IL_Chicago--The Franklin Building
(The Architectural Record, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2, August 1915)
The New Franklin Building--Chicago, Illinois
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Chicago’s Printers Row became a fashionable area in which to work. Buildings devoted mainly to the printing trades began to rise. “Printers Row or Printing House Row as it is sometimes called developed between 1883 and 1912 as the area for printing and publishing companies, just as nearby State Street grew to be Chicago’s major retail area and LaSalle Street emerged as the financial hub of the city. Built in 1885, the Dearborn Station, the oldest surviving rail terminal in the city, attracted commercial development in the last half of the 19th Century. In addition to printing and publishing businesses, there were also subsidiary trades that employed scores of workers, each with a particular expertise including typesetters, etchers, mapmakers and bookbinders to name some.”1
One of these, the new Franklin Building was built c. 1916 at 718-736 S. Dearborn Street. (The “old” Franklin Building is still located at 521-525 S. Dearborn.) The architect of the Franklin Building was George C. Nimmons. "The owner of this building laid down some interesting and unusual requirements for its design. ...He required that his building be designed entirely with straight lines, as he had a prejudice against the curve, that there be no conventional architecture whatever in its design, that it have brilliant color introduced through the medium of tile or terra cotta, and that the art of printing should be indicated in the decoration.”2 A contempoary article described how the facade would be built: “The material to be used is brick, terra cotta and tile. ….The trimmings of the upper part of the building are to be of terra cotta, with spots of color inserted among brick patterns that are parts of the spandrels and piers of the building. The first and second stories of the building consist of a series of brick piers[/pilasters], with granite bases. These piers taper from the bottom to the top and are to be faced with tile varying in color from dark green at the bottom to a rose tint at the top. Around these panels of tile which extend the full height of the piers will be an iridescent border of tile. At the top of each pier will be the trade-mark of the company and between each pair of piers will be a spandrel in the center of which will be a portrait of some artisan engaged in the printing trade… .”3 The building's "nine pilasters are faced with Autumn Leaf tile and bordered with Golden Lustre blocks. This tile was made by the Wheatley Pottery Company [of] Cincinnati, Ohio."4 The polychrome terra cotta was made by the American Terra Cotta Company (Teco) of Chicago, Illinois.2
In addition to these facade features, "“The outstanding feature of the Franklin Building that attracts the attention of casual passersby and intent scrutiny from walking tours of the Chicago Architecture Foundation is the decorative polychrome terra cotta ornamental tiles adorning the east façade of the structure. ...The main mural over the entry entitled 'The First Impression' depicts men working at the Gutenberg press. An inscription executed in terra cotta tile over the doorway reads, 'The excellence of every art must consist in the complete accomplishment of its purpose.' [This was the motto of The Franklin Company.] Other picture tiles represent printing and publishing activities from Benjamin Franklin’s time. Chicago artist, Oskar Gross, designed all of these picture tiles specifically for the Franklin Building.”5
From: Construction News
(click on any photo to see it full size)
Oskar Gross was the "...son of architect Rudolf Gross and Jeanette Kurzweil,...born in Vienna on November 29, 1871. He was educated at the Viennese Polytechnic Institute and at the Vienna Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. At the age of 27, Gross successfully entered and won a competition to exhibit at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, where Chicago Architect Daniel Burnham "discovered" him.Gross came to Chicago in 1902 developing a successful practice as a muralist, portrait painter, illustrator and sculptor… .”6 “Through his connections with Burnham he was soon in demand as a muralist throughout the country and from 1902 until 1912 he painted murals in many Chicago buildings and elsewhere.”7 “Gross first exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1911 and began to associate more with painters rather than architects, developing a camaraderie and lifestyle similar to the one he had led in Vienna, where he had been associated with the Vienna Secession. He set up a studio in Chicago and devoted himself to figure and genre painting. During his time in Chicago, he belonged to the Arts Club, Cliff Dwellers, Chicago Painters and Sculptors, and the Palette and Chisel Club. ...Although most of his portrait commissions were from members of the upper class, Gross was much more interested in working class subjects.”8
A Pilaster
