The Rookery

The Rookery Building

by Robin and James

The Rookery building, at 209 S. LaSalle in the loop area is a beautiful and memorable building that stands as a monument to the history of Chicago. The old City Hall building occupied the land before the Rookery. The building was nicknamed the Rookery because birds came there to nest on the rooftop and external walls. The citizens began to quote the building as "a Rookery" because pigeons became such a bother, the press quickly adapted to this term and ran with it. After several attempts of naming the building, the Rookery won. 　

The Rookery building stands 12 stories high, which is 188 feet tall. It was built in 1877-1888 by two great architects by the names of Daniel H. Burnham and John Wellborn Root. When these two forces were joined together they were known as Burnham and Root. The Rookery building is very expensive, to lease the land of the Rookery building 　for 99 years cost as much as $35,000 per year. The final cost of the building was $1,500,000. 　In 2007 the building was purchased by an investment group which was advised by a European family for $73 million dollars. The building embraces a Richardsonian Romanesque Architecture which is a combination of red marble, terra cotta and brick facade. The unmatched architectural details on the interior of the walls are complemented by an affluent　and alluring environment within the building, exposed by absurd architectural features including the mesmerizing oriel staircase and stunning light court. 　These features make the Rookery a unique building which represents Chicago’s history.

Location

The Rookery building is located at 209 South LaSalle Street in the loop community area of Cook County, Illinois. The building sit very close to the street and takes up much of the streets space. The surrounding streets are rather noisy because of the area and all the noise from the traffic and trains. There are no trees or grass present but, there are other larger buildings around. The Rookery relates to others buildings around it because it consists of stones and marble like the others. It also is alike unlike other buildings. The Rookery building is brown and not in the Roman style, while the other building are white Roman style. This is classic to the Chicago School style. It is also in the middle of the financial district, the Board of Trade building and the Federal Reserve building are right there. 　The history of Chicago has an influence on the location because of the specific services that The Rookery support to the city of Chicago.

Materials

The Rookery building has big brown bricks, gold plated doors and large windows. The building also has an old dark brown color while the other building are marble, limestone or light brown. The building was one of the first steel framed structures, and thus one of the earliest skyscrapers. The building consists of load bearing bricks, red marble, gold elevators, plated glass, fireproofing, elaborate ornamentation and brick facades. It has a light gold smooth marble texture that makes up the inside lobby. This was remodeled by Barron and Root. The windows on the building have a smooth look to them, they are large and consists of big columns. 　The outside of the building has a nice old look and the roman brick with the marble and the gold leaf finish. The glass on the top of the building had a leak in it do to a lot of rain, so therefore they use a material called tar to stop the leaks. Over the years they took the tar off the roof because it was making the building look dark in the lobby, so they replaced it with a different type of glass . The building is not very tall compared to the other buildings in the area. It looks like Chicago style mixed with a roman style of architecture. The other buildings are tall and that might be the smallest building in the area.

Interpretation

The Rookery grabs your attention from its elegance , its huge windows that display formal wear for men, its golden revolving doors at the main entrance, and above that the huge window display of the staircase. The feeling the building conveys when I entered the building is a ballroom, the twirling stairs and the golden leaf patterns on the walls a very white scenery its elegance gave off as a ballroom where people got together for special occasions. The form and shape of the building is a tall square dark brown building, what stands out the most is the front of the building because its columns separating the huge display windows and the oval main entrance. The building gets its own specific identity because of its color from the rest of white or badge buildings surrounding it the shape of the building does not distance itself from the rest of the buildings, most buildings around the rookery are tall and square. the roof of the building inside is flat made of glass squares with small circle designs. inside there are a lot of small details like on the elevators I noticed doves on the doors and on some of the walls gold leaf patterns. I didn’t understand what the building was used for. I saw the small stores inside but I didn’t understand why they’re lobby was so big, but later on one of my classmates told me it was used for wedding most of the time. I didn’t find any of it puzzling but i found that, They had weddings in that building interesting. The architecture of building gave off this old abandoned look to it, one unique symbol on the building is the two birds on the building, which symbolizes the strength, dignity, and vigor of the government. which I interpreted as peaceful place when I noticed the birds. The shape of the building is Chicago school style and I can tell by the way it looks from the rest of the buildings surrounding it that it was built in the 1880’s.

Function

The Rookery has chosen a selection of different designs that stands out from a lot of the 　other old buildings in history. It has a roman template design, colored gold, which is a symbol for money and power. The building design does not cause a issue with entering and exiting the building but it does create a distraction. Inside the building had multiple businesses including Potbellies, Frank Lloyd Wright, Dean Optical and many more. Business companies used this facility as a place to handle business and negotiations. Since it became a national trademark of Chicago, they quickly made it a tourist attraction. With a lot of famous important buildings that is still there, Chicago quickly became one of the most toured place in America. Chicago had a great fire which burnt down most of the city, but was the reason for some of the new buildings we see today such as the Rookery. It shows modern day details and description from foreign countries which shows true taste in elegant designs.

Conclusion

The Rookery presents its time period. The two types of birds which nested the building were crows and pigeons, these birds symbolize money and power. The Rookery building was built by architectural partnership of two men that go by the names of Burnham and Root. This building was built with old roman bricks and marble stone of a dark brown color. The inside it was built with white and gold marble with gold plated windows and doors. This form of style came from the Architecture" which was a design of many designs that were very bright and really stood out. The Rookery stands up 12 stories approximately 188 feet and was once considered one of the tallest buildings in 1877-1888. Other buildings around this building are taller and lighter than the Rookery building and mostly consists of a light tan color and has more of the roman like structures. The Rookery building was designed with the roman columns that separated the windows and the main entrance and on the inside was built with white marble and Persian-style ornamentation. The roof is designed as a light court this embraces the Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, which was another building built known as a occasional mansion, banks, museums etc. The Richard Romanesque architecture was built in an urban style. 　The building still really stands out from the other buildings because it is now one of the shortest and it is much darker. The elevators doors are gold plated and consists several designs of different birds. The walls are white marble with gold leaf patterns. The building was purchased in October 2007 for $73 million by an investment group controlled by a European family, and advised by a Zeb Bradford of Metzler North American corp. Meaning that it was honored and appreciate not by one person but by a group of investigators. It was used for weddings and other special occasions so that other people got the chance to appreciate the building as well. The Rookery building is one of the most amazing architectural structures in the city, so therefore it represents its time period in many ways and facts that have been stated.

Bibliography

Baer, Geoffrey. Chicago's Loop a new walking tour with Geoffrey Baer. [Chicago]: WTTW11 /　Window to the World Communications, 2011.

"The Rookery: A Rich History." The Rookery. http://www.therookerybuilding.com/ building-history.html (accessed March 12, 2012).

Sinkevitch, Alice, and Laurie McGovern Petersen. AIA Guide to Chicago. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993.