Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Monroe Building undergoes scalp rehab

Courtesy of our indefatigable correspondent Bob Johnson, we give you the above look at the work being done on the gabled roof of Holabird & Roche's 1912 Monroe Building, part of the historic Michigan Avenue landmarked streetwall. It's one of a pair buildings, the other being Holabird & Roche's University Club just to the north, that straddle Monroe Street to form a visual gateway to the Loop. The roof work is part of major renovations to the Monroe, which was originally intended to be a residential conversion, but now appears to be sticking with offices.
According to Tim Samuelson's excellent history on the Monroe Building's website, the offices in the top floor loft just under the peak of the gable roof have been home to a range of luminaries, from Walter Burley Griffin, to Barry Byrne, Alfonso and Margaret Ianelli, and, for a brief period, Frank Lloyd Wright himself.

1 comment:

Larry said...

I love posts like this that fill in the histories of these elegant buildings. My first job in architecture was in this building in 1976 with SGE. I returned here 30 years later with MGDF. the tentative list of architects in the lofts above was everchanging over the years. Its good to have a definitive list.