20 Feb down in a hole: richard nickel images of hand-dug cassions for c.f. murpy’s civic center

down in a hole. i was so delighted when i ran across these riveting images documenting the hand-dug caissons for chicago’s civic center (1965) designed by jacques brownson of c. f. murphy associates. 

the majority of the images were pulled from richard nickel contact sheets dating to 1963 (he was commissioned by murphy to photograph the building’s construction). i’ve seen a great deal of those images, but very little foundation work. 
i believe the building (excluding plaza) rests on 50 cassions – each being 120 ft in depth. looking closely at nickel’s photos the cassions are surrounded by wood tongue and groove lagging with iron or steel rings to line the shafts and support unstable soil conditions during excavation.

from what i’ve read, small “derricks” were stationed above each cassion with tripod and air-driven winch to hoist up metal well buckets and lift workers in and out of the shafts. the backbreaking work involved the use of shovels and pneumatic air spades to dig out the clay and discard into the buckets.

the team of workers, identified as headmen, dumpers, and hand miners, were expected to dig around 16ft. per 8hr. work-shift. the process was then repeated until reaching hardpan.
i’m truly amazed (maybe not) that nickel hitched a ride down and documented the work. fascinating.

this might be a good time to segue into nickel’s images of the adler and sullivan’s garrick theater wood pile foundation, which was exposed and meticulously documented shortly after the structure was demolished to make way for the parking garage that replaced it – supported in part, by adler’s wood pile foundation.