chicago's federal building stood for 60 years as a testament to the beaux-arts style of
architecture this structure was grand against the vast chicago skyline
it was six stories high its interior cost over two million in total and its dome was even larger than
the one in the u.s capital it even managed to outclass those built in the 1893 world's fair
yet tragically it has long since been torn down and replaced with a bleak corporate abomination
the former glory that once offered a dignified landscape to the average chicagoan
is now all but a forgotten memory but that stops today so join me in celebrating
chicago's lost federal building i'm your host ryan socash and you're watching it's history
built in chicago in large part thanks to the 1848 opening of the illinois and michigan canal
and the start of a widespread railroad age chicago began to thrive as a transportation hub railroad
lines began to crop up across the state extending out from the city with direct service offered
to many towns in fact by the start of the 20th century chicago had no less than 30 interstate
routes extending outwards this greatly contributed to chicago's economical and industrial development
and brought about a new age of prosperity to the growing city but with every growing city there was
an ever-present need for expansion and development in 1835 on the northeast corner of clark and
randolph street chicago's first courthouse was constructed it was simple but elegant it stood
at one story tall but was incredible a reflection of greek revival style with four wooden columns
at the front of the building which was built in red brick however with the steady increase
in population there also came a demand for a far larger more elaborate courthouse and so in 1853
designed by john m van osdel a new building was constructed sitting atop the center of
a block bounded by randolph clark washington and lasalle street which would ultimately become the
site for all future chicago city halls standing at two stories high and inspired by classical
architecture it received a large expansion in the addition of a third floor five years later in 1858
in fact according to the encyclopedia of chicago the bell that rang the alarm of the great fire of
1871 was located atop this building one might come to wonder how these incredible structures
that preceded the federal building may have inspired and even influenced its architects so now
let's talk about the man who made our masterpiece a reality henry ives cobb born in brookline
massachusetts in 1859 henry ives cobb was an american architect with roots in old england and
a distinctive approach inspired by victorian goth he first studied at the massachusetts institute
of technology though later transferred to the prestigious harvard university where he took a
special architectural course with fellow architect william l ware there he graduated in 1880 with a
degree in engineering and that very same year he won a design competition for the now demolished
union club of chicago and took his first job with the boston architecture firm peabody and stearns
seeing as cobb's brother was already established as an officer of the union club he may have had
a hand in securing the commission the next year he moved to chicago to oversee the project and formed
a firm with his former colleague from peabody and stearns charles sumner frost and together
they would be commissioned to design and build the now demolished lake shore drive residence
belonging to the businessman and real estate mogul potter palmer not only was this project incredibly
reputable with the businessman himself it also skyrocketed their names into even higher demand
with the wealthier circles of society during this time they would be commissioned by many
big names in business for buildings such as the chicago opera house the dearborn observatory at
northwestern university in evanston and many other buildings at lake forest college in lake forest
in 1888 cobb would strike out on his own using the success to propel his own business forward
he worked on a decade-long commission for the university of chicago and in 1893 cobb
joined an illustrious panel of architects to plan out chicago's 1893 colombian exposition
cobb had a hand in designing a large number of buildings for the large-scale fair including ones
such as the marine cafe the east indian building and his most well-known piece for the fair
the fisheries building throughout the 1890s his business would thrive and he would add even more
impressive names to the resume such as the chicago historical society the newberry library and the
chicago title and trust company building the last of which was demolished in the 1960s in 1902 cobb
would later seek a fresh start in new york city and design many skyscrapers including 42 broadway
and liberty tower he worked until his death on march the 27th 1931 at the age of 72 years old
though the chicago federal building was by far one of his most prestigious accomplishments
cobb's incredible legacy was not limited to it it should go without saying that cobb was by far
one of the biggest contributors to the city's architectural scene and the federal building
made up a large part of his reputation so now let's learn how it all came together
a new building was needed not only for federal courts but for the city's main post office along
with many other government bureaus as well as commercial offices commissioned to cobb in the
late 19th century the architectural legend the building would need to live up to was daunting
but before we get into its construction it is important to understand that the commissioning
of the project was not so straightforward in fact it was first declined by the postmaster washington
hessing hessing refused to endorse the plans cop proposed to build the new government building
which would have cost an amazing 4 million dollars stating his objections to the plans in a letter
the process of getting the new project approved was thus slow and most likely rather frustrating
he ferried his plans back and forth in conference with the postmaster hessing and inspector j.e
stewart who was responsible for rents and leases pertaining to the postal office
cobb made multiple trips out to chicago to go over his plans in hopes of getting approval for the
full building everything except the post office had been approved by the treasury department
in order to get the green light he also needed the approval of the postmaster general who refused to
accept or endorse them until they received the approval of hessing and steward the grounds for
rejection were that well the plans were beautiful perfectly solved the question of light and
ventilation and would be a monument to his genius as an architect from the aesthetic point of view
the interior arrangement would not suffice from the standpoint of a practical post
office hessing wrote that the needs of the post office department were always placed secondary
to other departments and as a result he did not believe that any building that housed multiple
departments in addition to the post office could ever be satisfactory for standard operations it
was his belief that the post office should always be in a building devoted solely to conducting post
office operations with a dedicated two floors as the post office would likely require twice as
much floor space as the other government offices in the building combined taking up two-thirds of
