Spirit of Upness

Photo Courtesy of Ildar Sagdejev

Last week I went to hear Stephen Sondheim speak at The Harris Theater. I’ll move on to what this has to do with Chicago a moment, but here’s one thing: The Harris Theater is not laid out very well. My mom is in a wheelchair and it was a bit crazy getting us to our seats: one elevator (one!) takes us to one floor then we had to get off and take another elevator (one!) to another floor. The ushers were extremely helpful and kind, but getting out of there was harder than getting in.

But Margaret, what does Sondheim have to do with Chicago? He’s a lifelong New Yorker and admitted that he has basically lived in a 20 block radius his whole life. But the whole conversation started out with the host, Gary Griffin, saying “Chicago is a Sondheim town.” And of course everyone clapped. Sondheim said then that if he didn’t live in and love New York, he would live here, which of course brought another round of applause. (Also, Rick Bayless sat right in front of us, I don’t know what else to say about that except it’s neat to see cross-geniusing.)

Then Sondheim said that Chicago has a “spirit of up-ness” not seen in other cities. Another round of applause, but why? What did he mean? I’ve been thinking about it:

Certainly there is the literal sense of “up.” We are home to the birth of the skyscraper. Yes, yes, I know New York City, you have your story, we have ours – but I think ours makes more sense, so I’m sticking to it. It seems more likely that a steel frame structure would arise out of need instead of just pure chance – so Chicago is the womb, skyscrapers are the babies. I don’t know who the father is because that just makes me confused.

Other cities had to build up instead of out, especially New York, but we certainly won the “up” prize with the Sears (whatever Willis) Tower. One of the designers of the Sears Tower just passed away, Bruce Graham. Bruce Graham was a general partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill, you don’t get anymore Chicago-Up than that. He designed (with help from Fazlur of course) the Sears Tower, The Hancock, Daley Center and Inland Steel. You probably know Sears Tower and the Hancock, but if you don’t know the Inland Steel building, it’s this one at 30 W. Monroe:

Photo Courtesy of greatbuildings.com

If you ask 400 docents what they’re favorite buildings is, 399 of them will say Inland Steel. It was always our little docent joke…we’re so funny.  It’s a beautiful building and took Modernism to a whole new level.

Graham was a big part of our up-ness.

Which leads me to our other up-ness in Chicago. The Booster. I love that the description itself has an element of “up” to it.  Chicago’s boosters back in the day and in the present I suppose, were all about money of course. But they realized the way they were going to make money was to invest in Chicago. That’s what William Butler Ogden did, that’s what Burnham and Root did, Marshall Field, Aaron Montgomery Ward all did it. Now we have boosters like Adrian Smith – we could use a few more modern day boosters me thinks. But Chicago without it’s boosters is like a frozen trampoline – no bounce. They are inherent to our history and without them Chicago would have been a third-rate city dying in the Midwest.

And just the fact that we rebuilt a city after the fire. The fact that immediately there were calls to rebuild. That is way more up than down eh?

I love that we have a “spirit of up-ness.” Sondheim might not have really understood what he was saying (although he doesn’t seem like a man to waste words) but I took it seriously. On first glance, we might seem a city of “ugh-ness” but I prefer Sondheim’s version a lot better.

Oh and if you’re an architecture nerd, make sure you go here to listen to the Oral Histories Project through the Art Institute. It is one of our greatest treasures and yours truly has gotten way lost in it’s recesses.
Enjoy.