Commissioned by Ferdinand Peck and produced by architects Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler--soon to be leaders of the Chicago School--in 1889, the Auditorium Building was a wondrous complex, housing a hotel, offices, stores, and a theater. Adler's engineering skills overcame the problem of a foundation that had to support an unevenly distributed weight; Sullivan designed the stunning theater, which was spanned by four elliptical arches studded with 3,500 incandescent electric lights and decorated with gold leaf. Adler created a hydraulic stage--with twenty-six lifts--and one of the first air-conditioning systems in a public building. Among the many design features in the interior of the Auditorium were murals, onyx, marble, open loggias, stained glass, filigreed vents, wainscoting, and bronze-plated posts. Scholars considered the Auditorium Building the most important single structure in Chicago. The Auditorium thrived until its closing in 1940. In 1946 Roosevelt University purchased the building, and the Auditorium Theatre Council restored the theater to its former glory. Today, the Auditorium Building is thriving as a showcase for major theatrical events, Roosevelt University concerts, and other events.

Lists buildings, structures, sites, objects, and districts that possess historical significance as defined by the National Register Criteria for Evaluation, in every state.

Robin campus in Schaumburg and the realization of Roosevelt as a metropolitan university, creating a vivid portrait of the educational context of large community colleges throughout the northwest suburbs, the development of a community advisory board that helped secure funds, and the improved morale of faculty and administration."

Covering the Auditorium from the early design to its opening, its later renovations, its links to culture and politics in Chicago, and its influence on later Adler and Sullivan works (including the Schiller Building and the Chicago Stock Exchange Building), The Chicago Auditorium Building recounts the tale of a building that helped to define a city and an era."--BOOK JACKET.

In 1945, faculty and students at Chicagos Central YMCA College walked out to protest admission quotas on race and religion and created one of the nations first institutions to admit all qualified students. Despite having no endowment, library, or campus, Roosevelt College attracted more than 1,000 students in its first year. The next year, it purchased Chicagos famed Auditorium Building. By 1949, enrollment topped 6,000, and the Roosevelt story captured the nations imagination. In 1954, Florence Ziegfelds Chicago Musical College merged with Roosevelt, and five years later the college became a university. As it nears its 70th anniversary, Roosevelt has six colleges, two campuses, and over 85,000 alumni, including former Chicago mayor Harold Washington. This book celebrates a pioneering institution that helped shape the history of American higher education.