The process that Gross used for the Franklin Building murals was to first make a painting of the panel subjects. These color paintings were then meticulously reproduced on tiles.2 The “colored tile[...was] made expressly for the structure by the Maw Company, of England.”4 (This is in dispute. See footnote 3 below.) "The [Maw Tile Company] was formed in 1850 by George Maw and his brother Arthur when they bought an ailing tile business in Worcester. They manufactured floor tiles and quickly gained a high reputation for their encaustic 'Mock-Mediaeval' tiles. However, they had to contend with the same problems as the company they had bought out– the local clays were unsuitable and materials had to be brought in at great expense from Shropshire. In 1852 they relocated to the Benthall Works at Broseley where they could make use of the clay as well as coal. The brothers soon opened their own mines. At first the company barely covered its expenses and full commercial production did not begin until 1857. A few years later encaustic tiles became the height of fashion. Maw & Co were the first to use six and more colours. Mosaic tiles also formed a large part of Maw's business. In 1862 a patent mosaic tile was introduced. At the same time George Maw was experimenting with majolica glazes and later on with faience. Transfer printed and hand painted picture tiles were produced as well as relief tiles and gilt ones with the entire design executed in gold. By the 1880’s Maw & Co had become one of the most influential and important tile manufacturers. To help meet the increasing demand Maw & Co made more and more mechanical improvements using steam driven tile presses for example and in 1883 moved to new premises at a more appropriate site at Jackfield... . At the end of the century Maw’s was the largest tile factory in the world. Art Nouveau designs were followed by unique Art Deco geometric styles. Unfortunately the recession at the end of the First World War and building restrictions and the closure of the railway in the decades following World War II were very detrimental for tile production in Jackfield and eventually the factory closed in January 1970."9
From: The Architectural Record
The building's architect, George C. Nimmons (1865-1947), "...was active in practice for nearly half a century and was prominently known in Chicago. A native of Wooster, Ohio, he attended the Academy there and later studied architecture in Europe. He was also a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1887 Nimmons was hired by the famous architectural firm of Burnham and Root where he served as a draftsman for 10 years. In 1897 Nimmons formed a partnership with William K. Fellows (1870-1948), which continued until 1910 when Fellows formed a new firm with Dwight L. Perkins and John Hamilton. During their partnership, Nimmons and Fellows designed a number of large commercial buildings in Chicago.”5
George C. Nimmons
“George Nimmons...served as a transitional figure, connecting the classical Beaux Arts style of the 1880’s and 1890’s to the more streamlined style that would eventually lead to the great Art Deco buildings of the 1920’s.” Of his designs of industrial and warehouse-type buildings, “Nimmons wrote, ‘The characteristics of the style of treatment of industrial buildings that is mostly in favor now are Gothic in character and consist usually of piers marked on the exterior of the buildings, carried up only to the point where the concentrated loads disappear, similar to buttresses and also walls continued up without projecting cornices and terminated with ornamental copings; the corners of the building are strengthened by the use of piers heavier than the intermediate ones, the entrances emphasized by the use of ornamental tracery and ornament, and the sprinkler tank enclosed in a tower often placed at the main entrance and including one of the principal stairways. While such designs are Gothic in character they are more and more exhibiting a freedom and originality that promise in time to develop into a well-defined architectural style for American industrial buildings.' ”10
In 1987 the “...14-story Franklin Building underwent an extensive $9 million renovation. The structure’s interior was gutted and 65 residential units were created. The restored Franklin Building opened for occupancy in September 1989… .”11 The polychrome terra cotta and tile facade, however, has been preserved. The developer hired "...Nancy Berryman, a ceramist teaching at the University of Illinois-Chicago, to restore the ceramics..."12 of the building, and the building is now part of the Printers Row Historic District.
Pilasters/Piers and spandrels on lower floors
Additional Information:
Color photos courtesy of Bill Badzo (Onasill on Flickr).
Footnotes:
1http://www.thefranklinbuilding.com/
2“Some industrial Buildings of George C. Nimmons”, The Architectural Record, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2, August 1915, p. 231
3“The Franklin Building”, Construction News, Special Number, July 20, 1912, p. 11. [Even though this article, written before the building was built, and The Inland Printer article below, written three years later, state that the British Maw Company made the tile panels, decorative arts historian, Richard Mohr, makes an excellent argument why the panels were most likely made by Teco and not Maw. (Richard D. Mohr, "Teco's Arts and Crafts Art Tiles: Art Tiles in the Prairie School, Part IV-D", Journal of the American Art Pottery Association, Vol. 31, No. 1, Winter 2015, p. 28, Endnote No. 24.)]
4“The Franklin Company’s New Building”, The Inland Printer, Vol. 54, No. 4, January 1915, p. 555.
5http://www.thefranklinbuilding.com/
6http://www.thechicagoloop.org/scul.gros.00000.html
7http://www.prairiestyles.com/gross.htm
8http://www.chicagomodern.org/artists/oskar_gross
9http://www.mawscraftcentre.co.uk/history.php
10http://www.connectingthewindycity.com/2012/02/reid-murdoch-building-part-two.htm
11http://chicago-architecture-jyoti.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-franklin-building.html
12J. Linn Allen, "Final Edition For Printers Row", May 14, 1989, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-05-14/business/8902010214_1_andy-warhol-judy-chicago-franklin-building
13George A. Berry III, Sharon S. Darling, Common Clay: A History of American Terra Cotta Corporation, 1881-1966, TCR Corp., Crystal Lake, IL, 2003, p. 18
Submitted by Michael Padwee (tileback101'at'collector.org) in May 2013; additions made in January 2015.
Upper floors ornamentation
All color photos courtesy of Bill Badzo (Onasill),
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7156765@N05/.
The polychrome tiles in this panel were made by the
American Terra Cotta Company/Teco, and the panel
was exhibited at the 1912 International Clay Products
Exposition in Chicago.13
