Past Made Future, Part 2: Mesopotamian Architecture

When I started this blog, I never imagined writing about Ghostbusters (1984), but it's a strangely appropriate topic for the beginning of this post!  The plot involves a 1920s high-rise apartment building (semi-fictional) designed by the evil architect and cult leader, Ivo Shandor (fictional), in a kind of neo-Babylonian style that includes a rooftop temple dedicated to the Sumerian deity Gozer (also fictional). Things get a little crazy when an ancient ritual gets out of control (involving the "The Gatekeeper," "The Keymaster," and the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man) and nearly brings about the end of the world -- and if you've seen the movie, you know the rest...

Rendering of "Spook Central" for the Ghostbusters movie

I'm calling the Ghostbusters apartment building "semi-fictional" because it is based, in part, on an actual New York co-op: 55 Central Park West designed by Schwarz + Gross and completed in 1929.  The set designers used the building as a starting point, and through special effects, embellished its height and ornamentation making the structure look taller and more ominous and the architectural details more elaborate.  The pièce de résistance is the pseudo-Sumerian temple topping the building, a kind of exclamation point to the building.

As fantastic as 55 Central Park West appears in Ghostbusters, it pales somewhat to actual skyscrapers of the Jazz Age whose designers were, indeed, influenced by the architecture of ancient Mesopotamia. During the 1920s and 1930s popular interest in ancient Near Eastern societies -- Sumeria, Assyria, and Babylon -- was on the rise. The trend came about largely through the influence of  archaeological excavations taking place in the Middle East during this time and popularized through press reports and news reels.

Reconstruction of Babylon's Ishtar Gate
Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany
Photo by Rictor Norton

Perhaps most influential was the work of German archaeologist Robert Koldewey who excavated at the site of Babylon from 1899 through 1917.  Koldewey brought back thousands of artifacts to Germany including the famous Ishtar Gate which was subsequently reconstructed inside Berlin's Pergamon Museum. His discoveries were disseminated to an even wider audience through his book Excavations at Babylon, which was translated into English in 1914.  Included in the book were color plates of ornamental tile work and reconstructions of Bablyon's buildings, including its ziggurat, largely thought to have inspired the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel.

View of the City of Babylon by Maurice Bardin, 1936
(based largely on renderings published by Robert Koldewey)
image courtesy the University of Chicago Libraries

And Koldewey was not alone in his endeavors.  There were many other archaeologists excavating in Iraq during this time period, sponsored mainly by museums and universities in Europe and the United States. The University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, founded in 1919, was one such institution that sent archaeological expeditions to the Middle East in the early 20th century. The university's archaeologists brought back tons (literally) of artifacts for the Institute's museum including a monumental winged-bull from Khorsabad in northern Iraq...

Oriental Institute poster, circa 1933

The fragmentary nature of the remains of Mesopotamian buildings left a lot of room for speculation, especially in terms of architectural reconstructions.  While the monumental architecture of Egypt was constructed largely of stone, that of Mesopotamia was mostly earthen bricks covered in tile. It probably explains, in part, why there never really was a "Mesopotamian Revival" in architecture like there were Egyptian and Greek revivals. Much of what archaeologists found at sites in southern Iraq -- like Ur, Kish, and Babylon -- were mounds of eroded bricks, foundation walls, and occasionally (as with the Ishtar Gate) fragments of ornamental tile work.     Stone relief carvings and monumental sculpture were more prevalent in northern Iraq, especially at Assyrian sites like Nineveh.

But architects during the 1920s and 1930s found ways of incorporating this "new" visual language -- fragmentary as it was --  into their modern designs.  The best example in Chicago is the Medinah Athletic Club (now the Intercontinental Hotel) designed by Walter W. Alschlager and completed in 1929.  It's architectural ornamentation rivals anything from Ghostbusters...

