Chicago's "L" elevated railroad designed along Lake Street.

Founded in the nineteen-nineties, the Chicago subway has no shortage of anecdotes that have had a huge impact on shaping the shape of downtown Chicago.

As you can imagine, the birth of the Chicago "L" Elevated Railroad must have been legendary.

In 1893, with the opening of the Columbus Memorial Exposition (which also had its own elevated railway), one of the world's first railroad tracks was built along Lake Street.

The driving force behind this risky scheme, which seems unbelievable and largely reflects anti-social attitudes, are the pragmatic entrepreneurs who see the huge profits behind the scheme.

The most notorious of these is Charles Tyson Yekes.

Illinois law states that elevated railroads can only be built with the permission of all owners along the line.

As a result, Ye Kaishi obtained the consent of the owners through bribery, coaxing and fraud.

With only signing contracts with most of the owners along the line, Ye Kaishi started work without authorization, ignoring his opponents, leaving them in a situation of isolation and powerlessness, and they could only struggle and sulk.

This is indeed shameless, but it is human nature.

Today, the "L" Elevated Railway has become one of Chicago's most beloved icons, giving the city a unique, jubilant visual symbol that breathes extraordinary life and energy into the city of the future with a vision of the end of the 19th century.

Tired of living in Chicago, he moved to London in 1900 to finance the expansion of the London Underground Railway, and became a key figure in the history of public transport in London.

There, of course, trains run underground.

Heading west along Lake Street, in the shadow of the "L" elevated railway, keep an eye out for a row of buildings at the corner of Franklin Street.

They are rare survivors – a building that was built quickly after the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871 and deserves to be remembered.

The four-storey building is decorated with ornate window lintels on the exterior brick walls and cast-iron columns on the floor.

They represent the prosaic history of architecture before the birth of steel-framed skyscrapers such as the Relais Tower.

Then, we came to the National Avenue.

Some believe that it was the backbone of downtown, and that most of Chicago's major buildings in the late 19th century were built on either side of or near National Avenue.

In short, there's more to see here than anywhere else in Chicago.

A stroll along the National Avenue or around the neighborhood will give you a taste of most of the Chicago buildings described in this book.

The long, straight National Avenue is laid out on an urban grid laid out in 1830, and like much of New York, Chicago's center is a grid-like area.

Just like Manhattan, Chicago's skyscrapers and high-rise buildings rise high along the sidewalk, creating canyon-like streets that are most spectacular when viewed south.

About three blocks from the street, on the west side of the street, the Relais Tower stands – a 14-story giant that once stood tall and proud, but is now overshadowed by an even taller up-and-comer.

The Relais Building chronicles a piece of the social history of National Avenue because part of its site was considered as a small doctor's office during the building's initial design phase.

National Avenue is a commercial street with a lot of buying and selling.

Among the early doctors who practiced medicine in the Relais Building, the most distinctive one was Ben · L. Reitman, whose office is located on the eighth floor of the building.

Known as the "homeless doctor", Reitman treats the poor, women, social outcasts, and especially those with venereal diseases.

He was also the lover of Emma Goldman, a radical no-ZF activist and the original feminist – presumably a regular visitor to the Relais Mansion at one time.

Almost directly opposite the Relais Tower is a solid block building that symbolizes another major use of National Avenue in its early days.

From the beginning, it was the city's main shopping street, and the building was once part of the huge Marshall Field department store.

The history of this department store since the mid-19th century is actually a brief history of Chicago business.

It was founded as a textile store opened by Porter Palmer on National Avenue in 1852.

Palmer, a businessman, then became a real estate developer who drove the construction of National Avenue and later became an art collector.

In 1865, Palmer and two Chicago shopkeepers, Marshall Field and Levi Brown, joined two Chicago shopkeepers. Z. Wright began to work together, but after a few years he sold his shares.

As a result, the growing store was renamed the Fildwright Company.

Although the store was burned down in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, it was nothing for the bold Field & Wright.

With courage and determination, they did everything they could to preserve a large amount of stock, and within weeks of the fire, they reopened in a new location.

In 1873, the increasingly thriving shops returned to National Avenue.

In 1881, Field bought out Wright's shares and formed the Marshall Field Company.

Under Field's oversight, the company's wholesale and retail performance flourished, eventually becoming one of the most successful department stores in the world.

