The Constructional Significance of the Art Institute
This article is devoted to the constructional significance of the Art Institute that was built in 1892 for the 1993 Worlds Columbian Exposition. The construction and design of the buildings are rather special and significant for the institute of that age. The main entrance to the museum is located on Michigan Avenue in a beautiful Beau Arts stone structure.
In the 18th century the Art Institute served as the Hall of Congress for the exposition. The Art Institute was formerly in a Norman-Gothic structure on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Van Buren, just two blocks south of its current location. Nowadays we can find there the Chicago Club. There was the special agreement between the Art Institute and the Club as for the purchasing the building for its growing membership. As for the Chicago Club, it is Chicago's leading private club and many of the Art Institutes's Board of Trustees are the members of this club. The club comprises Stanley Field, Potter Palmer, and Marshall Field.
As it was planned on the initial stage of the construction, the first floor galleries were intended to show-case sculpture and the second floor was intended for drawings and paintings. The opening of the gallery can be observed at the entry. The ceiling was equipped with the railing around to provide fresh air and light. Nowadays there are the modern climate control systems, so the old systems were excluded.
The initial design for the main building was a large red-stone Romanesque building. But that idea was soon rejected for the favor of the new one. The building had galleries on two floors with a staircase at that time near the rear of the building. It was intended as funds increased to build a larger grand staircase in the center of the building which they indeed do years later after World War I.
While going to the grand staircases, there is the glass ceiling, what was the new innovation for that time. Grand staircase had the glass covered ceiling that had a quite modern looking. That was something much interesting, than the Beau Arts design of the building. Further, you will notice as you look around the mezzanine of the staircase that there are two rows of classical pillars on the east and west sides of the upper gallery and the east side even has arches. That was the main argument of the idea that the building hasn't been finished. It was intended at the time for there to be colonnades all around the second floor rotunda topped off with a Roman dome! But as it goes with the grand plans the financing of it was stopped and no chance to continue the works. The temporary class ceiling over the grand staircase has become permanent.
The usual thing that happens with all the museums in this country is that their construction begins with the one plan and it is ended with the other result. The other case is the massive stone blocks piled up on top of the entry pillars at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that were intended for sculptured figures and have never received the funding. However, we must be thankful for these wonderful places for they stir our imagination and inspire us to be creative, enriched citizens. These places of interest keep the main cultural and national significance of the country.