The Krause Music Store



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Chicago Landmark..

Krause Music Store
William Presto, architect
Louis Sullivan, associate architect
1922..
The facade of this small building was Louis Sullivan's last commission, and it reflects the careful attention to detail that characterized Sullivan's work. Elaborate terracotta ornament, projcting above the roofline and frame the large display window, draws attention to the store and to it's contents.
Designated a Chicago landmark on Sep 26, 1977
by the City Council of Chicago
Michael A Bilandic, Mayor
Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks..

William P Krause was a successful music salesman, and he wanted to build a storefront worth attention. He hired William C. Presto as the architect. However, Presto had earlier worked with Sullivan for designing the Framers and Merchants Bank, in 1919. He recommended Sullivan to complete the job. The project became Sullivan's last project.









Above are some of the ornamental details of the Krause Music Store.. By 1922, when Krause Music Store was commissioned, Sullivan's style was no longer in vogue. The taste had changed in favor of the Beaux-Arts style of architecture. In his ill-health and living in a rented room, Sullivan began writing "The Autobiography of an Idea", and working on a series of drawings. It was during this period of reflection on his life and career that Sullivan accepted the Krause commission. The design illustrated that he still possessed an astonishingly moving artistic talent.
[Ref: Louis Henri Sullivan: Krause Music Store]..



The above image is from the exhibit "Louis Sullivan's Idea", at the Chicago Cultural Center [June 26–November 28,2010] has some interesting information on it. Initially fearing that Sullivan would reject the modest project, Presto found him pleased and grateful to have the work. To help ensure the project would be built, the terra cotta company supplied the material without markup at the cost of $3,770..

Neglect and Restoration.. And Awards..
Talking about Krause Music Store, one has to mention it's neglect and amazing restoration..
In 1929 Krause died, and the property was initially rented and eventually sold to a funeral company. For the next six decades, the Krause building served as a funeral parlor and underwent much neglect and alteration to its windows, doors and façade.

Lots of credit goes to it's current owner Studio V Designs for it's restoration.They hired preservation architects McGuire Igleski & Associates for the restoration. A second architect was hired to adapt the commercial interior for use as the new home of Studio V Design. The architectural firm of Wheeler Kearns designed the new office.

The project has received a number of awards for its historic restoration and adaptive reuse. It has been honored by..
- The American Institute of Architects with a Crombie Taylor Honor Award,
- Landmarks Illinois with a Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award,
- The City of Chicago with a Landmarks Preservation Award, and..
- The National Park Service added it to the National Register of Historic Places.

Check out..
# My Facebook Album, "The Legacy of Louis Sullivan" ..
# Exhibit, "Louis Sullivan Idea", at Chicago Cultural Center..
# The Auditorium Theater..
# Pilgrim Baptist Church..

* Anecdote..
Driving in Lincoln Park area, with six-way intersections, is no joke, at least for me!! Thanks to Jennifer Dickson.. for navigating my way through those complicated streets.. And discovering Krause Music Store was purely a lucky coincidence. I wanted to see it, but before I could enter the address in my GPS, she spotted it anyways, just driving down the streets..

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Tiffany Studio and Stained Glass Windows [Smith Museum of Stained Glass]

The windows created by Louis Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge are milestones in the development of new techniques for making stained glass windows in the late 19th and early 20th century. In this post I am concentrating on the Tiffany Studio..

Louis Comfort Tiffany was not satisfied with brushwork on glass.. "Glass covered in brushwork produced an effect both dull and artificial".. He said.. "I could not make an inspiring window with paint. I had to use a medium which appealed to me.. How many times I have tried to make drapery glass? My chemist and my furnanceman for a long time insisted it was impossible, claiming that the metallic oxides would not combine, and that was the trouble for many years. The mix would disintegrate. New styles of firing ovens had to be built, new methods.. for annealing glass.."

Then Tiffany succeeded..
Check out the drapery..



# Field of Lilies.. For more, click here ..



# Two Angels.. For more, click here..

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Smith Museum :Tiffany Gallery [ Field of Lilies - Tiffany Studio ]

Field of Lilies..

