Daniel Burnham, architect and city planner, said about his master plans for Chicago and also the World's Columbian exhibition: Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will themselves not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die.
Housing one of the more well-known staircases in the world, Burnham's Rookery Building stamped this collective vision into the soul of Chicago. The building itself is widely considered Burnham and Root's chef d'oeuvre, measuring 181 feet high and 12 stories tall. It's considered, by many, as the oldest standing high-rise in modern Chicago, having employed masonry load-bearing exterior walls and an interior steel frame structural system. And to further cap the project's acclaim, Frank Lloyd Wright remodeled the lobby in 1905.
For obvious reasons, Burnham and Root's Rookery became a historical landmark. But for less obvious reasons, this building also became a call to action. This can be elucidated better by portraying the context in Chicago prior to the Chicago School's artistic revolution: in other words, the panic that was caused by the Great Chicago Fire.
There were two contradictory clarion calls: to provide safety and to make a statement. Safety in buildings was of utmost concern, and without resources and structural materials that were fireproof, there was some risk involved for any typical high-rise inhabitant.
Conversely, partition systems that could relieve loads from traveling through the interior of structures (which caused excessive dead and live loads) hadn't been invented yet (Our boy Mies van de Rohe would change that), and therefore architects were limited to how high they could literally set their visions.
And also, it was important that, after these two accommodations were met, that the building was viable financially and commercially successful. Many of the tenants in the Rookery would be businessmen and companies expecting for the building to make and not lose money (not an uncommon desire for a building back then, but also a less common fortune, to be sure).
Thankfully, the Rookery works because John Root understood light. Root particularly made prodigious use of light and ornamentation by designing a central light court to serve as the focal point for the entire building and provide daylight to interior offices. Rising two stories, the light court received immediate critical acclaim. "There is nothing bolder, more original, or more inspiring in modern civic architecture than its glass-covered court", wrote Eastern critic Henry Van Brunt.
And the interiors, what sets the building apart, are entirely Wright's classical Prairie Style vision. Wright hadn't worked on many projects in downtown Chicago when he was commissioned to work on the interior portion of the Rookery, but after working part-time for Adler and Sullivan (another famous duo in the Chicago School), Burnham, who obviously knew of Adler and Sullivan, quickly sought out their young protege. What resulted was the addition of Persian white marble in the interior, which gives the Rookery lobby a touch of divine luxury, which contrasts nicely with the steel-laden interiors elsewhere. Also of note is Wright's curvilinear work, which he would revert to much later in his own life (Marin County Civic Center and the Guggenheim Museum being two examples).
Over time, renovations have been performed on the space, and it is a testament that the building survives largely intact after them (not all renovations are structural, unfortunately). It is sad to say that the building gives us a link to the past, unfortunately. Not many of Burnham and Root's buildings survive to this day, somewhat counter to Burnham's initial wishes. But then again, you see the building, you see the marble floor, you see the light and you see the steel trusses and the staircase. How is your blood not stirred?
