Feature Image: Main Entrance, Metropolitan Tower (1924), 310 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. December 2015. 4.89 mb DSC_0963 (1). Author’s photograph.
Metropolitan Tower’s main entrance is more than an architectural detail: it is a surviving gateway to one of Chicago’s most significant early skyscrapers, a building that embodied the ambitions, craftsmanship, and corporate prestige of the 1920s while reflecting the evolution of Michigan Avenue and modern Chicago.
Located at 310 South Michigan Avenue on the southwest corner of Jackson Boulevard, Metropolitan Tower originally served as corporate headquarters for S.W. Straus and Co., a banking and investment firm. The building was erected in 1924 by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in their signature classical style. The architectural firm was one of the largest in the first half of the twentieth century and went on to build Chicago’s Civic Opera Building in 1929. Founded in 1912, the firm was the successor to D. H. Burnham & Co. by way of partner, Ernest R. Graham (1868-1936), and Burnham’s sons, Hubert and Daniel Jr. Five years later the Burnhams left to form their own firm (Burnham Brothers) and Graham partnered with others of the firm’s members: William Peirce Anderson (1870-1924), Edward Mathias Probst (1870-1942), and Howard Judson White (1870-1936). No expense was spared for the Straus Building’s interior, though of the original lobby’s opulence all that remains are the elaborate bronze elevator doors. The entrance’s coffered bronze doors by Italian sculptor Leo Lentelli (1879-1961) were destroyed. see – Saliga, Pauline A., editor, The Sky’s The Limit A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers, Rizzoli New York, 1990, p. 117.
The Metropolitan Tower was built in 1924 as the headquarters of S.W. Straus & Co. and designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, successors to the Burnham architectural tradition.
Ernest R. Graham (1868-1936).
William Peirce Anderson (1870-1924).
Edward Mathias Probst (1870-1942).
Howard Judson White (1870-1936).
The elaborate entrance and lobby originally featured exceptional decorative work, including bronze doors created by sculptor Leo Lentelli, although many original elements have been lost.
Leo Lentelli (1879-1961). The Italian sculptor created the original main entrance doors for Metropolitan Tower that were later destroyed. Public Domain.
The 30-floor classical-style Straus Building was renamed over the years for other of its famous inhabitants including Continental National Insurance Co. and Britannica Center for Encyclopedia Britannica. Metropolitan Tower was the first building in Chicago that took advantage of the new 1923 zoning ordinance for skyscrapers that allowed buildings taller than 260 feet (30 or more floors) with the necessary setbacks. Metropolitan Tower’s required setbacks begin at the 21st floor on which sits a nine-story tower until there is a second setback and then the final two stories. Crowned by a stepped pyramid and possessed of a powerful beacon that opened in 1924, the building is Chicago’s first Michigan Avenue skyscraper.
Metropolitan Tower was the first skyscraper on Michigan Avenue and one of the earliest buildings to take advantage of Chicago’s new 1923 zoning regulations permitting greater height through setbacks. Its distinctive stepped crown, beacon, and symbolic ornamentation made it a recognizable feature of the Chicago skyline.
Unused for years, the building’s 1,500-pound carillon bells were restored in 1979 for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Chicago. Just steps from Metropolitan Tower, the papal visit included an outdoor mass in Grant Park on October 5, 1979, which attracted over one million attendees, the largest gathering ever in Grant Park history up to that time. see – CBS Chicago Vault: Pope John Paul II enthralls Chicagoans on 1979 visit – CBS Chicago – retrieved March 18, 2026.
At one time, the thirtieth floor was the Straus Tower Observatory, which was open to the public for viewing the city in all four directions. see – Home | Metropolitan Tower – retrieved February 24, 2026. Home to the Continental National Insurance Company soon after it was built, this iconic skyscraper is located within Chicago’s Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District. The glass “beehive” supported by four bison figures at the top of the building held the blue light of a four-direction beacon. The ensemble, symbolizing industry, strength, and thrift, saw its beacon, signifying global reach, permanently shut down in 1934 following the financial failure of the S.W. Straus and Company during the Great Depression. The building was converted to residential condominiums in 2007. see – Metropolitan Tower | Powered by Baird & Warner– retrieved February 24, 2026; AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Alice Sinkevitch, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, page 42.
The building was constructed in a classical style and represented the high quality and prestige associated with major Chicago commercial architecture of the 1920s. Over time, the building adapted to changing uses and occupants, including Encyclopedia Britannica and residential condominiums, demonstrating its continued relevance and preservation.
Feature Image: Chicago. October 2015. Author’s photograph. 5.85mb DSCN1452 (1).
Chicago’s skyline demonstrates how architecture, engineering, and urban design combine to create one of the world’s most recognizable cityscapes, where individual landmarks become part of a larger visual composition of steel, stone, glass, light, and ambition.
