Excavating History 2009
Chicago is a city notoriously shaped by fire. In addition to the great fire of 1874, another tragedy--the most deadly fire in US history, happened at the Iroquois Theater. The 1903 Iroquois fire remains the deadliest theater fire in the history of the U.S. As a result of the disaster, laws and building technologies were changed throughout the world, including the requirement that doors open out. The "panic bar" on exit doors was invented by a man who was supposed to have attended the theater on the day of the blaze
The text in this piece: "Whenever a door opens out, I remember the Iroquois Fire", is cut in the "Chicago Font" and placed on glass doors inside one of Chicago's most famous historic structures: Louis Sullivan's Carson Pirie Scott building