10 |
AUDITORIUM THEATRE 2014-2015
| OCTOBER 3 - NOVEMBER 29
The Early Years
10 Facts to Know
Adler & Sullivan
(above)
architecture firm designed the building at the
corner of Michigan Avenue and Congress Street. At the time, Dankmar
Adler and Louis Sullivan’s formal partnership was less than five years old.
By the late 1880s, the firm was designing large structures such as the
Stock Exchange and Schiller Theater, numbering around 180 buildings total.
The Auditorium Building is widely considered to be the firm’s crowning
achievement
Plans for the Auditorium Theatre
began in 1885 with Chicago-based
businessman and philanthropist
Ferdinand Wythe Peck
(below).
Peck
intended to make high culture available
to the general public by providing a
state-of-the-art venue for performances
with thousands of seats, great sightlines
and impeccable acoustics. Recovering
from the 1871 Great Chicago Fire,
Peck also hoped the theater would
boost the city’s profile nationally and
internationally.
