Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

style. Probably his most important building for later architecture was theMarshall Field Wholesale Store in Chicago, built between 1885 and 1887(and demolished in 1930; see Figure 9). This austere, massive granite blockwas articulated only by the shape, scale, and rhythm of its openings. Like aRoman aqueduct without any classical ornament, three rows of ever smallerarcades doubled, then quadrupled up the building, creating a tree-like unfoldingof the motif. U-shaped around a central court, this refined distillationof other commercial architecture in Chicago created a somber, modernizedrenaissance palace for the business world.Figure 9. Henry Hobson Richardson. Marshall Field Wholesale Store, Chicago, ILLouis Sullivan (1856–1924) praised Richardson’s design and showedits influence in the famous auditorium that he built in Chicago with partnerDankmar Adler in 1886–1889. Like many other late nineteenth-century architectsin Chicago, Sullivan pondered the best solution to the new designproblem of the tall office building. While the development of the modern“skyscraper” that resulted from their efforts was really a group project114