Medinah Athletic Club (now the Intercontinental Hotel), 1929

In The Sky's the Limit: A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers, Jane Clarke writes that:

"The [Medinah Athletic] club was commissioned by a group of Medinah Nobles; affiliates of the Shriners, a nationwide fraternal and philanthropic organization said to have ancient roots in the Middle East..."

In keeping with the group's mythical Middle Eastern roots, the architects designed the building's ornamentation in what was called a "Saracenic" style, a kind of stylistic synthesis evoking the "mystical East" including Byzantine, Moorish, and ancient Mesopotamian elements.  The 50-story skyscraper was topped with a fanciful penthouse "palace" (reminiscent of illustrations from The Arabian Nights) complete with onion dome (serving as the building's water tower) and minaret which legend says was designed as a Zeppelin docking station:

Penthouse of the Medinah Athletic Club with Zeppelin in background, circa 1930.
photo courtesy the Intercontinental Hotel 

Despite the Medinah Athletic Club's eclectic program of "exotic" ornamentation, the structure was designed as a modern skyscraper. The building's massing is typical of several other Chicago skyscrapers of the period, like 333 North Michigan Avenue (1928) and the Carbide and Carbon Building (1929). It's solid 20-story rectangular base supports a tower that gradually tapers through a series of set-backs.  The building's surface is covered with smooth limestone panels broken by a grid of  "punched" rectangles, only a few of which are ornamented.

A closer look at the ornamentation, especially the building's architectural sculpture, reveals a modern aesthetic inspired by historic precedents.  Case in point: the monumental relief sculptures above the ninth floor:

Monumental sculptural relief, south facade of the Medinah Athletic Club
George Unger and Leon Hermant, circa 1928

The sculpture's design is based on an interesting combination of Bronze Age motifs and artistic influences, including Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, and even Minoan. The relief was designed by George Unger and carved by Leon Hermant, who rendered the sculpture's lines in a sharp, angular manner, giving the sculpture a more modern sensibility rather than mimicking antique styles.

With the new zoning codes of the 1910s and 1920s allowing for taller buildings with stepped massing, architects in New York and Chicago looked for historic precedents that incorporated set-backs in their design.  The ziggurat or stepped-pyramid was one obvious example. This form is found in ancient Egypt (most notably at Saqqara), the Maya Yucatan (most notably at Chichen Itza), but perhaps more famously in the ziggurats found in dozens of Mesopotamia's cities. Perhaps the two best known examples are the Ziggurat at Ur and the Ziggurat at Babylon, also called the Etemenanki.

Model of Ziggurat  at Babylon also called the Etemenanki
Eckhard Unger, circa 1930

Fairly literal architectural expressions of the stepped-pyramid can be found in some Chicago buildings from the 1920s and 1930s, including the Trustees Systems Service Building (1930) designed by the firm of Thielbar and Fugard.

Ziggurat-inspired roof
Trustees Systems Service Building, 1930
Thielbar + Fugard

Other architects used the idea of the ziggurat more loosely to devise massing profiles that were in line with the new zoning ordinances.  Some of the most dramatic of these were developed by Hugh Ferriss and published in trade magazines and books, including the influential Metropolis of Tomorrow (1929).

Rendering by Hugh Ferris from Metropolis of Tomorrow, 1929.

Sources for this post include:

Picturing the Past: Imaging and Imagining the Ancient Middle East, edited by Jack Green, Emily Teeter, and John Larson. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2012.

"Medinah Athletic Club, 1927-1929" by Jane H. Clarke in The Sky's the Limit, Rizzolli, 1990.

Past Made Future, Part 1: Mesoamerican Architecture

In the 1920s there was a rise in popular interest in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica.  This popularity coincided with archaeological discoveries made famous by newspaper accounts and movie news reels.  (Howard Carter's discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922 is just one example.)  The newly unearthed structures and artifacts from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica, inspired many artists, designers, and architects of the time, giving them a whole new visual vocabulary with which to experiment.

