Heyworth Building, 29 E Madison Building
Life Span: 1905-Present
Location: SW corner Madison and Wabash
Architect: D. H. Burnham & Co.
- Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1906
Heyworth Bldg.—34 to 48 Madison sw. cor. Wabash av.
Lakeside Business Directory of the City of Chicago, 1907
Heyworth Bldg.—34 to 48 Madison sw. cor. Wabash av.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1911
Heyworth Bldg.—29 E Madison sw. cor. Wabash av
Fireproof Magazine, September, 1904
The Heyworth Building, Chicago.
In Chicago, the City of Skyscrapers, the cradle and the home of steel- skeleton construction, plans have been drawn and contracts awarded for the erection of the new eighteen- story Heyworth building, owned by the Otto Young Company.
Information given by D. H. Burnham & Co., architects, is to the effect that the new building will be absolutely, thoroughly and genuinely fireproof construction throughout.
Steel columns, girders and beams will carry hollow tile floor arches, from the subbasement and basement through the rise of seventeen stories to the attic, and the fireproof roof above.
The exterior will be of ornamental terra cotta and pressed brick covering. The interior is of tile and brick.
One of the features in the Heyworth building will be the reduction of the quantity of wood trim to the minimum. This latter feature may or may not be an echo and expression of the hard-learned lessons of the Baltimore fire, where not a vestige of ordinary or mill construction was left with in the entire fire zone.
One of the ablest exponents of fireproof construction in the country (present at the scene of devastation in Baltimore) gave it again and again as his opinion that the one leading dominant fact there was the
total annihilation of wood, and that in his judgment the great lesson of the Baltimore fire was “no wood in fireproof buildings.”
That Mr. Otto Young, the owner, his architects, D. H. Burnham & Co., and his contractors, the Thompson Starrett Company, value the truth and force of the quotation, finds conclusive demonstration in the practical elimination of all timber and wood finish in the Heyworth building .
Architects and contractors of Chicago will watch with interest the progress of the Heyworth building, as it is expected that it will prove a record breaker, not only in the rapidity with which it is carried to completion, but in the safety of the work, the safety of the workmen, the fireproof quality of the completed construction, permanency of the
investment and permanent profit on the investment.
State street in Chicago is gradually taking on the appearance and canyon-like effect characteristic of lower Broadway and Wall street, New York, and La Salle street in Chicago.
When the new skyscraper rises at the southwest corner of Wabash and Madison, in the very heart and center of Chicago’s business district, there will be added one more towering monument to the genius and generalship of D. H. Burnham.
Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1993
LOOP BACK IN THE SWIM.
A year after flood, buildings feel little lasting impact
On Monday, April 13, 1992, the “anchor” tenant at 25 E. Madison St. was doing just swimmingly. Today, one year later, he’s mounted on the wall.
The nine-inch perch had the run of 25 E. Madison that day following one of the most unusual disasters in the city’s history. the flooding of an old subterranean freight tunnel system that, in turn, led to the flooding of more than two dozen downtown basements and the unprecedented evacuation of the Loop.
The fish met his end the next day, Tuesday the 14th, caught in a subbasement—then under 30 feet of water—by building engineer Mike Schuldt.
But the end to the flood saga at 29 E. Madison wouldn’t come until March, when its drowned mechanical systems had been replaced or refurbished and its once-sodden = boiler room had received its final coat of fresh, bright paint.
The tenants of 29 E. Madison may have endured as many hardships as any in the intervening months.
It was four days after the flood before they were allowed back into their building, and then only for five-minute forays into offices to recover valuable items or work.
With no power, they had to make their way in and out by the stairs, escorted by security personnel with flashlights.
The building got back limited electrical and water service seven days after the flood.
By Day 10, the basements had been pumped out and the process of restoring the property to normal began in earnest. Power wasn’t fully restored until mid-June.
On Tuesday, the tenants at 29 E. Madison will mark the first anniversary of the flood with a party in the building lobby. They will dedicate a time capsule, in the form of an old forgotten safe scrounged from a previous tenant, containing memorabilia and news clippings from the bizarre event.
The highlight of the festivities will be tours of the spanking-clean basements with their shiny new heaters and electrical vaults, basements that most of the people who work for the 80 company-occupants of the building never have seen.
There, in the new engineers’ offices, they also can find the stuffed perch.
“We knew we were in a disaster and that our lobby had become like a war zone in that first week of the flood. But the worst part about it was that people couldn’t see it, said Linda Day, the property manager at 29 E. Madison, whose first day on the job just happened to be the day the flood hit.
“The toughest part was getting everyone to leave,” said Day, who’s with the real estate firm Frain Camins & Swartchild, which took over management of the building the day of the flood.
“How do you convince someone on the 15th floor that water in the basement is a major problem?”
Although the occupants of 29 E. Madison came to understand the devastation the flood brought, they may be better off today because of it.
“You hate to say anything good came of it, but we have all new mechanical systems, something unusual for a building this old,” Day said.
The 243,000-square-foot, 88-year-old property known as the Heyworth Building also has the same occupancy level, 65 percent, as it did before the flood. More that half the tenants have renewed leases since last year.
The story of 29 E. Madison illustrates a paradox of the Great Chicago Flood: Although it touched everyone in the Loop last April 13, as city officials decided to play it safe by evacuating the central business district in the face of the rising underground waters, its lasting impact-especially as its relates to commercial real estate-may be minimal.
Of the 227 office buildings within the area served by the flooded tunnels, only 18 remained closed for varying periods after that first day, according to a survey by the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago.
- Heyworth Building
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1906
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