I just finished reading Devil in the White City (DWC) by Erik Larson. I know, I know. I am really late to this. With my passion for architecture and my connection to Chicago, I have been recommended this book many a time. I’m not really sure why it took me so long to finally pick it up. For fear of this becoming a personal journal entry, I’ll just quickly say that I had quite a dry spell of reading. But, I am getting back into it.
DWC is a fascinating book of two parallel stories - one of civic and cultural triumph; the other of psychopathic darkness and deceit. At this point, I think these stories are pretty well known, so I am not going to give a Spark Notes version (do people still use that?). However, I have a few thoughts after finishing the book.
Image courtesy of eriklarsonbooks.com
For the World’s Fair, it’s amazing to think how a temporary event with temporary structures can have such a long lasting impact on our society. Traditionally, we think of capital A Architecture as very permanent buildings. Residences, government offices, civic halls, and public infrastructure are all built to last for various financial and social incentives. Fortunately, the conversation around architecture is shifting towards recognizing temporary structures (i.e. transitional housing, art installations, etc) as equally important as the permanent structures. And DWC is a great example (although, it’s not really a contemporary one, but still relevant right?).
As an architecture nerd, I geeked out as Larson explicitly explains how the World’s Fair buildings were built. Instead of using the traditional stone, steel, and brick of the time, they opted for wood frames covered in staff (a mixture of plaster and jute that could stick to wood and be shaped to create the illusion of stone - p. 120) due to financial and time constraints- they were given a mere 6 months! But the impact of the event was lasting. For architecture, and in particular civic architecture, this revitalized an interest in neoclassicism leading to buildings across the country, showing off their columns and capitals.
With the uniformity of style, yet uniqueness of each building, the fair also introduced the idea that a city could in fact be a celebration of beauty, both at the building scale and the urban scale. After the fair ended, Daniel Burnham became one of the first modern day urban planners, working with many cities, including Chicago, Atlanta, etc.
I love this. It’s exciting to think how your impact can come from temporary things. You don’t need to build a building to make an impact. You don’t need to invent something to make an impact. In Burnham’s case, it was a heroic undertaking in scale and time. But still, he just needed to be crazy enough to have a vision and see it through, even though he knew this fair, nor the associated structures would stick around.
But with great power, comes great responsibility. Personal impact can also be dangerous and scary. H.H. Holmes, unfortunately and grotesquely, impacted many people’s lives. And he used architecture to do it. He created a labyrinth inside his “castle.” In this way, architecture is the supporting cast in a rather dark and twisted crime thriller. His castle was built with purpose, but it also was inevitably town down,
I hate to put a damper on the mood, but I feel like I needed to bring that up. It’s one of the main themes of the book; there is black where there is white; there is darkness where there is light. That’s life. But hopefully, we can shine that light a little brighter with architecture - temporary or permanent.