| Address | 1323 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL |
|---|---|
| Built | 1904 |
| Architect | Hugh M.G. GardenSchmidt, Garden & Martin; Edgar D. Martin; Richard E. Schmidt; Richard E. Schmidt & Hugh M.G. Garden; Garden & Martin |
| Status | Designated Chicago Landmark |
| Designation Date | October 8, 2014 (Final)City Council Journal of the Proceedings, p. 93290 |
| Neighborhood | Near South Side |
| Type | Office and commercial building |
| Landmark ID | L-333 |
Direct quotes from the Chicago Landmark Designation Report
“Working for Schmidt, first as the firm's chief designer and then as partner, Garden designed numerous significant buildings that exemplify the city's important role as a center of innovative architectural design in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. • Hugh Garden and Richard Schmidt designed some of Chicago's most significant Chicago School buildings, including (among others) the Madlener House, Schoenhofen Brewery Powerhouse, Humboldt Park Boathouse, and Montgomery Ward Warehouse, all designated Chicago Landmarks. • The Wholesale Furniture Exposition Building exemplifies Garden's combination of the Chicago School and Prairie styles, with a facade visually expressing the building's underlying structure and geometric brick detailing.”
“In the 1880s, for example, one firm advertised several thousand varieties of chairs, rockers and cradles. Some of these skilled workers – many of them German immigrants – founded the first local union of what became a national American furniture workers' union.”
“The Wholesale Furniture Exposition Building retains good physical integrity on its exterior, displayed through its historic location, overall design, historic materials, details and ornamentation. The building retains good architectural integrity in its exterior design and the structural elements of both the exterior and interior.”
“It is currently occupied by a storage company. Currently empty, plans are for the Wholesale Furniture Exposition Building to be rehabilitated for rental apartments and first-floor commercial use.”
“The Wholesale Furniture Exposition Building exemplifies the development history of this portion of South Michigan Avenue, which by 1900 was transitioning from a fashionable residential neighborhood of mansions, apartment buildings and clubs to a more densely built-up precinct of commercial buildings devoted to a variety of uses, especially automobile and wholesale furniture sales.”
“By 1893, at the time of the World's Columbian Exposition, it was nationally prominent, and additional housing, including a new apartment building designed by Flanders and Zimmerman and built at 1323 S. Michigan Ave., sprung up in the area.”
“The Manufacturers Exhibition Building Company, which was located in part in the Wholesale Furniture Exposition Building at 1323 S. Michigan Ave., had the largest of several large furniture showroom buildings constructed during the late 1890s and early 1900s to offer exhibition space for wholesalers.”
“The creative, non-traditional architecture of the Chicago School and the Prairie School retained their vigor until only about 1910 when stylistic revivalism again became popular. The Wholesale Furniture Exposition Building exemplifies the blending of these two important schools of architectural thought that arose in Chicago.”
“Constructed using the existing structure of an 1894 apartment building built near the end of the neighborhood's residential development, the Wholesale Furniture Exposition Building remains as a rare surviving building associated with wholesale furniture showrooms in “Furniture Row." The Wholesale Furniture Exposition Building is also significant as a Chicago School commercial loft building designed by Hugh Garden, one of Chicago's most significant progressive architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”