyebrows above the first floor windows are particularly distinctive.




Next we have a similar version, also in red brick, but with the sunrooms pushed to the outside of the front of the building. This example is rather chaste, comparatively, when one looks at the previous example. The detailing, however, is quite typical of Chicago, with craftsman or prairie overtones. Even though this building has a symmetrical elevation, the plan becomes off center, with two different unit plans, one apartment will gain an extra bedroom (or larger living room or den) at the front.

Next up we have what is pretty much the prototypical Chicago apartment building; deep, dark reddish brick, sunrooms, sparing limestone trim with heavy brick ornamentation, metal cornicing and a symmetrical layout. This example is also exceptionally well maintained. It also have a nice "gable" above the front entry. A word, a quick note, should be said at this time about orientation. One would think that the sunroom would and should face south, if it could. But, as the if implies, this isn't always possible with the Chicago grid, though the majority of buildings face either east or west by virtue of the bulk of the city blocks being oriented north and south, but buildings, and hence, their sunrooms, can also face north.

Next we move on to another type of sunroom, the chamfered or "bay" sunroom. This generally called an 'octagon' in bungalow terminology, but I think that this would be more typically correct in a three-flat which is closer to a a bungalow (a close relative to be sure, planwise). This is a nice example of a fairly plainly decorated building which shows the chamfers very nicely. In this case, the lack of additional windows on the facade indicated that the sunroom and living room "run together" or really are one large, bayed room. The center windows indicate a front, rather than internal staircase as well.

Here is another, nearly identical example, except in a butter yellow brick, which also has slightly more exuberant decoration, such as the arched parapet wall, brick trim and stone 'quoins' below the first floor window sill.

Rather unusually there is an arched window at the upper stair landing; these are not terribly common in Chicago. Both likely in that they don't fit craftsman traditions to some extent, but more likely because of cost. Remember, most of these buildings were built speculatively for investors, either live-in or absentee, so cost was an issue, then as now, as would have been speed of construction, which was much longer then than now.

(1) The Architectural Forum, December 1919, "The Apartment Building for Moderate Rentals, Part II", Elisha Harris Janes, P. 194

Six Flat Façades

There are many different façade treatments in the Chicago six-flat (as with all the other types too). They vary by era, class of building, builder, etc...

We'll start with some elderly façades - well, older anyway - which were typically graystones. I would assume that the term greystone comes from the what I presume to be Indiana limestone, which I guess was the most fashionable material at that time.

Here are two examples of this, both with bay windows, one with (non-original) balconies, which I suspect is somewhat newer and an older one without.

The second example has a very grand, formal, front entrance which is highly ornamented in a classical manner. The entrance is central, taking equal space from each of the first floor apartments. It has also had its, most likely tin, cornice removed. The first example has retained it's stone cornice, but lost it's original balcony railings and fascia. It has a side entrance, which steals a bedroom from one of the first floor units. Both have internal staircases, lit either from above by a skylight or from the rear via a lightwell.

Then we progress on to what I call a "flat-front" façade, with inset balconies at the front. The balconies are "internal" in that they form a room within the face of the building, usually with a bedroom fronting onto it, with a side door from the living room onto the balcony. This is a case where the living room has the short end to the street, as opposed to the long side to the street - which only allows one room to the street. This allows a bedroom to share the orientation of the living room to the street, and may make the overall depth of the building somewhat shorter. This example has deep red brick (I will have to touch on color in a future post, but it has to be said that there are many different brick colors that were used) with colonial trim, and has retained what appear to be it's original balcony railings, dividers and thin stone cornice.

There is also a typical variation on the storied Chicago window, with a wider, operable window in the center of the three window unit. This building has luckily retained it's original mullion patterns as well.

I am going to leave it here for tonight; tomorrow or the next day, I will get into the next type, the sunroom front, which has one of the most typical, characteristic of Chicago vernacular details, the front sunroom. But to whet your appetites, I am going to include one which is somewhat, somewhere in between the characteristic and typical sunroom front and the flat front. This example has the sunrooms merged into a central bay housing the front stairs and vestibule forming a sort of half-sunroom on the front elevation.

Needless to say there are many more front treatments and typologies to be explored. The sunroom has huge numbers of wonderful examples, and then there are the custom and higher end buildings, with classical, architect designed features which evolved into the few, but not, luckily, too rare art deco buildings which can be found here and there.

Upcoming Posts

No, I haven't forgotten about this little project, my blog. I am planning some future posts as I write. Lets see, we haven't quite finished with six flats yet, not by a long shot. Then we have courtyard buildings to move on to.

And then there are some other topics. I'm planning on doing a feature or featurette on Holsman, Holsman, Klekamp and Taylor, who have done some of my favorite post-war buildings in Chicago. I may throw in some single-family just for fun and maybe some unexpected examples of things here and there, hither and tither.

I am thinking perhaps, of the futurist, as opposed to futuristic, buildings along South Hyde Park Boulevard would be fun to do. In fact, a south side trip is in order to get more photographs.

Just to keep us going, here's a six-flat facade, the treatment of which there are innumerable examples of.

20's Six-Flat

Here we have, in this example, a 20's six-flat with a rather unusual, but not terribly uncommon, plan, with a master bedroom and bath in front, while the two secondary bedrooms and bath off the kitchen, which is separated by the dining room from the front bedroom and living room. This would be wonderful for families with older children, but not, perhaps with newborn infants or toddlers, tough good for roommates and having an office, den or family room in one.

This one also has a rather nice, simple Hollywood Spanish-Deco facade as well, in an nice, somewhat unusual orange brick with nice stone (one assumes, Indiana Limestone of course, naturally it could be from elsewhere).

Another Six Flat

This time a somewhat newer six-flat, this is a 20s vintage plan with larger rooms and better proportions and closet space as well. An interesting detail is the inset back stair and lack of a large, or, in fact, any discernible back porch. This one, this example, unlike our last one, doesn't have a light well and sports what might be called a true dumbbell plan, which widens out to the lot lines at the ends, allowing the middle windows to be set back from the property line; another unusual feature is the rear facing bedroom (maids room at one time most likely) which is rear facing. Since this room faces the rear, it also has better light than most would. This vintage tends to feature ornate decorative fireplaces and this is no exception, with typical book niches at the sides as well.

The elevation is in blond brick with softly curving bays across the front of each unit with soft art deco ornamentation, which is not a typical treatment, though it occurs in very late 20's buildings (see future post for more on these facades). This is also a rather attractive way of handling the center entry and stairway while not having a flat front facade.