Field wanted to turn shopping into an enjoyable experience, allowing customers to browse freely in the mall's architecturally beautiful surroundings without the pressure to buy.

In addition, Field has created a retail model that the world is competing to emulate.

Harry A. Brown, who has been with Field for 25 years, G. Selfridges, who rose through the ranks from wholesale steward to junior partner of the company, founded his own Selfridges department store in London in 1908.

The building is the best example of American sales in London's West End, and its structural design was rightly designed by Daniel Brown. H. Burnham's Hand.

Because it was in the first place. Burnham was responsible for designing the Marshall Field flagship store on National Avenue, even though the store is now acquired by Macy's.

In fact, from an architectural point of view, especially in the context of the Relais Building, Marshall Field is telling.

The existing department store is a complex complex, built between 1892 and 1914 and in five different phases.

The first phase began in 1892 and was led by the then-. Charles Atwood, chief designer of Burnham, took charge of the design and opened in August of the following year.

Prior to this, Atwood had just been commissioned by Burnham to take over the baton from John Ruth and complete the design and construction of the Relais Tower.

Lut began work on the design of the Relais Tower in 1890, but unfortunately died in January 1891, leaving behind the unfinished business.

Yet, while the Relais Tower is groundbreaking in architectural history for its simple and functional architecture, including a striking glass curtain wall and a small number of white glazed terracotta panels, Atwood's design of Marshall Field's department store at around the same time was traditionalist as a whole.

As Atwood went on to design (again at Burnham's request) building for the Columbus Memorial Exposition.

The architectural details of Marshall Field are evident in the antiquity, and the design of the steel frame clad in granite suggests that it is a traditional masonry building.

In the early nineteen-nineties, Chicago enjoyed extraordinary prominence in the arts, where the old and new architectural worlds coexisted, and the city teetered on the brink of great change.

In the block south of the Relais Tower stands the last important building designed by Louis Sullivan.

This architect occupies a pivotal position in Chicago in the 19th century and in the history of American architecture.

Originally planned as a retail store for the Schlesingermeyer department store in 1899, the building was transformed into the flagship store building of the Carson Pirescott department store chain in 1904.

In 1901, before the construction of the Relais Building was halfway through, the department store moved into its ground floor and became the building's first tenant.

The building, designed by Sullivan and later known as the Sullivan Center, was finally completed in his troubled old age.

Although it has since undergone renovations and expansions, it still highlights Sullivan's early epoch-making architectural talents.

In 1896, he proposed that architecture should imitate the style of nature, or the style of nature as it is observed, and that "form always follows function".

In his view, in nature, form only changes with function, so at the Sullivan Center, each office building looks the same because they perform the same duties.

However, in the same building, the shop windows on the ground floor and the promenade on the top floor have different forms depending on the function.

In addition, Sullivan used plants as a source of inspiration for his design: the building appears to be deeply rooted in the ground;

The ornaments spread upwards in a natural and organic way;

The top of the building rises above rows of "Chicago windows" (usually made up of large, centrally centered panes of glass and smaller, pull-up and down sliding windows on either side), which bloom like flowers on plant stems.

Located on National Avenue, the Sullivan Center was built in two phases, 1899-1904.

Louise Sullivan designed the department store, which was later designed by the . Burnham expanded it.

A few blocks west of National Boulevard, at the intersection of Sidams Avenue and South LaSalle Street, lies the Lukery Building, completed in 1886 – the first major high-rise designed by Burnham and Ruth.

It is full of rationality on the outside, but the details are extremely eclectic and decorative.

In 1906, Frank Lloyd Wright renovated the building, adding an ornate skylight glass roof to its inner courtyard.

Near the south side of the Luclery Building, at the intersection of West Van Buren Avenue and National Avenue, stands the Monard Nock Building, a stunning masterpiece in architectural history.

Designed by John Ruth in January 1891, just before his death, the 17-storey building is huge, majestic and majestic, with little decoration on the outside.

The Monadnock Building is a masterpiece of minimalist abstract architecture – a result that was largely driven by the building's cost-conscious client, and the design concept is decidedly avant-garde.

To the south of the Monadnock Building, on Dearborn Street, is the Fisher Building.

