Metamorphosis of Chicago's Architecture from Pre-Post Industrial Revolution

How were Most Buildings Designed Prior to the Industrial Revolution in Chicago?

• Most architectes designed simple and basic buildings.
• The foundation for most of the architecture was stone, which is the oldest form of construction material known to man.
• The stone was used in the formation of walls, which is known as bearing walls.
• Bearing walls have columns on the outside of the building and the stone simply fills in the gaps.
• An analogy to explain bearing walls is a simple rectangular table with four legs on each corner; the legs represent the columns of a building. Simply imagine that the spacing between the legs of the table are filled with stone all the way to the top, until the table looks like box with no open spacing. This is the method of bearing walls.
• The bearing walls method of architecture was a time consuming process that was very expenssive to fund.

What are some examples of Pre-Industrial Architecture in Chicago?

• There are no significant buildings that are recorded to be in Chicago before the industrial revolution, however, there are a few buildings in Chicago which were designed in the later 19th century with the same theme as of the late 18th century.
• One such example is by an architect named Henry Hobson Richardson, who designed the Chicago Marshall Field's Wholesale Store from 1885-1887.
• Richardson did use some steel in his work, but the building seemed to appear as if it were made entirely of stone, as seen at the right. He used the steel for some structural support but used stone as his main design for the building. Richardson believed that a building should reflect the environment in which it was situated, and the Marshall building did just that.
• Although this building is seven stories tall, which was not very common for pre-industrial architecture, it is the best example of pre-industrial architecture, due to its great use of stone.