Phenix Building (Chicago)
{{Short description|Office building in Chicago, Illinois}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox building
|name = Phenix Building
|image = Phenix Building Inland Architect & News Record Vol. X No. 3.jpg
|caption = The Phenix Building as built, 1887
|former_names = * Western Union Building
- F.C. Austin Building
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|location = 138 (now 111 W.) Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois
|architectural_style = Romanesque Revival
|status = demolished (1957)
|coordinates = {{coord|41.8780|-87.6314|region:US-IL|display=inline,title}}
|owner = The Phenix Mutual Fire Insurance Company (as built)
|building_type = high-rise office
|major companies =
|floor_count = 11 (as built) +2 added in 1892
|start_date = {{Start date and age|1886}}
|completion_date = {{Start date and age|1887}}
|demolition_date = {{Start date and age|1957}}
|architectural =
|top_floor =
|tip = about 151 feet
|floor_area = about 125,000
|elevator_count = 5
|architect = Burnham and Root{{cite web| url=http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/mqc/id/58114/rec/1| title= Ryerson and Burnham Archives: Archive Images Collection - Phoenix Building | publisher=The Art Institute of Chicago| access-date=December 20, 2015}}
|references = }}
The Phenix (aka Phoenix) Building was an office building in Chicago designed by the noted Chicago architectural firm of Burnham and Root. It was built by the Phenix Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Brooklyn, New York and occupied the block fronting Jackson Boulevard between Pacific Avenue (now LaSalle Street) and Clark Street. When completed in 1887, the building was seen as "the latest addition to Chicago's magnificent architectural structures".{{cite book|last=Orear|first=George Washington|title=Commercial and Architectural Chicago Illustrated|year=1887|publisher=Donohue and Henneberry|location=Chicago|pages=164}} It was later owned by the Western Union Telegraph Company, who sold the building to the manufacturer and philanthropist Frederick C. Austin (1853-1931) in 1922.{{cite journal |title=Western Union Building Sold|journal=Arkansas City Daily Traveler|volume=XXXVI | issue =141 |date=January 14, 1922|pages=1}} Austin donated it to Northwestern University in 1929 with the understanding that the income derived from it would "provide scholarships for the training of business executives".{{cite journal |last= The Associated Press|title= Manufacturer's Splendid Gift to Northwestern U|journal=The Freeport (Illinois) Standard-Journal|volume=LXXXI |date=January 24, 1929|pages=1}} The building was demolished in 1957 and replaced by what today is known as the TransUnion Building, a twenty-four story office building designed by A. Epstein and Sons.{{cite journal |last= Fuller|first=Ernest|title= 39 Story LaSalle St. Skyscraper Planned|journal=The Chicago Daily Tribune|volume=CXV1 | issue =9 |date=January 10, 1957|pages=1}}
Features
The footprint of the building measured 215 feet on Jackson Boulevard, but was only 50 feet deep. It cost $1 million to complete, not including the $400,000 paid for the lot{{cite journal |title= Contractors on the Phenix Building – The Phenix Insurance Building|journal=The Inland Architect and News Record|volume= X| issue = 3|date=September 1887|pages=xv}} (other sources state $100,000) which to this point was "covered with shanties".{{cite journal |title= REAL ESTATE - Plans of the Phenix Building to Be Put Up on the McNeill Lot - Sale of the McNeill Property on Jackson Street - A Great Office Building to be Erected|journal=The Chicago Daily Tribune|date=October 18, 1885|pages=28}}
The building was built with a structural steel frame{{cite book|last=Randall|first=Frank A.|title=History of the Development of Building Construction in Chicago|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofdevelop00rand|year=1949|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofdevelop00rand/page/154 154]}} and was advertised as being "absolutely fireproof".{{cite journal |title= (advertisement) To Rent - Offices in The Phenix Building|journal=The Chicago Daily Tribune|volume= XLVII|date=July 3, 1887|pages=1}} The exterior base was sheathed in Vert Island Stone from Ontario, Canada, with the upper floors finished with red terra cotta and St. Louis brick. The lobby, including the walls and stairs, was finished using white marble, as were the interior hallways in the rest of the building, with the woodwork in the offices being of Cuban mahogany. The building had windows on all four sides. The structure was considered groundbreaking in its day in the quality of the interior finish that it provided, in that "As an office building for office purposes, the Phenix Company have gone further than any company in the West, in placing as elegant finish in a building devoted to purely commercial purposes, an example that will be followed until art will find a place where before rough walls and plain finish were considered all that was necessary."{{cite journal |title= Contractors on the Phenix Building – The Phenix Insurance Building|journal=The Inland Architect and News Record|volume= X| issue = 3|date=September 1887|pages=xv}}
Originally built with eleven stories above ground, two floors were added in 1892 by the Western Union Telegraph Company, a subsequent owner.
