Ward Miller presented “The Development of the Skyscraper in Chicago: The Tall Building Artistically Considered” to a full house during the National Trust Conference at the Palmer House Hilton. The session explored both famous and lesser known Chicago buildings and the architects that forged a new way to build tall buildings, first in Chicago and then the world. The combination of good design, innovative engineering, and unprecedented functionality became the new international standard.
Some of the buildings discussed during the session included the now demolished Leiter I Building, the Masonic Temple, the Great Northern Hotel, the Tacoma Building, the Ashland Block, the Insurance Exchange, the Garrick/Schiller Building, and the Chicago Stock Exchange Building.
Others existing landmark buildings included the Auditorium Building, Leiter II Building, Manhattan Building, Old Colony Building, Fisher Building, Monadnock Building, Rookery, New York Life Building, Marquette Building, Reliance Building, Schlesinger & Mayer/Carson Pirie Scott Store, and the McClurg Building (a red-rated building which is not a protected Chicago Landmark.)
PastForward is the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s premier annual conference for those passionate about saving historic places and space. This year’s highly successful conference was held in Chicago on November 14th to 17th and headquartered at the Palmer House Hilton with opening events at the Auditorium Theater and Field Museum.
The preservation community applauds the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the Alphawood Foundation for their generous sponsorship of the conference, which helped to make this year’s event in Chicago one of the most memorable in recent years.
Art, advocacy, and innovation are the hallmarks of preservation in Chicago, where outstanding architecture and diverse neighborhoods have become a proving ground for preservation approaches.