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Essential
Architecture- Chicago
Loop North
Medinah Temple |
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architect
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Huehl & Schmid |
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location
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600 N. Wabash Ave.
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date
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1912
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style
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Moorish Revival |
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construction
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brick |
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type
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Temple |
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One of the most distinctive buildings on the Near North Side of Chicago,
Medinah Temple is considered one of the nation's finest examples of a
Middle Eastern-style Shrine temple. The plethora of Islamic and Middle
Eastern ornament on the temple's exterior gives it a sense of exotic
fantasy well-suited to the Shrine rituals for which the building was
constructed.
Built to house a 4,200-seat auditorium for the Chicago chapter of
the national Shrine fraternal organization, the Ancient Arabic Order of
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the four-story building covers the eastern
half of a city block bounded by Wabash, Ontario, State and Ohio streets.
Its unique Islamic Revival style is conveyed through the design of the
entrances and many of the second-floor windows framed within
horseshoe-shaped arches, common details on such Spanish Moorish
buildings as the Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Alhambra Palace complex
in Granada. Intricate patterns of geometric forms or stylized
plants-referred to as "arabesques"-form decorative surrounds around
doors and windows. Much of the building's ornament is architectural
terra cotta produced by the Midland Terra Cotta Company of Chicago, its
finish roughly textured to appear handmade.
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links
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With special thanks to the City of
Chicago website,
www.egov.cityofchicago.org , for much of the info on this page.
Photos copyright City of Chicago. |
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www.essential-architecture.com
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