Some Art Deco Gems

Well, today we'll go back in time a bit from yesterday's posting and take a look at some of Chicago's art deco heritage. Our first example is from Edgewater Beach, which, unfortunately, didn't photograph well, due to the quite large trees out front. In front, however, you can see the unique reverse arched windows, which I have never seen before in this vintage in Chicago. To the left, the building next door also has a deco flavor, albeit one inspired by prairie and gothic verticality.
Our next example is from the gold coast, and represents what I see as more of a typical - even traditional deco (really more modern, due to lack of ornamentation) townhouse form but in a three-flat. Interestingly, it mimics in scale the older house to the right, which indicates that it might have been a remodel - a dreaded facadectomy even. But a full renovation is more likely. Here we have a rather interesting small apartment building from Lake View. This one is quite ornamented, with a rather unique rusticated stone trim, but at the base and the two center columns. This is paired against the sleek silver metal and glass block entry and the horizontally divided lites in the windows. If you were to peek around the side you would see metal casements along the sides and rear of the building as well. Our last two examples are in Rogers Park - West Rogers Park (or West Ridge if you prefer) along the "Farwell Corridor" as I've dubbed it. I've called it this because of the fine examples of large and grand apartment buildings there. These two large six-flats have wonderful decoation on their blond and yellow-blonde facades. The second one, in particual, has wonderful stonework with a florid deco influence. The interior of this building also, apparently, features much Hollywood Deco inspired detailing, such as doorways and plasterwork.

Even though Chicago really isn't a deco stronghold, we do have some nice, very nice in fact, examples, even among our vernacular housing stock.

Viking Apartments

Continuing on our Wisconsin themed posts (you did know, didn't you, that we had this theme going?), I present here, the patented plans of the Viking Apartments in Milwaukee by one Herbert W. Tullgren in 1931. Yes, I did say patented, U.S. Patent # 1,896,734. His plan, used several times in Milwaukee, features a skip-stop elevator set-up with duplex or maisonette units, with the elevator stopping only at the living room floors. While I'm not a big fan of design patents, I do find it rather interesting that he did so. Unfortunately this set-up is not very common in the US due to our, perhaps admittedly over-stringent fire codes and overly paranoid and litigious society, however it works quite well for creating a house like, even exclusive feel to what would otherwise be an ordinary apartment, as well as saving money on construction by having fewer elevator doors and creating more rentable, leaseable and saleble space within the building, or by allowing more, larger units with fewer elevators (the other solution for large elevator apartments would be more elevators with smaller lobbies). It is also an attractive simple art deco or moderne building of white masonry construction.
As a sidenote or aside, the building is on the National Register for it's contribution to it's local area.

The Courtyard Building, Part VI; Courtyard Variations

There are some variants to the standard courtyard building, which, while not rare, are not common, such as the half courtyard. On the other hand, there are some truly rare forms, such as the, as I call it, reverse courtyard - an almost phallic shaped building centered on the lot with an entry courtyard on either side - as if two half courtyard buildings were joined, fused back to back. This has several subforms, I believe one could argue, but I am only going to address one which follows typical courtyard fashion in decor and entrances, as well as the landscaped side entry courtyards. At the bottom plans will show these two variations. Actually, this post will only deal with the half courtyard variation, as I am finding it is too lengthy of a topic to combine postings such as these.

The half courtyard is found throughout the city, where ever lot sizes didn't allow for a full courtyard, or other reason. They are even sometimes built contigiously with another one to form a courtyard from separate buildings (especially in the two-story variant[s]. They can vary from a typical sized half building (50 foot lot, maybe even smaller sometimes) to fairly large, and even grand buildings, with grandly architectural pretensions. At the bottom of this first section is a plan of the typical half-courtyard building.




Our first example is a modest side street red brick example of a half-courtyard. It, rather unusually, has a front bay window, due to the residential nature of the street, with fairly large set-backs and deep parkway. It has the typical front living room and dining room unit of the average courtyard, and in this case, half-courtyard.

The second example is also a fairly typical side street building, albeit a 20's building of butter yellow brick with neo-classical commercial detailing, typical of the period, along with some moorish, medieval and other hollywood inspired fanciful decoration of limestone.


Our next building is also a side street building of butter yellow brick, but this time with full on art deco detailing, if in a rather classical manner. Which of course, is the origin of much 1920's design, despite it's modernity.

The last of these side-street buildings is more of a blond brick, but similarly toned, with a somewhat wider lot. This one sporting more chaste decor and many bays along the side of the court. I see that there is a chimney at the side. One suspects that there are lovely wood-burning fireplaces withing. I suspect that there are none, at most a decorative mantel at most.

This next example is a bit grander, and certainly much more architectonically oriented. It is entered through a charming entryway with gas light of wrought iron, sports neo-colonial balconies, small, precise windows precisely located with simple, chase cornices. There is a certain precision to the detail, which is all very rigid, almost mannered, which is rare in Chicago, to find something this manneristic, however, it's being in the Golden Rectangle of Hyde Park should explain that. Being in Hyde Park, of this era, there was often a higher architectural quality achieved than elsewhere in the city (often, in fact, the south side exceeds the north, particularly the lakefronts - the lakefront areas which are now au courant - architectually in this era).

Here is another view, showing the ivy covered walls enclosing the courtyard and one of the faux gas lights, the sign of 70's and 80's condominium conversions in many buildings across the city, later banned by Peoples Gas (many of them were done* without permission or permits)

*Installed, I mean to say.


Our last example hails from the North Lakefront, Rogers Park to be exact, which is a more typically Chicago building. It has a typical vocabulary for Chicago residential architecture; sunrooms, gables, buff brick and limestone trim. All somewhere in or at the intersection of Prarie Style, Jungendstil and Craftsman aesthetics.




Here we have the plan of a typical half courtyard building. The units are simple, modestly sized, if not small, with the largest unit, as is typical, at the front facing the street, similarly laid out and sized middle units and a "special" or differently planned apartment at the back, facing the rear of the courtyard and the alley.

A San Francisco Sojourn*

And now for something completely different. Apartment buildings from a different city. On my most recent jaunt to San Francisco, I took a number of photographs of that cities vintage apartment stock. In some ways it is (housing stock-wise) very similar to Chicago; age, density and typology, while at the same time being completely different in aesthetic and plan (well, maybe not so different - or not?).

In San Francisco, there is very little brick construction, partially due, I'm sure, to ease of construction - think about schlepping bricks up the hills, availability of timber (mostly redwood, even for framing), lack of stringent fire codes as well as milder weather. There is also the California style of Spanish (or Spanish Colonial more accurately) influences, hence a massive amount of stucco in Mission styles and 1920s Classical Revival styles.

Most people seem to be familiar with the famous "Painted Ladies" of San Francisco's Victorian era, but less well known is the Edwardian and 1920s housing stock. There is also a large, vast by Chicago standards, trove of Art Deco housing as well. Another one of the big differences between the two cities (beyond mild weather, hills, earthquakes, trolleybusses and streetcars) is the lack of alleyways. Since there are no alleys, garages are either often originally incorporated into the front facade, or have been renovated into it.


Here we have a little red Mission style two-flat in the Mission District. This is identified by the cornice line which reflects the old mission churches of Old California, tile roofs and heavy massing. Of heavy San Francisco tradition are the light catching bay windows on the second floor. Although this house is on the "sunny side" of the city, it can still be foggy in the early morning hours here as well, making these windows quite useful. We also have a garage incorporated into the ground floor and a rather unusual appearing round entry with an almost craftsman appearing "roof" at the entry. The low and wide window on the first floor is also rather unusual, and strangely proportioned. Also note the little third floor (attic? or even just decorative) bay in the gable. My suspicion is that this was constructed immediately before the First World War, in the early teens.



