03 Feb seldom seen photographic record w.j. newman’s demolition, excavation, and construction of chicago city hall joins bldg. 51 archive.
the following set of photographic images, taken by the chicago architectural photographing company, offers a seldom seen and deeply informative visual record of the demolition (including detailed images of deconstruction and wrecking methodologies), excavation, and construction of chicago’s downtown city hall by chicago-based w.j. newman.
the bldg. museum and archive recently acquired and subsequently digitized one of only a few sets of these sequentially arranged photogrpahic images (8 x 10 10 silver gelatin prints made from the original glass plate negatives) known to exist in the public and private realm.
the 1886 city hall building was designed in 1882 by architect james egan. the structure was demolished between 1907-1910 by w.g. newman to make way for holabird and roche’s extant chicago city hall and county building, completed in 1911.
the images are organized in three categories, beginning with demolition of egan’s city hall, followed by excavation and cassion work – both executed by w.g. newman, and last, the construction and “topping out” of holabird and roche’s 1911 city hall.
demolition:
excavation:
construction:
