From the Great Fire to the skyscraper: Chicago's lasting impact on cities

CHICAGO - As America Celebrates its 250th birthday, no city has had an impact on worldwide architecture and the nation's architecture like Chicago.

In a flat state like Illinois, Chicago is its mountain range with hulking Art Deco towers, modern masterpieces and the stunning sightlines to enjoy them all, especially from the Chicago River, which flows right past the Chicago Architecture Center, where Michael Wood has served as a director for the last 16 years.

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Thanks to its deep and unique history, Chicago has played a central part in how other American cities look today. 

"When the Great Chicago Fire happens in 1871, it's pretty devastating to Chicago," Wood said. "We scorch about 2,100 acres, so imagine two times the size of the Loop gone overnight. There's about 100,000 people without homes. It's a real crisis. At the same time, we are the fastest growing city. From 1890-1920, we grow from about a million residents to 2.7 million. So those two things create a pressure to build back quickly and build back for more and more people."

"And with the advent of the railroads, there's no shortage of money here. And so when you ask the question about America and 250, the commercial
interest aligns with the need to build differently, to build fast, to build a lot of space and that's where the skyscraper comes in as a major innovation," he added.

Chicago's innovations and creative solutions to architectural problems has garnered attention worldwide.

"We've pioneered steel-framed construction and that created a tall-building industry. We've taught the world how to build tall in different ways. We talk about that a lot because it's so visible and you can see it on the tours, but the innovation and problem-solving in Chicago is its calling card, so we have designed health codes, building codes, we've designed alley systems. There's almost no municipal service that the modern city has that didn't originally get its start in the boom years of Chicago," Wood said.

Kent Foutty is one of Chicago Architecture Center's volunteer docents, part of a team whose body of work has led to this tour being named No. 1 Boat Tour in the U.S. by USA Today.

"It's quite an honor," Foutty said. "I take it very seriously. I appreciate it. I do feel a sense of responsibility and one of the things we do as docents is we are volunteers, but we take it very seriously. We are constantly trained, even after all these years I've been doing it, there's more training every year, we have updates and training. We're selling the city of Chicago and there's a man who just talked to me from Michigan who said he'd been through Chicago a couple times that his daughter just moved here, this is the first time they'd spent time here, he said 'what a beautifulcity. What a great time' He couldn't sing Chicago's praises higher and that's one of those things that makes your heart feel good. I did my job here, which is not just to educate and entertain, but to tell people that Chicago's a great place."

Foutty said downtown Chicago is jam packed with points of architectural interest.

"One great thing about Chicago is you can really experience our skyline for free," Wood said. "You just have to look up. You can walk down any street in the greater downtown and you're bound to find five, 10 buildings always grouped like a bouquet and really it's quite extraordinary. I can't think of many cities where whatever corner you turn, there's some sort of visual delight waiting for you, always sort of expressed through engineering and architecture. And very cool to think that all those things aren't just there for beauty. Beauty is part of it, but there were practical problems that were being solved at the time and somebody had the money or the ambition to put up the building.  So it's kind of amazing to think what a miracle all those buildings are together."

A miracle Wood says will continue to grow, evolve, and be the architectural standard-bearer as America closes is on its next major birthday.

All new riverside development and buildings are required to build public riverwalks open to the public, which means more opportunities for you and me to enjoy Chicago's world-class architecture. Talk about a 250th birthday gift for all of us.