Brunswick Balke Collender Company Factory Building, Chicago, Illinois, Elevation and Section Possibly 1891 - 1989

This elevation and section of the Brunswick Balke Collender Company Factory Building was made in Chicago, Illinois, by Adler & Sullivan. Just looking at this plan makes me think about how you build a world, brick by brick. I imagine the architects hunched over a table, meticulously drafting each line, each window, each detail. I'm really drawn to the hand-drawn quality; there is something almost obsessive about the repetition of windows, and there is a touch of humanity amid the architectural precision, like the little handwritten notes. I think about the workers who would fill those windows with light and the countless objects made within those walls. The drawing shows a lot of exchange between precision and looseness, kind of like improvising while sticking to a defined structure. The artists of the Bauhaus were also interested in this combination of art, craft, and design, which just shows how artists across time keep bouncing off each other's ideas.