Site Visit No. 5: The Monadnock Building with Stewart Hicks

Site Visit

Ashley and Erik visit the Monadnock building with Stewart Hicks, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a co-founder of Design With Company.

March 1, 2018

THE MONADNOCK BUILDING WITH STEWART HICKS

This episode of Site Visit was recorded live in Design with Company’s office, which is located on the Monadnock building’s 14th floor. Erected in 1893, the Monadnock building, designed by two notable Chicago architecture firms Burnham & Root and Holabird & Roche, is considered the world’s tallest load-bearing brick building. The building is prolific in terms of the revolutionary technology employed in its construction, one of the signature contributions of Chicago’s historical architecture. Other notable structures located within proximity to the tower include the Harold Washington Library designed by Thomas Beeby, the Arts Institute of Chicago and Millennium Park. The Monadnock building has evolved into an icon for the city, with its purple-brown brick, thickened street-level walls, and limited ornamentation. Stewart’s passion for the building has played a role throughout his work, and particularly through his interests in architectural legibility, and the public’s engagement with design.

Stewart Hicks is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a co-founder of Design With Company, a practice he leads with Allison Newmeyer in Chicago. Design with Company’s work focuses on how literature and architecture intersect through fiction, character, type, or metaphor and how these themes can translate into installations, speculative urban scenarios, temporary pavilions and designs for buildings.