Designed, Fabricated by Tiffany Studio..

Location: Tiffany Gallery at the

the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows, Navy Pier.

Although Tiffany initially designed figure windows on Biblical themes, the floral and landscape subjects soon vied with it in popularity. He then joined the two to create a window that was neither solely landscape nor figurative.These designs often featured figures set in lush landscapes, a departure from the traditional Gothic setting from Biblical scenes.
Field of Lilies.. is a superb example of neither-floral-landscape-nor-figurative type of window.

Of all of Tiffany's artistic endeavours, stained glass brought him the greatest recognition.

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Smith Museum Tiffany Gallery [ Two Angels - by Tiffany Studio ]

Two Angels [1910]..
Designed and Fabricated by Tiffany Studio..

All the various glass inventions of Louis Comfort Tiffany can be studied in this superb pair of angels. Angels seated in the fields of lilies indicate divine purity. This symbolism is carried to a thoughtful conclusion by the angels beautifully feathered white wings and drapery-folded garments. The use of pastel colors contribute to the serenity. As with all Tiffany figurative windows, the exposed faces, hands and feet are painted..

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Smith Museum : Tiffany Gallery [Evening Landscape - by Louis Comfort Tiffany ]

Evening Landscape..

Design and Fabrication attributed to Louis Comfort Tiffany, Tiffany Associated Artists, New York..

Location: Tiffany Gallery

at the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows, Navy Pier, Chicago.

This window from Tiffany Impressionist period emphasized the spiritual, with birth, death and rebirth, implied in the shimmering light created by opalescent plated glass.

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Smith Museum : Tiffany Gallery [ Landscapes by y Agnes F. Northrop]

In 1885, Louis Comfort Tiffany founded the Tiffany Glass Company, which in 1890 became the Tiffany Studio. The designers Tiffany employed were the best in the business..

- Edward Peck Sperry

- Maitland Armstrong

- Jacob A Holzer

- Anges F. Northrop

- Frederick Wilson

Tiffany Gallery, within the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.

Here are some of the work of Anges F. Northrop..

Autumn Landscape [1890s]..

This window is from Tiffany's Impressionist period. Selected sheets of Favrile glass are combined into a sky as "impressionist" as one produced by the painters. The window appears even more spontaneous because of the light that is transmitted through it, a uniqueness of glass unknown to the painters on canvas.

 

Landscape with Yellow Sky [1915]..

A superb late example of Louis Comfort Tiffany's mastery of stained glass in a landscape. The window shows how Tiffany's style evolved from Impressionist to a greater degree of realism, without sacrificing the spiritual impact.

 

Landscape with waterfall [1920s]..

This window demonstrates how Tiffany's craftsmen manipulated several kinds of glass to create extraordinary naturalness..

- Motted Glass - recreate intense sunlight as filtered through the leaves of the trees

- Striated glass evokes movement of the water in the foreground

- Playing several layers of colored glass in the reverse create the impression of distant, misty mountain peaks..

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Stained Glass from 1893, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago.. [Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows]

1893, Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, survivor..
It was the center piece of three-piece window from Massachusetts installed in the Woman's Building. The window is an early and major statement of American feminism.
Now at "Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows" at Navy Pier..

The central composition depicts the allegorical scene entitled "Massachusetts Mothering, the Coming Woman of Liberty, Progress, and Light". The figure to the right, the older of the two, is personification of Massachusetts, is one of the inspiring states of the early United States, to the younger woman on the left representing the coming woman, the woman of future. The young woman, as a personification of freedom wears a liberty cap [Frigian Cap] and holds a torch lighting the way to wisdom and knowledge.

In brief, the window represents the three key elements argued for by women at the Exposition and represented by the building..
- Liberty of all women,
- Enlightenment for the oppressor
- Progress made when this is accomplished..
As she steps from the level of the older woman, she is the woman of the future.

Designed, signed and dated by Elizabeth Parson, Edith Blake Brown and Ethel Isadore Brown. Fabricated by Ford and Brooks of Boston, Massachusetts, 1893.

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