HOLABIRD AND ROOT 1880 - 1992 CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE*

Chicago: the birthplace of modern architecture. "Chicago Architecture" stands out for its clarity of construction and expressive strength of form. A veritable treasure trove for architects still today, the Chicago tradition of structural architecture continues to challenge contemporary building with provocative questions and charge it with creative forms of expression. Ranking as a pioneering force behind Chicago Architecture is one of the city's most venerable architecture firms, Holabird & Root; since the end of the 19th century to the present day it has nurtured construction in the Chicago tradition. Holabird & Root was among the first to make the shift from self-supporting walls to the steel-skeleton frame. In 1939, John Holabird Senior succeeded in bringing Mies van der Rohe to the city to head the Architecture Department of what is today's Illinois Institute of Technology; in the 1950s and 1960s it would be Mies who dictated the shape of Chicago's silhouette. Set against the century-long history of Holabird & Root's work, the story of the development of Chicago's architecture as a whole comes vividly to the fore.