Auditorium Building

Origin and purpose

Ferdinand Peck, a Chicago businessman, incorporated the Chicago Auditorium Association in December 1886 to develop what he wanted to be the world's largest, grandest, most expensive theater that would rival such institutions as the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. He was said to have wanted to make high culture accessible to the working classes of Chicago.

The building was to include an office block and a first class hotel. Peck persuaded many Chicago business tycoons to go on board with him, including Marshall Field, Edson Keith, Martin A. Ryerson, Charles L. Hutchinson and George Pullman. The association hired the renowned architectural firm of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan to design the building. At the time, a young Frank Lloyd Wright was employed at the firm as draftsman, and he may have contributed to the design."Some interior details were probably drawn by Frank Lloyd Wright, who started in Sullivan's office as a draftsman in 1887." Banister Fletcher. A History of Architecture. p. 1241.

The Auditorium was built for a syndicate of businessmen to house a large civic opera house; to provide an economic base it was decided to wrap the auditorium with a hotel and office block. Hence Adler & Sullivan had to plan a complex multiple-use building. Fronting on Michigan Avenue, overlooking the lake, was the hotel (now Roosevelt University) while the offices were placed to the west on Wabash Avenue. The entrance to the auditorium is on the south side beneath the tall blocky eighteen-story tower. The rest of the building is a uniform ten stories, organized in the same way as Richardson's Marshall Field Wholesale Store. The interior embellishment, however, is wholly Sullivan's, and some of the details, because of their continuous curvilinear foliate motifs, are among the nearest equivalents to European Art Nouveau architecture.

Design

Sullivan and Adler designed a tall structure with load-bearing outer walls, and based the exterior appearance partly on the design of H.H. Richardson's Marshall Field Warehouse, another Chicago landmark. The Auditorium is a heavy, impressive structure externally, and was more striking in its day when buildings of its scale were less common. When completed, it was the tallest building in the city and largest building in the United States.

Foundation

One of the most innovative features of the building was its massive raft foundation, designed by Adler in conjunction with engineer Paul Mueller. The soil beneath the Auditorium consists of soft blue clay to a depth of over 100 feet, which made conventional foundations impossible. Adler and Mueller designed a floating mat of crisscrossed railroad ties, topped with a double layer of steel rails embedded in concrete, the whole assemblage coated with pitch.

The resulting raft distributed the weight of the massive outer walls over a large area. However, the weight of the masonry outer walls in relation to the relatively lightweight interior deformed the raft during the course of a century, and today portions of the building have settled as much as 29 inches. This deflection is clearly visible in the theater lobby, where the mosaic floor takes on a distinct slope as it nears the outer walls. This settlement is not because of poor engineering but the fact the design was changed during construction. The original plan had the exterior covered in lightweight terra-cotta, but this was changed to stone after the foundations were under construction. Most of the settlement occurred within a decade after construction, and at one time a plan existed to shorten the interior supports to level the floors but this was never carried out.

Theater

Main article: Auditorium Theatre

In the center of the building was a 4,300 seat auditorium, originally intended primarily for production of Grand Opera. In keeping with Peck's democratic ideals, the auditorium was designed so that all seats would have good views and acoustics. The original plans had no box seats and when these were added to the plans they did not receive prime locations.

The theater has 3,901 seats as of 2017.

Other interior spaces

Housed in the building around the central space were an 1890 addition of 136 offices and a 400-room hotel, whose purpose was to generate much of the revenue to support the opera. While the Auditorium Building was not intended as a commercial building, Peck wanted it to be self-sufficient. Revenue from the offices and hotel was meant to allow ticket prices to remain reasonable. In reality, both the hotel and office block became unprofitable within a few years of the building's opening.

File:Auditorium bldg (Interior) HABS.jpg |interior cross-section File:Auditorium bldg (foundations) HABS.jpg |foundation File:Auditorium bldg (basement) HABS.jpg |basement

History

19th century

On October 5, 1887, President Grover Cleveland laid the cornerstone for the Auditorium Building. The 1888 Republican National Convention was held in a partially finished building where Benjamin Harrison was nominated as a presidential candidate. On December 9, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison dedicated the building and opera star Adelina Patti sang "Home Sweet Home". Adler & Sullivan had also opened their offices on the 16th and 17th floors of the Auditorium tower.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuted on October 16, 1891, and made its home in the Auditorium Theatre until moving to Orchestra Hall in 1904.