Here we have a green two-flat, which I believe is locally known as a "Marina Style" building. This building reflects the 1920's version of Spanish style revival architecture as well as subtle hints of 1920's Classicism. In this case there are some echoes of Chicago buildings with octagonal bays, however, here the facade continues from lot line to lot line. These building also typically have dumbbell plans and light slots, making some rooms rather similar to Chicago apartments. This example comes from the Haight - Alamo Square border.

The interesting thing about these garages in the base, one is that they are often large enough for multiple cars, the other that they occur weather the slope is up from the street or down from the street (and of course they do occur on the sideways slope as well).

In this yellow example we have another example of this type of two-flat building. In this case, an almost indeterminate melange of 1920s forms and earlier decorative styles. An almost medieval cornice detail - or even a hint of Jugendstil or shades of Sezession massing and detailing. The windows and detailing make me think that this was constructed around 1920.

As with Chicago, these types also came in single-family and three story (though very few) versions. There are a large number of these in Richmond and Inner Sunset - two western areas of the city.

Now we move up and into larger format buildings. Here we have another building from the Haight to the left. This one is stuccoed in 1920's fashion, but notice the wood frame construction, as evidenced in the clapboard siding on the right side and the brick veneer base with garage doors. To the right is a corner building from the Mission District with much the same style of layout. The Haight building shows 1920's detailing, while the Mission building shows a light Colonial Revival treatment.

From these two examples it is only a short jump to the Art Deco extravagances which the city is justly known for (one hopes). The first few examples hail from Richmond and are similar in scale to the two previous examples, however, they are much more decorative with a riot of deco extravagances.

The three examples are all richly decorated with ornamented cornices and bay windows, all above the typical garage base which dominates San Francisco. This same style also applies to larger scale building, when the size changes the rhythm of the building less than one would imagine.




Here we have a grand deco entry way to an otherwise plain entry and two views of a spectacularly sited deco extravagance. Notice that the ever present bay windows are here too, with stunning city and park views.







Lastly we have some downtown examples. The first of which I don't really quite know how to categorize, however it is a spectacularly decorated building with extremely ornate bays, as you will note, on a very steeply sloping downtown street - Nob Hill, actually. I find it rather deco influenced, even though it's detailing is rather more Spanish Revival. The flat, plain facade surrounding the bays really implies a deco composition, though I suppose one could really argue that this is a 20's device or even conceit.

Nearby, also on Nob Hill, we have a riotous show of color and ornamentation in tropical greens and gold. Yet here again we find the typical bay windows and spandrel decoration. The decorative panels are typical deco detail, which can be found throughout the deco world.

The entry in this case is truly incredibly lush. I think that this is a good place to mention something about entries. San Francisco has a large number of grand or very charming entryways, both modern and traditional. Many of the apartment buildings have very inviting entry porches or forecourts, many unfortunately gated off today, but still lovely. Some even have cave-like entries, with atrium lighting from above, which incorporate carports within them (these are outside of our scope, as they are in single-family houses). However, there are still vast numbers of wonderful wood or marble lined entries all throughout the city, many of them lovingly preserved.

Our last building is at the top of Nob Hill, at the peak of the city. This is the Clay-Jones Apartments atop the hill, visible from miles around. Today it has a radio mast functioning as a spire, making it even more visible than it would have been.

This building was built in the very late 20's - 1927 to be exact - and contains two apartments per floor in the upper part of the tower above the setback, both of which are quite nicely laid out. The architect was one Albert H. Larsen and the construction cost was $585,000.
















This concludes our little San Francisco Sojourn. I think I may do another post in the future, but another trip out west will be spent doing more documentation of their local housing types and enjoying the Bay Area as much as possible. You'll note that I didn't touch on the more well known, much better known, in fact, twentieth century architecture, that of the Mid-Century, with such luminaries as William Wurster et al or the eponymous Eichler House.



*Apologies to Robert of A Chicago Sojourn

Front Entries

I thought I'd do a quick post on the various front entries of Chicago buildings (shades of Doors of Chicago perhaps?). Here is just a selection of the variety of styles one can find. From art deco to neo-colonial and between.