Masonic Temple (Chicago)

Masonic Temple
	Illustration on a postcard (1909)
Basic data
Place:	Chicago
Construction time :	1891-1892
Abort :	1939
Status :	tore off
Architect :	Burnham and Root
Technical specifications
Height :	92 m
Floors :	22nd

The Masonic Temple ( Masonic Temple ) was a Chicago skyscraper from 1892, which made maximum use of the height limit of the city's building code, which existed until the 1920s. The skyscraper was completed in time for the Chicago World's Fair and, if you take the highest usable space as a benchmark, it was for a short time the tallest building in the world at 92 m . It stood on the corner of Randolph Street and State Street and was built by the architecture firm Burnham & Root.

After the clock tower of the (originally higher) Chicago Board of Trade Buildings was removed in 1985 , the Masonic Temple became the tallest building in the world.

description

By 1900: stereoscopy , the light pressure reproduced;
Postcard No. 530 from Knackstedt & Näther

The 22-story building was arranged around a central courtyard. Nine floors were rented to shops, with office space above. Only the top floors of the building served the Freemasons as meeting rooms . This was primarily for tax reasons: United States income tax law allowed religious communities to own real estate and rent it to third parties without being classified as commercial landlords. This led (not only in Chicago) to the erection of relatively large buildings which, in addition to the actual Masonic Temple, mainly housed rented office space.

The premises of the Freemasons were also used as halls for theater and similar events, which, however, regularly overstrained the lifting capacity of the elevators. This limited the commercial use of the upper floors.

In 1939, the tunnel construction work that began metro -distance State Street subway (now part of the CTA Red Line ). The location of the Masonic Temple in the immediate vicinity of the tunnel would have made it necessary to modify the foundation of the building later. The associated costs were estimated to be too high, so the temple was demolished that same year. Today in its place is the Joffrey Tower, which was completed in 2008 .