The Marquette Building, completed in 1895, is a

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

landmark that was built by the George A. Fuller Company and designed by architects

Holabird & Roche The architectural firm now known as Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm has changed its name several times and adapted to the architectural style then current — from Chicago School to Art Deco to Modern ...

. The building is currently owned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It is located in the community area known as the "

Loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, ...

" in

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

, United States. The building was one of the early steel frame skyscrapers of its day, and is considered one of the best examples of the

Chicago School of architecture Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. Much of its early work is also known as Commercial Style. In the history of architecture, the first Chicago School was a school of archit ...

. The building originally had a reddish,

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracot ...

exterior that, prior to restoration, was somewhat blackened due to decades of Loop soot. It is noted both for its then cutting edge frame and its ornate interior. Since construction, the building has received numerous awards and honors. It was designated a Chicago Landmark on June 9, 1975, and is considered an architectural masterpiece. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

on August 17, 1973 and named a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

on January 7, 1976. The building's preservation has been a major focus of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation completed an extensive four-year restoration in 2006.

History

The building was named after Father

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette S.J. (June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Sainte Marie, and later founded Saint Igna ...

, the first European settler in Chicago, who explored the Chicago region in 1674 and wintered in the area for the 1674-5 winter season. It was designed by

William Holabird William Holabird (September 11, 1854 in Amenia, New York – July 19, 1923 in Evanston, Illinois) was an American architect. Holabird was the son of General Samuel B. Holabird and Mary Theodosia Grant. He studied at the United States Milit ...

and

Martin Roche Martin Roche (1853–1927) was an American architect. Life In partnership with William Holabird, Martin Roche designed buildings following the Chicago School and that were landmarks in the development of early sky scrapers. He worked for Wil ...

, with Coydon T. Purdy,

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s of the firm

. In the 1930s, the building was the downtown headquarters for over 30

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

companies. Around 1950, the terra-cotta cornice was removed from the Marquette Building when an additional story was added. The building has been in continuous use as an

office building An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific d ...

since its construction. In 1977, Banker's Life and Casualty Company, owned by John D. MacArthur, acquired the Marquette Building. After his death in 1978, the building became the headquarters for the

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and ...

, which bears his name. The lobby of the Marquette Building connects with the D.H. Burnham & Company–designed Edison Building to the west, providing a

pedway Pedways (short for pedestrian walkways) are elevated or underground walkways, often connecting urban high-rises to each other, other buildings, or the street. They provide quick and comfortable movement from building to building, away from traffi ...

from Dearborn to Clark. After the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

, many downtown buildings closed to the public, which eliminated warm, dry, indoor walking routes providing shortcuts through full

city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within ...

s, but the Marquette Building did not.

Architecture

Marquette Building exterior entry detail - Chicago Illinois

The building features several distinct elements that have earned it honors as a Chicago Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, and a National Register Historic Place. It is considered an exemplary model of the

Chicago School of Architecture Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. Much of its early work is also known as Commercial Style. In the history of architecture, the first Chicago School was a school of archit ...

. The architects,

, used trademark long horizontal bay "Chicago windows" on the Marquette Building. These are large panes of

glass Glass is a non-Crystallinity, crystalline, often transparency and translucency, transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most ...

flanked by narrow sash windows. The grid-like

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mate ...

frames and

spandrels A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

are facilitated by the steel structure which enables non-load-bearing

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

walls. The Marquette is 16 stories tall. This was one of the first

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a " skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The devel ...

skyscrapers A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...

. Wave-like moldings decorate the façade, which is made of horizontally banded brown terra cotta. The building is constructed around a central light court and features an ornate, two-story lobby. The ensemble of mosaics, sculptures, and bronze of the Marquette Building entry and interior honors Jacques Marquette's 1674-5 expedition.Schlereth, Thomas J., ''The City as Artifact: The Above-Ground Archaeology of an Urban History'', Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'', p. A7. The University of Chicago Press, Four

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

panels over the main entrance by sculptor

Hermon Atkins MacNeil Hermon Atkins MacNeil (February 27, 1866 – October 2, 1947) was an American sculptor born in Everett, Massachusetts. He is known for designing the ''Standing Liberty'' quarter, struck by the Mint from 1916-1930; and for sculpting ''Justi ...

show different scenes from Marquette's trip through the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five la ...

region, ending with one depicting his

burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

. The

revolving door A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors that hang on a central shaft and rotate around a vertical axis within a cylindrical enclosure. Revolving doors are energy efficient as they, acting as an airlock, prevent drafts, thus d ...

panels feature carvings of panther's heads. The hexagonal railing around the lobby atrium is decorated with a mosaic frieze by the

Tiffany Tiffany may refer to: People * Tiffany (given name), list of people with this name * Tiffany (surname), list of people with this surname Known mononymously as "Tiffany": * Tiffany Darwish, (born 1971), an American singer, songwriter, actress kn ...

studio depicting events in the life of Jacques Marquette, his exploration of Illinois, and Native Americans he met. The mosaics are by

Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art NouveauL ...

and his chief designer and art director, Jacob Adolph Holzer; they contain panels of lustered Tiffany glass,

mother-of-pearl Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

, and semi-precious stones.

Restoration

The preservation of this building was championed by the

Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois – also known as Landmarks Illinois – is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1971 to prevent the demolition of the Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan designed Chicago Stock Exchange Building. ...

. In 2001, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, its current owners, began a multi-year renovation. The restoration to the exterior proceeded in two phases: reconstructing the cornice and replacing the 17th story windows to match the original windows; and cleaning and restoring the masonry and restoring the remainder of the windows. Restoration architect Thomas "Gunny" Harboe directed this wor

On September 12, 2006, The

Commission on Chicago Landmarks The Commission on Chicago Landmarks, established in 1968 by a Chicago City Ordinance, is composed of nine members appointed by the Mayor and the Chicago City Council. It is responsible for presenting recommendations of individual buildings, sites, ...

honored 21 landmark buildings, homeowners, and businesses with the Chicago Landmark Award for Preservation Excellence at the eighth-annual Landmarks ceremony. The award recognizes work involving notable improvements to individual Chicago landmarks or to buildings within Chicago Landmark Districts. On October 16, 2007, the Foundation opened a new interactive

audio visual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service ...

exhibit on the first floor, detailing the history of the building and its contribution to Chicago architecture. The free exhibit, which is open to the public, will run indefinitely.

Notes

Additional sources

*Riedy, James L., Chicago Sculpture, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL 1981 *Rooney, William A., ''Architectural Ornamentation in Chicago'', Chicago Review Press, Chicago, 1984

External links

Marquette.MacFound.org
a Web site dedicated to the architecture & history of the Marquette Building
Marquette Building details at Emporis.com

Inside Chicago Walking Tours
for interior tours of this and other famous Chicago landmark buildings
Chicago Architecture Foundation
learn more about the Marquette Building's architecture & sign up for a tour {{good article Chicago school architecture in Illinois National Historic Landmarks in Chicago Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago Skyscraper office buildings in Chicago Projects by Holabird & Root Holabird & Root Office buildings completed in 1895 Chicago Landmarks 1895 establishments in Illinois