"Mayan Temple"
1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition

This post focuses on the influence of Mesoamerican cultures on the architects of Chicago during the 1910s, 20's, and 30s. (Posts on Egypt and Mesopotamia to come later.) "Mesoamerica" encompasses the geographic region of Mexico and Central America, and "Mesoamerican" denotes the societies that thrived in this region before the arrival of Europeans in the 15th and 16th centuries:  Maya, Zapotec, Aztec, etc. 

Well before the 1910s, Frank Lloyd Wright was looking to Mesoamerican architecture as a source for modern architectural forms. His interest grew out of two events: (1) the anthropology displays at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and (2) the published accounts of early Central American expeditions by pioneering archaeologists like Alfred Maudslay and Désiré Charnay.

Specifically, the architecture of the Maya and the Zapotec provided Wright with historical precedents that served as viable alternatives to European classical architecture. In his book The Future of Architecture, Wright observed that...

“In Maya [architecture] we see a grand simplicity and concept of form. Probably it is greater elemental architecture than anything remaining on record.”

For Wright, this "elemental architecture" was akin to his concept of "organic architecture." He saw Maya ruins as being of the land; a kind of natural architectural expression that seemed to grow from the landscape.

Perhaps the earliest "Mesoamerican building" that Wright designed was the A.D.German Warehouse (1915) located in Richland Center, Wisconsin.  Take a look at the structure as it stands today compared to an Alfred Maudslay photograph of a the "House of the Governors" at Uxmal. This photo (and others by Maudslay) was on public display at the 1893 world's fair and later at Chicago's Field Museum:

Left: Frank Lloyd Wright, A.D. German Warehouse (1915)
Right: House of the Governors, Uxmal

Although not an exact copy, the similarities between Wright's warehouse and the Uxmal temple are striking.  Wright was known for his ability to take multiple influences and synthesize them into something new (despite his insistence that all his architectural ideas were purely original inventions!)  The A.D. German Warehouse is an example of this synthesis of ancient and modern forms which served, for Wright, as a viable alternative to the Beaux Arts Classicism popular at the time.

Wright's fascination with Mesoamerican architecture culminated in his southern California houses of the 1920s, including the Ennis House, Barnsdale House, and the Storer House (see rendering below).  Art historian Barbara Braun described these California houses as Wright's "vision of Maya temples" -- Wright himself called them "California romanza" implying a romanticized view (and use) of the Precolumbian past. It's interesting to compare Wright's renderings of his California houses with the early photographs of Maya ruins that he had seen in museums and books. It's clear that these photos of ancient stone buildings, overgrown with vegetation, informed Wright's aesthetic and influenced his concepts of "organic architecture."  

Wright's Storer House  (1923) -- Hollywood, California 

image courtesy Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-1867

The fascination with Mesoamerican architecture was not restricted to Wright.  Other architects working in the United States were also heavily influenced by Mesoamerican forms and ornamentation, notably Robert Stacy-Judd and Francisco Mujica. And in Mexico in the years after the Revolution, there was an entire cultural renaissance inspired by the Precolumbian past as interpreted and championed by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Juan O'Gorman, and other Mexican artists and architects.

In the United States the "Maya Revival Style" of the 1920s and 1930s was largely a California phenomenon. But aspects of this movement made their way into Chicago architecture.  The most literal was the "Mayan Building" constructed for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago:

COP_17_0002_00038_002, Century of Progress Records, 1927-1952
University of Illinois at Chicago Library.

The Mayan Building  (1933-1934)
Century of Progress Exposition, Chicago 

This exposition hall was based on a section of the Nunnery Quadrangle in Uxmal, Mexico (Yucatan), a famous example of Post-Classic Maya architecture in the Puuc style. Archaeologist Frans Blom of Tulane University's Department of Middle American Research was in charge of the project. Photographs, drawings, maps, and plaster casts collected from the site in Uxmal ensured the accuracy of the final design. The interior contained exhibits of Maya artifacts from the collections of Tulane University.

