North half (1881–1891) The Monadnock was commissioned by Boston real estate developers Peter and Shepherd Brooks in the building boom following the
Depression of 1873–79. The Brooks family, which had amassed a fortune in the shipping insurance business and had been investing in Chicago real estate since 1863, had retained Chicago property manager
Owen F. Aldis to manage the construction of the seven-story
Grannis Block on Dearborn Street in 1880. It was Aldis, one of two men
Louis Sullivan credited with being "responsible for the modern office building", who convinced investors such as the Brooks brothers to build new skyscrapers in Chicago. By the end of the century, Aldis would create over of new office space and manage nearly one fifth of the office space in the Loop.
Daniel Burnham and
John Wellborn Root met as young draftsmen in the Chicago firm of Carter, Drake, and Wight in 1872 and left to form
Burnham & Root the following year. At Aldis's urging, the Brooks brothers had retained the then-fledgling firm to design the Grannis Block, which was their first major commission. Burnham and Root would become the architects of choice for the Brooks family, for whom they would complete the first high-rise building in Chicago, the 10-story
Montauk Building, in 1883, and the 11-story
Rookery Building in 1888. The
Great Chicago Fire of 1871 had destroyed a swath of the city between the Chicago River and
Lake Michigan, and subsequent commercial development expanded into the area far south of the main business district along the river that would come to be known as
"the Loop". Between 1881 and 1885, Aldis bought a series of lots in the area on Peter Brooks' behalf, including a 70-by-200-foot (21 by 61 m) site on the corner of Jackson and Dearborn streets. The location was remote, yet attractive for several reasons. The construction of the
Chicago Board of Trade Building in 1885 had made nearby
LaSalle Street the city's prime financial district, driving up property values, and railroad companies were buying up land further south for new terminal buildings, creating further speculation in the southeastern end of the Loop. Brooks commissioned Burnham & Root to design a building for the site in 1884, and the project was announced in 1885, with a brief trade journal notice that the building would cost $850,000 ($ in dollars). The Chicago building community had little faith in Brooks' choice of location. Architect Edwin Renwick would say: Early sketches show a 13-story building with
Egyptian Revival ornament and a slight flaring at the top, divided visually into five sections with a
lotus-blossom decorative
motif. This design was never approved, as Brooks waited for the real estate market in the south Loop, still mostly warehouses, to improve. Where Root was known for the detailed ornamentation of his designs (as seen in the
Rookery Building), Brooks was known for his stinginess and preference for simplicity. For the Monadnock, Brooks insisted that the architects refrain from elaborate ornamentation and produce instead "the effect of solidity and strength, or a design that will produce that effect, rather than ornament for a notable appearance." In an 1884 letter to Aldis, he wrote: While Root was on vacation, Burnham had a draftsman create a "straight up-and-down, uncompromising, unornamented
facade." Objecting at first, Root later threw himself into the design, declaring that the heavy lines of an Egyptian pyramid had captured his imagination and that he would "throw the thing up without a single ornament". In 1889, a new plan was announced for the building: a thick-walled brick tower, 16 stories high, devoid of ornamentation and suggestive of an Egyptian
pylon. Brooks insisted that the building have no projections, for which reason the plan did not include
oriel windows, but Aldis argued that more rentable space would be created by projecting
oriel windows, which were included in the final design. The Monadnock's final height was calculated to be the highest economically viable for a
load-bearing wall design, requiring walls thick at the bottom and thick at the top. Greater height would have required walls of such thickness that they would have reduced the rentable space too greatly. The final height was much dithered over by the owners, but a decision was forced when the city proposed an ordinance restricting the height of buildings to . To protect future income potential, Aldis sought a permit for a 16-story building immediately. The building commissioner, although "staggered by the sixteen story plan", granted the permit on June 3, 1889. With its 17 stories (16 rentable plus an attic), its load-bearing walls were the tallest of any commercial structure in the world. To support the towering structure and reinforce against wind, the masonry walls were braced with an interior frame of
cast and
wrought iron. Root devised for this frame the first attempt at a portal system of
wind bracing in America, in which iron
struts were riveted between the columns of the frame for reinforcement. The narrow lot allowed only a single, double-loaded corridor, which was appointed with a
wainscot of white
Carrara marble, red oak trim, and feather-chipped glass that allowed outside light to filter from the offices on each side into the hallways. Floors were covered with hand-carved marble
mosaic tiles.
Skylit open staircases were made of bronze-plated cast iron on upper floors. On the ground floor, they were crafted in cast aluminum—an exotic and expensive material at the time—representing the first use of aluminum in building construction. The building was constructed by the firm of
George A. Fuller, who trained as an architect but made his mark as the creator of the modern
contracting system in building construction. His firm had supervised construction of the Rookery, and later built New York's
Flatiron Building with Burnham in 1902. The Monadnock Block was built as a single structure but was legally two buildings, the Monadnock and the Kearsarge, named for
Mount Monadnock and
Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire. Work was completed in 1891. The Monadnock, which Root called his "Jumbo", was his last project; he died suddenly while it was under construction.