Contractors and suppliers
- Brick – Lockwood and Kimbell, Chicago
- Terra Cotta – The Northwest Terra-Cotta Company, Chicago
- Vert Island sandstone – Mr. Henry Kerber, Chicago
- Marble work – Davidson & Sons, Chicago
- Ornamental iron work – Paulsen & Eger, New York City
- Ornamental hardware – Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co., Chicago with Orr & Lockett, Chicago. The Phenix Building is credited as being the first instance for which hardware was custom-designed for use throughout the building.{{cite journal |title= Contractors on the Phenix Building - Hardware|journal=The Inland Architect and News Record|volume= X| issue = 3|date=September 1887|pages=xvi}}
- Painting, glazing and woodwork finishing – S.S. Barry & Son, Chicago
- Elevators – W.E. Hale & Co., Chicago
- Gas and electrical fixtures – T.W. Wilmarth & Co., Chicago
- Woodwork, including the office furniture – Edward E. Swiney, Chicago
- Washstands, water closets and related fixtures – J.L. Mott Iron Works, New York
Tenants
The Phenix Mutual Fire Insurance Company occupied the top two floors of the building as its Southern and Western Departments headquarters,{{cite journal |title= (advertisement) Phenix Insurance Company, Brooklyn, New York|journal=The Insurance Times|volume= XX|date=December 1887|pages=641}} and leased the remainder of the space. Because of its proximity to the city’s many railroad terminals, the building provided office space to a number of railway-oriented manufacturers and suppliers, along with several of the area's passenger and freight railway companies.{{cite journal |editor-last=Grosman |editor-first=Walter D.|title= display and classified advertisements|journal=The Official Railway List |volume= IX|date=1890|pages=ii, iv, vi, 30, 43, 64, 65, 66, 122, 166}}
The building was purchased by the Western Union Telegraph Co. as its headquarters in 1892 for $1.5 million, the highest price paid to that date for any building located downtown.{{cite journal |title= Real Estate Market – Phenix Building Sale Recorded|journal=The Chicago Tribune|date=October 30, 1892|pages=30}}
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Gallery
{{multiple image
| perrow=3
| align = center
| direction = horizontal
| header = The Phenix Building and related images
| header_align = center
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| width =
| image1 = Nothing Saved but the Policy.jpg
| width1 = 150
| caption1 = Advertisement for The Phenix Mutual Fire Insurance Co., c.1895
| image2 = Phenix Building Inland Architect & News Record Vol. X No. 3 Lobby.jpg
| width2 = 268
| caption2 = The Phenix Building lobby measured 20 x 45 feet, with the entrance arch leading to it from the outside having a span of 24 feet.
| image3 = Phenix Building Inland Architect & News Record Vol. X No. 3 Facade Details.jpg
| width3 = 442
| caption3 = Main façade details. Note the mythical phoenix and namesake of the building incorporated into the cornice as high-relief sculpture. The noted critic and essayist Montgomery Schuyler had this to say about the entrance: "If beauty be its own excuse for being, this entrance needs no other, for assuredly it is one of the most artistic and beautiful works American architecture has to show..."{{cite book|last=Schuyler|first=Montgomery|title=American Architecture - Studies by Montgomery Schuyler - with Illustrations|year=1892|publisher=Harper and Brothers, Publishers|location=New York|pages=147}}
| image4 = Western Union Building.jpg
| width4 = 155
| caption4 = As the Western Union Building, with two floors added in 1892
| image5 = Phenix Building interior.jpg
| width5 = 442
| caption5 = Interior of Western Union office, ninth floor - main operating room - 1901. The floor was left undivided as one 9,750-square-foot space {{cite journal |last=Jeffrey |first=Geoffrey|title= The World's Tallest Building, 1892
|journal=The Chicago Reader|date=September 10, 1987|pages=16}} so that the five hundred operators who worked on that level {{cite journal |title= Western Union Progress in Chicago|journal=Western Electrician|volume= XI| issue =22 |date=November 26, 1892|pages=273}} could perform their duties unimpeded by interior partitions.
}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160307210320/http://www.emporis.com/buildings/102654/phoenix-building-chicago-il-usa Emporis.com - The Phoenix Building]}}
- [http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=52823/ Skyscraperpage.com - Phoenix Building]
Category:Buildings and structures in Chicago
Category:Skyscraper office buildings in Chicago
Category:Burnham and Root buildings
Category:Former buildings and structures in Chicago
Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1957
Category:1957 disestablishments in Illinois
Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Chicago