Fisher Building
Life Span: 1896-Present
Location: NE corner of Dearborn and Van Buren streets
Architect: D. H. Burnham & Co., Peter J. Weber (Annex)
- Lakeside Business Directory of the City of Chicago, 1899
Fisher Bldg.—Dearborn and Vanburen
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
Fisher Bldg.—279 Dearborn cor. Vanburen.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
Fisher Bldg.—343 S Dearborn cor. Vanburen.
Chicago Tribune, December 29, 1895
BUILDING OF THE YEAR
Chicago has not fared well In the way of new buildings when previous years are taken into comparison. A vast amount of building was done in the period before the World’s Fair and each year s record still suffers by a comparison with that. Cost of buildings in 1895 has been satisfactory as compared with last year, while tite number of buildings and the amount of frontage involved have shown a decrease. Among the more prominent buildings of the year are the Fisher, the Great Northern Hotel Theater and office, the Studebaker, Lewis Institute, and the Davies.
The Fisher Building is being erected on Dearborn and Van Buren streets and Plymouth place for L. G. Fisher. The building is twenty stories and basement high and its cost when completed is estimated at $615,000. The exterior construction is of semi-glazed terra cotta of a yellowish shade and the design is in the French Gothic. The building fronts seventy feet on Van Butren street and about 100 feet each on Dearborn street and Plymouth Place. The principal entrance, seventeen feet wide, is on Dearborn street, in the northern part of the building.
It will lead immediately to the elevators, which will be located on the north wall. The north wail is also constructed of the yellowish semi-glazed tile above the height of 130 feet, which is the limit of fireproof buildings under the present ordinance.
The Dearborn street frontage has four bay windows extending from the top of the first story to the top of the seventeenth, ending In a graceful arch at that point. On the Van Buren street front are two bay windows, while the Plymouth place front has three. The interior is of steel construction, with tile floors and partitions. Six high speed elevators 4½ x 6½ feet, will have automatic openings, double doors, opening the full width of the car.
The building will be equipped with steam heat and electricity. The vestibule and entrance hall of the building will be finished in onyx and bronze, the floor being of mosaic. The ceiling and staircase are of the finest imported marble, while the elevator enclosures vill be of solid bronze. Above the first story the floors in the halls are of mosaic and the walls wainscoted in marble to a height of seven feet. The interior woodwork is of quarter-sawed mahogany, the glass in the doors being of crystalline plate and the rest plate.
Each room will contain a marble washbasin with a plate glass mirror and a coat closet. In connection with the barber shop will be maintained two bathrooms for the use of the occupants of the building. The first story is divided into ten stores, each 13×28 feet: or they will be arranged to the desires of the tenants. The second story is planned with a view to its use by a bank, and the basement may be used for safety deposit vaults. D. H. Burnham & Co. are the architects of the building. The ground on which the structure rests is under lease to Mr. Fisher by the Jennings estate for a term of ninety-nine years, the ground rent beling $4,200 a year.
- Fisher Building
Left: Photo taken in 1896. A unique feature was the use of 25-foot pilesunderthe spread foundations in order to consolidate the soil; and the use on that account of a higher soil pressure, 6,000 pounds per square foot. Gray steel columns were used, and girder wind-bracing. Photographs taken during construction are shown. A new record for rapid steel erection was claimed by the erection of 13 stories of steel work in 14 days.
Right: Photo taken in 1900
Inter Ocean, January 9, 1906
An annex to cost $400,000 will be built to the Fisher building, the work to be commenced in February and to be completed by Nov. 1. The site of the annex will be the ground immediately, north of the Fisher building with a frontage of fifty feet both on Dearborn street and Plymouth place, and an extension through from street to street of seventy and one-half feet.
The new building will be twenty stories in height, two stories taller than the present Fisher building. The two buildings will be connected on each floor, two of the six elevators at the north of the present building being taken out to afford the communication. Four new elevators will be put in the new building.
Plan Big Restaurant.*
It is expected that the entire eighteenth floors of both buildings will be devoted to a restaurant, while the two stories in the new building above that will be fitted up for clubrooms.
In architecture the two buildings will correspond, with the exception that no bay windows will appear in the new structure. The exterior will be terra cotta and the interior finished in mahogany.
The Thompson-Starrett company has signed a contract to turn over the building completed on Nov. 1.
Leases Are Negotiated.
Leases are being negotiated already for five floors of the annex. The present leases expire on Feb. 9, and the old buildings will then immediately be torn down.
Lucius G. Fisher, who owns the fee and the structure of the old building, last summer secured a ninety-nine year lease upon the land for the new bullding from Mrs. A. M. Bailey at an annual rental of $7,500. The cost of the old building with the value of fee is estimated at a million dollars, so that Mr. Fisher’s investment will represent an outlay of nearly a million and a half dollars. P. J. Weber, the architect who designed the present building, has made the plans for the annex.
A subway connection with the tunnel is contemplated.
- Fisher Building
Sanborn Fire Map
1906
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