Description: Winner of the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award from the Society of Architectural Historians
When the magnificent Auditorium Building opened on Chicago's Michigan Avenue in December 1889, it marked Chicago's emergence both as the leading city of the Midwest and as a metropolis of international stature. In this lavishly illustrated book, Joseph M. Siry explores not just the architectural history of the Auditorium Building but also the crucial role it played in Chicago's social history. Covering the Auditorium from the early design stage to its opening, its later renovations, its links to culture and politics in Chicago, and its influence on later Adler and Sullivan works (including the Schiller Building and the Chicago Stock Exchange Building), this volume recounts the fascinating tale of a building that helped to define a city and an era.Brief description: Joseph M. Siry is a professor of art history and American studies at Wesleyan University. He is the author of Carson Pirie Scott: Louis Sullivan and the Chicago Department Store, published by the University of Chicago Press, and Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wright and Architecture for Liberal Religion.
Review Quotes: "Where the book really shines . . . is Siry's reconstruction of the social and historical context that gave rise to and helped guide the development of the Auditorium Building. This makes the text a true find for architectural historians and worthwhile reading for a much broader audience. . . . The result is a book with a scope and detail to match both the magnificence of the building and the depth of thought that went into its conception, design, and construction."