the working area of the new building hessing thus expressed great reluctancy in moving operations
from the old building which he described as a great workshop despite being admittedly not a
pretty sight to look at an ideal post office in his standards ought to have all the departments
that handled mail on one floor and hessing stressed in his original letter back to cobb that
every sacrifice should be made to accommodate the post office so after a lengthy back and
forth as cobb planned out how to best satisfy the needs of the post office while still preserving
every bit of the architectural integrity of the gorgeous design he finally reached a compromise
and received full approval for the entire building but the trials of the beginning
of this building's life were just the beginning let me explain why one of the biggest challenges
regarding construction was the structure's immense weight slated to weigh around 150 000 tons it was
imperative that the foundations were strong enough to support the building and make it as durable as
possible multiple methods of construction were suggested each studied and compared thoroughly
before a decision was finally made so the three methods of construction were as follows the first
idea was to place masonry on a platform of steel beams and concrete the second to sink wells filled
with concrete and rubber masonry down below the surface and the third and final method driving
piles to hard pan wooden grillage and masonry the first idea was quickly rejected due to concerns
over both safety and how expensive it would be well the second was deemed safe and reliable
it was also too expensive so they went with their third option according to chicago ology the way
this method of construction worked was that many posts were placed at the bottom of the foundation
the pressure of the surrounding materials sustained them through lateral flexure and offered
positive support for the loads they carried much inspired by the weight of distribution was drawn
from earlier older structures that made use of similar materials and systems including many
bridges in london and paris many calculations needed to be made to figure out just how much
weight these posts would be able to carry and so many other heavy buildings in chicago including
the public library building were used to ensure that the measurements were as accurate as possible
in building the foundation crews would dig down from 55 to 60 feet to reach hard clay and gravel
to which 43 to 45 foot tall piles were decided on to be driven down to the hard pan in total
5 087 piles were used made of norway pine and no less than 16 inches in diameter at the bottom
and 10 inches at the top with each pile sustaining about 136.75 tons a steam hammer was used to drive
them deep into the ground the hammer itself weighing an incredible 4700 pounds and dropped
over three feet it took six to eight blows of the hammer to drive a pile down a single
inch the stones used in the masonry were joliet and lamont limestone which varied between
10 and 30 inches the stone was inlay with derricks which were located on the axis of the building
85 feet from the center in every direction these derricks had 80 foot mast and 75 foot booms and
laid the stone for the foundations of the dome and piers beneath the building's main wings
each derrick was set on top a turntable that revolved on circular tracks of railroad iron
the construction process was so efficient that it was originally on track to be finished before
the contract date however things got held back when the stone that was supposed to be quarried
in the summer and early fall of 1897 to prevent the stone from cracking when freezing and thawing
during the winter ran low due to various strikes of the quarrymen this situation pushed back the
completion date of the masonry to september the 26th 1898. construction lasted from 1898 to 1905
and considering the incredible scale this feat was astonishing inspired largely by roman
architecture the building was in the form of a greek cross placed atop a high base that filled
the entirety of the block it was on it was topped by a breathtaking dome which was 100 feet in
diameter and after being centered on its 300-foot high octango rotunda it was much larger than the
one at the u.s capitol in washington the dome was hollow in the center with a large amount of public
space inside its perimeter was so large that it had to be separated into separate floors by the
time construction was complete it contrasted the other giants of the chicago skyline at just six
stories high and was referred to as chicago's granite octopus however in 1918 just 13 years
since its completion an unbelievable tragedy struck on september the 4th 1918 a bomb was
thrown into the adams street entrance of the chicago federal building killing four and
injuring dozens of other people police suspected the industrial workers of the world believing it
to be an act of revenge for the earlier arrest and sentencing of the union leader william big bill
haywood along with 84 other members heywood and his men were convicted of obstruction of military
service and sedition under the espionage act of 1917 and had been sentenced to 20 years in federal
prison nothing came of the investigations for the bombing not even the reason for the bombing
most of the arrested members were released shortly after and this case remains largely
unsolved although there is one pretty unusual fact walt disney who was working as a substitute
letter carrier in the chicago federal building was present in the building at the time of the bombing
miraculously the chicago federal building survived and recovered this horrific event and
some years later the infamous al capone would be sentenced for tax fraud in one of the building's
many courtrooms tragically however the chicago federal building's opulence was doomed to live
only a few more decades by the 1960s the chicago federal building was not nearly large enough to
house all the government's business in addition after standing for so many years it was beginning
to suffer from numerous structural problems and so it was as the chicago loop underwent major
redevelopment the federal building was soon set to be demolished for yet another post office and
federal building this time worth around 52 million despite making history as the first structure to
house all the city's federal agencies and having a larger dome than that of the u.s capitol building
it was to be demolished in 1965. in 1974 the chicago federal center was completed
made up of three separate buildings all the original beaux arts beauty of chicago's lost
federal building was destroyed and replaced by the modernist complex made of drab uniform shapes and
colors that blend into chicago in a way that was previously impossible for its predecessors
and although i understand the pragmatic need for this type of change i'd suggest that it came at
the expense of the dignity of chicago citizens the chicago government and most of all the artists
who were once impassioned by the design of a building that was intended to make a statement
so once again i need to recall the words of vincent scully one entered the city like a
god one scuttles in now like a rat keep this story alive by sharing or subscribing and don't
forget to check out our chicago history playlist this is ryan socash signing off