The Dispersal of Modern Luxury

Lavish homes with elegant conveniences, hotels and skyscrapers – what would we do without them? Between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries the dispersal of the architecture of luxury on the American continent was created in a modern way, especially in Chicago. In the conquest of the American Midwest and West, the town of Chicago experienced tremendous change in the late 1850s, geographically and economically. The lake and prairie were extensive and most of the development occurred in the town when there was an influx of immigrants from overseas searching for work along the Chicago River. Then, the town of Chicago grew larger but the soil was marshy – ‘[t]his swamp land, or Frog Pond as it was called was filled with sand, willows and mud’. ¹ An expensive engineering feat began; ‘the river was dredged to handle increased sewerage load, and the dredged soil was used as fill to raise the street grades to new heights’. ² Subsequently, the city’s buildings were raised to new heights. Chicago was treated as a mean city. and people were thinking only about making money, wealth and leading luxurious lifestyles.