Unfortunately, the Mayan Building -- like all the other exposition structures -- was demolished soon after the fair closed in the fall of 1934.  But other buildings from this time period, although less literal in their use of Mesoamerican forms and ornamentation, survive today.  Two examples include the Wyeth Pharmaceutical Labs and the Engineering Building

McCormick Business Center, Skokie, Illinois
originally Wyeth Laboratories (1930s), architect unknown

The Wyeth Pharmaceutical Laboratories (now the McCormick Business Center) is located on McCormick Boulevard in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois.  Designed as a factory, the building is long and low (essentially covering two large city blocks) yet retains a monumental quality. It sports an unusual entryway which appears to be modeled after the corbelled arches used extensively in Maya architecture:

Left: Entryway to old Wyeth Laboratories (1930s)
Right: The Labna Arch as drawn by Frederick Catherwood (1843)

Chicago Tribune articles of the time period state 1931 or 1932, but the Illinois Landmark Commission website states 1938.

A more vertical and urban example is the Engineering Building located at 205 W. Wacker Drive (completed in 1928) and designed by the Burnham Brothers (the sons of Daniel H. Burnham). Ornamentation framing the lower level windows seems influenced by the florid forms of Mayan glyphs.

The Engineering Building (1928), Burnham Brothers
"Mayan glyph" motif framing windows

Along the building's roof line, the projecting and ornamented piers contrast with the smooth, buff-colored brick of the building's middle levels. This is a similar convention used in Post-Classic Mayan buildings of the Yucatan.

The Engineering Building (1928), Burnham Brothers
known today as 205 W. Wacker

Neither the Wyeth Lab Building nor the Engineering Building is a copy of Maya architecture -- far from it.  But the architects of these two buildings took cues from Mesoamerican architecture and in doing so created something new and modern.

Future posts will focus on the influence of ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian forms on Chicago architecture of the 1920s and 30s.  More to come...

Sources used to research this post:

Barbara Braun, "Frank Lloyd Wright: Visions of Maya Temples" from Pre-Columbian Art and the Post-Columbian World, 1993.

Marjorie Ingle, The Mayan Revival Style, 1984.

Pauline Saliga, "Engineering Building" from The Sky's The Limit, 1990.

SAIC Architectural Survey on the Landmarks Illinois website, http://landmarksil.org/saic_building.php?id=717

Special thanks to Bruce Brigell of the Skokie Public Library.

Will Price's Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Terminal, 1918

While browsing through the Cushman Photograph Collection, I stumbled across a  random photo of the Chicago skyline from the 1940s.  It wasn’t a typical postcard view of the city.  Rather, the photo was taken from the railroad yards located southwest of the Loop, somewhere in the vicinity of Polk and Canal Streets.  In the background, the photographer captured several 1930s office towers rising above the LaSalle Street canyon.  Clearly visible (from left to right) are:

• Foreman State National Bank Building (1930)
• One North LaSalle Building (1930)
• Roanoke Tower (1925)
• The Field Building (1934)
• Chicago Board of Trade (1930)

(c) Cushman Photograph Collection, University of Indiana

This parade of Deco skyscrapers leads the viewer’s eye to the focal point of the photo: a huge brick structure with an impressive clock tower built over top of a series of arched bays opening onto the railroad tracks.  This intriguing building was, at first, a mystery to me—despite its size and prominence, I was unfamiliar with it. I’ve driven down Canal Street (between Roosevelt and Union Station) dozens of times, but couldn’t remember seeing this structure.

In the photo the building’s signage clearly reads “Western Warehousing Co.”  After some Internet searching, I found my first clue in a digitized copy of the Press Club of Chicago's Official Reference Book of 1922.  The building was identified as the “Western Warehousing Company Plant, Polk Street Terminal, Pennsylvania System.”  The publication describes the building as:

…the immense plant of the Western Warehousing Company at the Pennsylvania Railroad's Polk street freight terminal. Half a million square feet of floor space is available here for merchants and manufacturers maintaining stocks in Chicago… Some idea of its size may be gained when one realizes that beneath the structure there is track space for 360 cars, 18 tracks of 20 cars each…The warehouse and freight station are served by thirty-six electric elevators, varying in capacity from 5 to 10 tons.