South half and early history (1891–1893) -like treatment of the upper floors and neoclassical copper
cornice Encouraged by the early success of the building, Shepherd Brooks purchased the 68-by-200-foot (21 by 61 m) lot adjoining to the south in 1893 for $360,000 ($ in dollars). Aldis recommended the firm of
Holabird & Roche, who had designed the
Pontiac Building for Peter Brooks in 1891, to extend the Monadnock south to Van Buren.
William Holabird and
Martin Roche had trained together in the office of
William LeBaron Jenney, and in 1881 formed their own firm, which would become one of the most prolific in the city and the acknowledged leader of the
Chicago school of architecture. The north half had struggled with cost overruns and Holabird & Roche presented a more cost-effective design. The design, for two buildings called the
Katahdin and
Wachusett (also named for
New England mountains), connected them to the north half as a single structure at an estimated cost of $800,000 ($ in dollars). Construction began in 1892, under the supervision of
Corydon T. Purdy who would later earn accolades as the structural engineer for many famous Chicago and New York skyscrapers. The addition, 17 stories high, preserved the color and vertically massed profile of the original, but was more traditionally ornate in its design, with grander entranceways and more
neoclassical touches. The building reflected in its design the transition taking place in skyscraper design from load-bearing walls to steel frame construction. The Katahdin, built first, used the same iron framed masonry construction as the original. The Wachusett was entirely
steel framed. Where the north half required great thicknesses of brick in the load-bearing walls, the addition employed only a thin facing of brick and
terracotta trim, affording larger expanses of glass and faster, less expensive construction. The south half cost 15 percent less, weighed 15 percent less, and had 15 percent more rentable space than the north half. Connected on every floor except the top one and sharing a common basement, each of the four component buildings was equipped with its own heating system, elevators, stairs, and plumbing to facilitate a separate sale if required. The combined final cost in 1893 was $2.5 million ($ in dollars). When complete, the Monadnock was the largest office building in the world, with 1,200 rooms and an occupancy of over 6,000. The
Chicago Daily Tribune commented that the population of most Illinois towns in 1896 would fit comfortably in the building. It was a postal district unto itself, with four full-time carriers delivering mail six times a day, six days a week. It was the first building in Chicago wired for electricity, and one of the first to be fire-proofed, with hollow
fire clay tiles lining the structure so that the metal frame would be protected even if the facing brick were to be destroyed. The Brooks' decision to construct a building of such scale and in such an unlikely location was vindicated by the Monadnock's success—it was the most profitable investment they ever made.
The Economist, a Chicago real estate journal, conceded in 1892 that: Early tenants, according to
Rand McNally, included "great corporations, banks, and professional men ... among them the
Santa Fe, the
Michigan Central, and the
Chicago & Alton Railroads, and the American Exchange National and Globe Savings Banks". In 1897, the
Union Elevated Railroad Company opened the
Union Loop line of the
Chicago "L", the last leg of which ran immediately alongside the Van Buren side of the building. Aldis filed suit against the "L" in 1901 for $300,000 in damages ($ in dollars), complaining that: Aldis lost the case, but won on appeal, when the Supreme Court of Illinois found that owners of property abutting the "L" lines could recover damages if the property had been injured by noise, vibration, or the blocking of light, paving the way for many lawsuits to follow.
Modernization (1938–1979) A boom in new construction after 1926 created stiff competition for older buildings like the Monadnock. Occupancy declined from 87 percent in 1929 to 55 percent in 1937 and the building began to lose money. In 1938, building manager Graham Aldis (Owen's nephew) announced what the
Chicago Daily Tribune called "the city's largest and most novel modernization job" in a move toward halting the destruction of Chicago's aging skyscrapers. Rejecting the term "modernization", Aldis called his plan "progressive styling", which he believed would revolutionize the way building maintenance was done to preserve millions of dollars' worth of buildings that would otherwise be destroyed. "There is no reason why", he said, "any well-designed office building need be torn down because of obsolescence."
Skidmore & Owings, who had pioneered functional design, were retained to lead a $125,000 program ($ in dollars) to restyle the main entrance, remodel the lobby and ground floor shops, modernize all the public spaces, and progressively modernize office suites as demand required. The modernization included covering the mosaic floors with rubber tile and
terrazzo, enclosing the elevators and ornamental stairways, and replacing the marble and oak finishes in the corridors and offices with modern materials. By the end of 1938, 35 new tenants had signed leases and 11 existing tenants had leased additional space in the building. In 1966, Aldis & Co., which had managed the building for the Brooks estate for 75 years, was dissolved and the Monadnock was sold for $2 million ($ in dollars) to Sudler & Co., owners of the
John Hancock Center, the
Rookery Building, and the
Old Colony Building. The new owners again modernized the interior, installing carpet,
fluorescent lights, and new doors, and undertook a major effort to shore up the north wall which had sunk during construction of the
Kluczynski Federal Building across Jackson Street in 1974. By 1977, operating expenses were high, rents were low, and occupancy had fallen to 80 percent. Struggling to make loan payments, the owners were forced to sell the building to avoid foreclosure. It was purchased by a partnership headed by William S. Donnell in 1979 for $5 per square foot ($54 per square meter) or approximately $2 million ($ in dollars).