20th century

The opera company renting the accommodation moved to the Civic Opera House in 1929, and the Auditorium Theatre closed during the Great Depression. In 1941, it was taken over by the city of Chicago to be used as a World War II servicemen's center. By 1946, Roosevelt University moved into the Auditorium Building, but the theater was not restored to its former splendor. Instead, the theater stood vacant for another two decades. In 1952, Congress Parkway was widened, bringing the curb to the southern edge of the building. To make room for a sidewalk, some ground-floor rooms and part of the theater lobby were removed and a sidewalk arcade created.

Roosevelt University trustees voted in 1958 to restore the Auditorium Theater. In the early 1960s, Beatrice T. Spachner, a Roosevelt University trustee, became the leader of the Auditorium Theater Council, which had been formed to oversee the Auditorium Theatre's restoration. She ultimately raised $2.25 million or $3 million for the purpose. Harry Weese was hired to restore the theater, having claimed to be able to refurbish it for a much lower price than local competitor Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill could. On October 31, 1967, the Auditorium Theatre reopened with a benefit concert where the New York City Ballet performed A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Auditorium served as a rock venue through 1975; among other notable acts, the Grateful Dead played there ten times from 1971 through 1977.

On August 10, 1968, Jimi Hendrix performed two shows with his band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Doors also played their first concert at the Auditorium Building after their arrest of singer Jim Morrison on June 14, 1969.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior in 1975.

21st century

On April 30, 2015, the National Football League held its 2015 NFL draft in the Auditorium Theatre.

Gallery

File:Auditorium Building5.jpg |Exterior detail, seen from Congress Parkway File:Chicago Auditorium Building, interior from balcony.jpg |Auditorium Theatre interior from the balcony File:Chicago Auditorium Building, theatre detail.jpg |Interior detail of the Auditorium Theatre File:Auditorium Building9.jpg |Auditorium Hotel – dining hall from the South File:Auditorium Building10.jpg |Auditorium Hotel – detail of the grand stairs File:Chicago Auditorium Building Postcard 1906 (Front).png|Postcard of building circa 1906, with handwritten note: "This is where I work!"

References

Notes

Citations

Further reading

References

1. (May 15, 1975). "Auditorium Building". National Park Service.
2. Pitts, Carolyn. (March 10, 1975). ["National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Auditorium Building"]({{NHLS url). National Park Service.
3. {{NRISref
4. "Auditorium Building". Chicago Department of Housing and Economic Development, Historic Preservation Division.
5. Roth, Leland M. ''A Concise History of American Architecture''. p. 179-80
6. Sarkowski, John. (1956). "The Idea of Louis Sullivan". Bulfinch Press.
7. Henning, Joel. (September 6, 2008). "Form Follows Function, Elegantly: Louis Sullivan designed the Auditorium Theatre's interior to complement its acoustics-driven shape". The Wall Street Journal.
8. Kogan, Rick. (March 3, 2017). "Auditorium Theatre's new CEO says that grand venue is her kind of place".
9. Carey, Heidi Pawlowski. (2005). "Auditorium Building". Chicago Historical Society.
10. Kogan, Rick. (April 24, 2015). "The Auditorium: A fine place for a football draft".
11. Bentley, Chris. (February 2, 2015). "Auditorium Theatre".
12. McDaniel, Charles G.. (October 31, 1967). "Chicago Auditorium to Reopen Tonight".
13. "Auditorium Building". Emporis.
14. Leonard, William. (November 1, 1967). "City Greets Auditorium in Gala Opening".
15. (November 2, 1967). "Auditorium Theatre Opens After 25 Years of Neglect".
16. [https://www.jimihendrix.com/encyclopedia-item/august-10-1968-the-experience-are-supported-by-soft-machine-for-two-performances-at-auditorium-theatre-in-chicago-illinois/ www.jimihendrix.com/encyclopedia-tag Official website devoted to Jimi Hendrix] Retrieved October 4, 2025.
17. (April 17, 1970). "Auditorium Building, Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois (U.S. National Park Service)".
18. (July 6, 2015). "Chicago History Lover's Guide To The Auditorium Building".
19. Vardeman, Brady. (April 30, 2015). "2015 NFL Draft moved from Radio City Music Hall to Auditorium Theatre in Chicago".