![]() Atop its 45 stories, a six-ton statue of Ceres (Roman goddess of agriculture) by the sculptor John Bradley Storrs stands 31 1/2 feet high. In 1930, the firm of Holabird & Root constructed the fourth and final Chicago Board of Trade building, home to the country’s central grain exchange. The interior of the Fed, however, was state of the art when it was built in 1922-and included one of the first building-wide wired communication systems.Ĥ. This classical-inspired style was meant to impress and project a sense of financial security. LaSalle) and 208 South LaSalle show the popularity of neoclassical architecture during the American Renaissance movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Greco-Roman columns of the Federal Reserve Bank (230 S. ![]() The million-square-foot structure was the last major office building completed in Chicago before the Great Depression and World War II caused a two-decade delay in new construction.ģ. Marshall Field IV kept his private apartments on the 43rd and 44th floors (now home to private dining areas and a grand ballroom) of what was then known as the Field Building (1934). Completed in 1914, the 20-story Burnham-designed building was also one of Chicago’s tallest structures. Three buildings, including the Rand-McNally Building that had served as the headquarters of the World’s Columbian Exposition, were demolished for the new construction. Originally called the Continental Commercial National Bank, the building now simply called 208 South LaSalle Street broke records in 1911 as the city’s most expensive proposed new development, exceeding $10 million. Burnham and Root kept their offices on the building’s top floor.Ģ. The construction of this Chicago landmark employed Root’s innovative “floating foundations” system that interwove iron rails with concrete rafts, giving extra support on the city’s then marshy surface. ![]() LaSalle St.) is named for where the birds-not to mention the politicians-roosted on what was once, briefly, City Hall. Built by the firm of Daniel Burnham and John Root in 1888, The Rookery (209 S. And though he’s not in a penthouse and the lake is nowhere in sight, “I wouldn’t trade for the world,” says Bobins. LaSalle St.), the bank’s president and CEO, Norman Bobins, not only keeps watch over the heart of the city’s financial district but has a front-row view of several gems of Chicago architecture. Did we leave out a notable building that you miss? Let us know in the comments below.From his third-floor office in the LaSalle Bank Building (135 S. Here’s a look back at ten regrettable or controversial demolitions in Chicago. There are lessons to be learned to avoid past mistakes. A loss is even more painful if the replacement is a building of lesser value or-in the case of the Old Chicago Mercantile Exchange-nothing at all. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it can be frustrating to see what has been so callously discarded. Even today, debates continue over what can and should be saved-especially when certain styles, like 1980s postmodernism displayed by buildings like the threatened Thompson Center, fall out of fashion. It might seem inconceivable to discard works from the firms of architectural icons Louis Sullivan, Dankmar Adler, or Daniel Burnham, but that wasn’t always the case. One downside to the city’s reinvention has been at the expense of the significant early skyscrapers, ornate theaters, gilded mansions, and grand rail halls lost along the way. “Water and stupid men.”įrom its humble roots as a riverfront trading post to an industrial boomtown, Chicago’s been in a constant state of change. “Great architecture has only two natural enemies,” said Nickel. ![]() It took the work of dedicated pioneers like photographer Richard Nickel to document what was being torn down and shock the public and city officials into taking action. The city’s historic preservation movement didn’t always exist. ![]() For a city that prides itself on its architectural legacy, Chicago has a mixed track record when it comes to saving its significant buildings. ![]()
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