Restoration and later (1979–present) The building Donnell purchased in 1979 had declined badly. The Dearborn entrances had been closed in, the ground floor had been "defaced by garish signs", and the brick had been painted and was peeling. Inside, the marble wainscoting had been painted over and many of the original oak doors had been replaced with cheaper mahogany. The decorative stair rails had been enclosed, and some stairways and corridors had been closed off completely. Much of the original mosaic tile had been demolished—some floors were carpeted, others tiled in
vinyl or terrazzo. Half of the sixteen elevators were still manually operated. "It was as if it had been partly updated every ten years throughout its history", said Donnell, "it was never done over in its entirety." Donnell, who had studied architecture at
Harvard, embarked on an incremental, "pay as you go" project to restore the Monadnock to its original condition in painstaking detail while the building was still occupied by tenants. The project was, according to historian Donald Miller, the most comprehensive skyscraper restoration ever attempted at the time; it took thirteen years to complete. Working from original drawings discovered at the
Art Institute of Chicago, and two old photographs, Donnell and
John Vinci, one of the nation's leading preservation architects, restored the building to its condition when first constructed, before any modernizations, working piecemeal as offices became vacant. The color of the
shellac was matched to closets where the wood had not been darkened by exposure to light. The mosaic floors were recreated by Italian craftsmen at a cost of $50 per square foot ($538 per square meter). A local firm was found that could reproduce the complicated process of
sandblasting and
hide glue application used to create the original feather chipped glass. This reproduced glass was used to restore the partitions and naturally lit corridors of Root's design. To recreate the doors and wood trim, Donnell purchased the firm that had created the original oak woodwork—and still used the same 19th century machinery. Perfect replicas of the original aluminum light fixtures were fabricated from early photographs and
carbon filament light bulbs were obtained to recreate the original lighting effect. A single surviving aluminum staircase was discovered behind a wall, restored, and used as a model to rebuild the lobby stairways and metalwork. The wainscoting on the upper floors was restored with marble salvaged from the recently modernized, nearby 19 LaSalle and
Manhattan Buildings. Marble was purchased from the same Italian
quarry that supplied Root's original construction to restore the lobby walls and ceilings. replicas of original
linen window shades The Dearborn Street entrances were reopened and their massive granite
lintels and surrounds cleared of layers of black paint or replaced. A source was found for the molded bricks needed to repair or replace the curved corners. Large plate glass windows at the entrance were removed and smaller
double-hung windows were replaced that conformed to the original design.
Fiberglass shades resembling the original
linen versions were installed to preserve the appearance of the facade. The average cost of the restoration work was $1 million per floor ($ in dollars) in 1989, or $47 per square foot ($506 per square meter). Donnell's goal was that the Monadnock would "not only look as it originally did, it [would] also
live as it used to", and he sought tenants for the street-level shops that were similar to their 19th-century occupants. Shop windows were cleared of all signs and obstructions to preserve intended view from the corridor through to the street. Fluorescent lighting was prohibited and only gold leaf lettering on the glass was permitted for signage. Shops, all individually owned, were selected to fit the architectural character of the building. A florist, for example, was chosen that evoked a turn-of-the-century atmosphere, as well as a barbershop with vintage fixtures and decor. A
tobacconist with oak furnishings, a pen shop with glass cases, a shoe-shine stand, and other service establishments represented, in Donnell's words, "the kind of small-scale entrepreneurs who occupied those spaces at the turn of the century, the kind of people who bring vitality and life to a building because they have a stake in it." The restoration was a success both critically and commercially. The building was 80 percent occupied when bought in 1979 and rented for $5.50 per square foot ($59.20 per square meter). By 1982, it was 91 percent occupied and commanded rent of $9 per square foot ($97 per square meter). The Monadnock was selected as one of top restoration projects in the country by the
National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1987, noting "the outstanding quality of the overall restoration effort", and the precision, detail and faithfulness of the interior restoration, in particular the lobby, which "serves as a model for preservation nationwide." The restored Monadnock is divided into offices of from to , it was 98.9 percent leased; the 300 tenants are primarily independent professional firms and entrepreneurs. Rents range from $21 to $23 per square foot ($226 to $247 per square meter), plus electricity. The building was offered for sale in 2007, with an expected price of $45 to $60 million. A tentative deal was reached at a price of $48 million in 2008. == Architecture ==