Post by AIA Illinois

📍200 GREAT PLACES: St. Charles Town Center/Bridge (St. Charles, IL) During the roaring 1920s, St. Charles became a destination for entertainment and a playground for the wealthy. Much of this can be attributed to two local businessmen, Lester Norris and Colonel Edward Baker, who each made significant contributions to the very heart of St. Charles’ downtown. The Spanish Colonial Revival style Arcada has an “atmospheric” auditorium like an outdoor garden, with a smooth plaster “sky” ceiling, and elaborate faux building façades along the sides. The Arcada Theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Opened in 1928, the five-story Hotel Baker was built on the banks of the Fox River, in the Spanish Revival style, clad in brown brick and trimmed with beige terra cotta. The lavish interior featured a lounge designed to look like an open plaza surrounded by balconies with windows, and a main dining room boasting a frosted-glass dance floor, lit from beneath with synchronized, colored lights. The hotel’s riparian location not only afforded picturesque views, but also allowed its power to be generated hydroelectrically, making it one of the area’s first self-sustaining developments. The Hotel Baker was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. In 1928, architect Charles Lamb widened the Main Street Bridge adding Art Deco design adornments, including four bronze foxes. In 1940, architects R. Harold Zook and D. Coder Taylor designed the beautiful Art Moderne City Hall directly across the Fox River from the Hotel Baker. The building uses bold geometric forms, a low-lying, chunky base, clad in black granite and topped with a striking white Georgian marble octagonal tower. The geometric shapes used throughout the building are quintessential Machine Age motifs of zigzags, chevron patterns, and faceted surfaces. The eighty-four-foot tower is capped with a diamond shaped beacon lit from within. The St. Charles Municipal Building was listed in the Nation Register of Historic Places in 1991. 📍illinoisgreatplaces.com 📷 Wikipedia Commons 📐1928 | R. Harold Zook | Wolf, Sexton, Harper & Trueax