S'cuse me, while I kiss the sky

Skyscrapers

finally

I'm at the skyscrapers section in Century of the City. This is my favorite...Burnham and Root.

Here's a quote I love:

[The architects wanted to build skyscrapers] so tall, they would have to put hinges on the top two stories so to let the moon go by

Thank you Carl Sandburg.

Here's another one, about the power of Burnham and Root together, from a "society woman"

"When he (John Root) and Mr. Burnham were together, I used always to think of some big strong tree with lightening playing around it"

I just love that, I love them both. According to the book, both Burnham and Root were very handsome. And Burnham the business man, Root the designer...although Burnham was quite talented. But that they fit very well together, with Burnham running out and drumming up business and Root staying back and being creative back in the top office of the Rookery building.

Another great story about Root that I liked, I guess he had a great sense of humor and was playing the organ for the First Presbyterian Church (he was quite a talented musician) and one Sunday during the services, played "shoo fly don't bother me" so slowly and churchlike, that no one noticed a thing.

Burnham himself was a bit of a floater at first. He didn't know what he wanted to do, except he always had a pencil in his hand. He failed both of his entrance exams for Harvard and Yale and came to Chicago to work as a salesmen. He did a few different things, including mining, before he finally settled in Chicago at the office of Carter Drake and Wright.

And that my friends, is there he met John Wellborn Root. Root basically helped make them both successful by figuring out how to build "Skyscrapers" (then...only 10 stories) on the Chicago boggy ground. From what I understand he basically laid down concrete, then steel grid beams, then more concrete and it is still in use today. From then on, the two started getting much more work in and around the city.

More tomorrow, I'm savoring this part of the book, so moving very slowly....

Oh, and Regan's fine...priest ate the demon, just like we thought.
Willow went to see Rac for her "magic" drugs, flipped out with her big black eyes
And Stella gets a shout out!

dksl;ajfdksl;arwe;iorujioew;jio;stella!