The 19-storey, ceramic-clad building was designed by Charles Atwood for Lucius Fisher in 1893.

At the same time, Atwood was also working on the architectural design of the Relais Tower.

It was already 1896 when the Fisher Building was officially inaugurated, but Atwood had been unexpectedly killed at a young age.

The Fisher Building is an interesting contrast to the Relais Building: although they are clearly from the same family, the Fisher Building, with its quaintness and lack of glazing, seems to have deliberately avoided the avant-garde style that the Relais Building proclaimed.

In 1887, Sullivan collaborated with Adler to design the Chicago Hall Building.

The building is magnificent and simple, full of urban atmosphere. At the time of its completion, it was the largest single-standing building in the United States and the tallest building in Chicago.

This extraordinary tour of Chicago's architectural history is now approaching the GC.

Adjacent to the Fisher Building is the 16-story Manhattan Tower, designed by William Le Baron Janney in 1888 as Chicago's first all-steel-framed skyscraper.

But despite being a pioneer in the history of modern high-rise architecture, the Manhattan Tower is still constructed of masonry to conceal its steel frame.

The exterior is decorated in a classical style, including a series of ghost-faced carvings, and the craftsmanship is intricate enough to serve as a luxurious palace decoration in the Renaissance.

Next, back on National Boulevard, the main part of the Second Wright Building is revealed.

This is the department store building that Gianni designed for Levi Wright in 1889, when Wright had just parted ways with Marshall Field.

The building may not be tall, but it is an extended area that spans an entire block. After the Manhattan Tower, Gianni's design style has changed intriguingly and fascinatingly.

The Wright Building retains its quaint décor – striking massive Greek Doric pilasters are sublime and elegant, and the steel frame is still a masonry façade, but everything is more simple and rational.

It is clear that this functionalist building is emerging from the shackles of history.

Next, what finally appears to us is Chicago, one of the most important buildings in the United States at the end of the 19th century.

East of the intersection of National Avenue and Parliament Park Road is the Synagogue Building.

It was designed and built in 1887 by a Chicago business consortium in collaboration with Dankemal Adler.

Inside, the building houses a 4,300-seat auditorium that Chicago created to be on the American cultural map and to qualify itself with New York's Metropolitan Opera, which opened on Broadway in 1883.

By the time the synagogue was completed in 1889, it was the largest building in the United States, with its 18-story tower being the tallest point in Chicago.

"Brother Shen!"

"Hmm!"

Shen Changqing walked on the road, and when he met someone he knew well, he would say hello to each other or nod his head.

But it doesn't matter who it is.

There was no superfluous expression on everyone's face, as if they were very indifferent to everything.

on this.

Shen Changqing is used to it.

Because this is the Demon Suppression Division, it is an institution that maintains the stability of Great Qin, and its main responsibility is to kill demons and monsters, and of course there are some other side jobs.

Arguably.

In the Demon Suppression Division, everyone has a lot of blood on their hands.

When a person is accustomed to seeing life and death, then he will become indifferent to many things.

When he first came to this world, Shen Changqing was a little uncomfortable, but over time he got used to it.

The Demon Suppression Division is huge.

The people who can stay in the Demon Suppression Division are all strong masters, or people who have the potential to become masters.

Shen Changqing belongs to the latter.

Among them, the Demon Suppression Division is divided into two professions, one is the town guard and the other is the demon exterminator.

Anyone who enters the Demon Suppression Division starts with the lowest level of demon slayer.

Then step by step, he is expected to become a town guard.

Shen Changqing's predecessor was a trainee demon slayer in the Demon Suppression Division, and he was also the lowest level of the demon slayer envoys.

Have memories of the predecessor.

He is also very familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Division.

It didn't take long for Shen Changqing to stop in front of an attic.

Unlike other places full of slaughter, the attic here seems to stand out from the crowd, and in the bloody Demon Suppression Division, it presents a different tranquility.

At this time, the attic door is open, and there are occasional people entering and exiting.

Shen Changqing only hesitated for a moment, and then stepped in.

Access to the attic.

The environment has changed in vain.

A burst of ink fragrance mixed with the faint smell of blood came to his face, making his brow furrow instinctively, but quickly stretched.

The smell of blood on everyone's body in the Demon Suppression Division is almost impossible to clean.