Further digging revealed that the structure housing the Western Warehousing Company—commonly known as the Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Terminal—was designed by the Philadelphia firm of Price & McLanahan and constructed between 1915 and 1918.  This massive structure was “Part 1” in the master plan to consolidate the facilities of several railroad companies to allow for the eventual construction of Chicago’s Union Station (1925).

Carl Condit called the Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Terminal “an overlooked masterpiece of Chicago architecture.”  It was designed by engineers from the Pennsylvania Railroad, responsible for the planning and engineering of the terminal, and William L. Price (principal architect of Price & McLanahan) responsible for its unique design.  In the early 1970s, Condit wrote that “the excellence of their achievement is still apparent, even after the increasingly careless maintenance and the atmospheric corrosion of more than half a century.”  Unfortunately, the “excellence of their achievement” was only to a last a few years longer—according to George E. Thomas in his book William L. Price: Arts & Crafts to Modern Design, the terminal was “demolished in the 1970s.”  This explains why I had never seen the building for myself.

Canal Street facade of Penn RR Freight Terminal (from Condit)
Somewhat better photos are accessible on the Art Institute of Chicago website.

Sprawling over a large area, the terminal was bounded by Polk Street on the north, Taylor Street on the south, the Chicago River on the east, and Canal Street on the west. Despite its enormous size, the terminal reads (in photos) as a collection of smaller buildings instead of one gargantuan structure. Price subdivided the mass of the terminal to create the illusion of several smaller warehouses linked together, their varying facades alternately projecting and receding. The overall design was unified by a long platform of open bays on which the warehouses sat (and where the trains entered beneath the building) and the use of red brick and Price’s distinctive detailing throughout.

Although the terminal was not symmetrical, the structure was composed of many localized symmetries with each “building” featuring vertical lines despite the overall horizontal emphasis of the structure.  Price masterfully employed his millions of red bricks to create varied compositions featuring arches, buttresses, set backs, chamfered edges, and restrained ornamentation.  The design is curvilinear and organic and takes pains not to emulate historic styles—a stark contrast to the neoclassical Union Station.

Vintage photo of Penn RR Freight Terminal
Polk Street facade (facing north) and clock tower

In fact, Price’s terminal defies stylistic categorization. It lies somewhere between late Art Nouveau and what some might call “proto-Deco.”  Its precedents range from Price’s Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel in Atlantic City (1906) to Eliel Saarinen’s early designs for the Helsinki Central Station (1909).  But Price’s terminal stands apart from these as something different.

The clock tower was arguably the terminal’s most interesting feature.  Its stepped-back silhouette foreshadowed the design of Chicago’s office towers of the late 1920s and early 1930s.  In the Cushman photo, the formal similarities between the clock tower and the Board of Trade building are evident: classical proportions, vertical lines and emphasis, and tapered massing culminating in a pyramidal roof.

Silhouetted tower of the Penn RR Freight Terminal
Photo courtesy Library of Congress (LOC_8d24881r_JackDelano)

Unfortunately, Price didn’t live long enough to see the Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Terminal completed.  He died prematurely in 1916 at the age of 55. Price’s biographer, George E. Thomas, speculates that had Price lived to complete more works, he would have rivaled his contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright in influence in American architecture. Regardless, Price’s terminal kicked-off a new era in Chicago architecture and design, an era in which multiple ideas of “the modern” competed with one another.

Sources for this post include:

Chicago 1910-1929: Building, Planning, and Urban Technology

by Carl W. Condit (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1973)

William L. Price: Arts & Crafts to Modern Design

by George E. Thomas (Princeton Architectural Press: New York, 2000)

Official Reference Book (Press Club of Chicago: Chicago, 1922)