Chicago skyline from Museum Campus promontory (Northerly Island). October 2016. Author’s photograph. 4.90mb DSC_0104 (1)
Chicago. October 2015. Author’s photograph. 5.85mb DSCN1452 (1).
Wacker Drive and Wabash Avenue looking east, Chicago. From left: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Adrian Smith, architect (2009). Trump Tower Chicago is a 98-story skyscraper at 401 N Wabash Ave, completed in 2009. Rising 1,389 feet with its spire, it includes 486 condos, a 339-room hotel, and ranks as the 4th tallest building in the United States.
401 N Michigan Avenue (Equitable Building), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1965/Facelift 1992/Renovation 2016). The plaza (Pioneer Court) of the Miesian 401 N. Michigan draws over 22,000 pedestrians daily from busy Michigan Avenue. Apple’s global flagship store shares the plaza that provides immediate access to the Riverwalk via the Spanish Steps. see – 401 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611 – Office for Lease | LoopNet – retrieved February 13, 2026.
360 N. Michigan Avenue (London Guarantee & Accident Building), Alfred S. Alschuler, architect (1923).
85 E. Wacker Drive (London House).
75 E. Wacker (formerly Lincoln Tower, originally Mather Tower), Herbert Hugh Riddle, architect (1928) and Harry Weese & Assocs. (Renovation/1983).
71 E. Wacker Drive (The Royal Sonesta Chicago Downtown, formerly Executive House Hotel), Milton Schwartz, architect (1959). 71 E. Wacker Drive is the first high-rise hotel in Chicago since the Great Depression. see – Executive House Hotel, 71 E. Wacker, Chicago – retrieved February 13, 2026.
Chicago. May 2015. Author’s photograph. 99% 7.92mb DSC_0468.
Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street looking west on Van Buren, Chicago. Left: Chicago Club, 81. E. Van Buren, Granger & Bollenbacher, architect (1929).
Right: CNA Center (333 S. Wabash Avenue), Graham, Anderson, Probst, architect (1972).
Near background: 333 S. State, DePaul Center (formerly Goldblatt’s, originally Rothschild & Co. Store), Holabird & Roche, architect (1912), renovation 1993.
Far background: Fisher Building (343 S. Dearborn Street), D.H. Burnham & Co., architect (1896) and Northern Addition, Peter J. Weber, architect (1907). Restoration and adaptive Reuse, 2001.
Chicago. October 2015. Author’s photograph. 4.28mb DSC_0061 (1)
Adams and Dearborn Streets looking north along Dearborn, Chicago. Left: 55 Xerox Center, 55 West Monroe, Chicago, Helmut Jahn, architect (1977-1980). Behind (partially hidden): Chase Tower (originally First National Bank of Chicago), Perkins & Will; C.F. Murphy Assocs. (1969).
Background: 2 N. State/1 N. Dearborn Streets (originally, Boston Store), Holabird & Roche (1906; 1917), renovation (2001).
Chicago. November 2015. Author’s photograph. 3.77mb DSC_0384 (1).
Halsted Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard looking east, Chicago. Union Station Tower (MidAmerica Commodity Exchange), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1971). Willis Tower (originally, Sears Tower), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1974).
Chicago. December 2015. Author’s photograph. 2.40mb DSC_0577 (2).
Balbo and Wabash Avenues looking north on Wabash. Left: (with Columbia College wall sign) 33 Ida B. Wells Drive building, Alfred S. Alschuler, architect, (1925/1926). DePaul University College of Law, 25 E. Jackson and, beyond, 230 S. Wabash, a 21-story building built in 1910.
Center: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Adrian Smith, architect (2009).
At right: Roosevelt University: Auditorium Building, Adler & Sullivan, architect (1887-1889) and The Wabash Building, a 32-story zigzagging glass structure, Christopher Groesbeck, AIA, architect (2012). CNA Center (333 S. Wabash Avenue), Graham, Anderson, Probst, architect (1972).
Chicago. December 2015. Author’s photograph. 3.60mb DSC_0986 (2)
From left: Old Colony Building, 407 S. Dearborn Street, Holabird & Roche, architect (1894), Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center, 71 W. Van Buren Street, Harry Weese & Associates (1975), Fisher Building, 342 S. Dearborn Street, D.H. Burnham, architect (1896) and Northern Addition, Peter Weber, architect (1907) and Sears Tower, 233 S. Wacker Drive, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1974).
Chicago. July 2016. Author’s photograph. 5.33mb DSC_0743 (1)
Lincoln Park looking over South Pond towards downtown. At left: (partial view) Water Tower Place, 845 N. Michigan Avenue, Loebl, Schlossman & Hackl, architect (1976); John Hancock Building, 875 N. Michigan Avenue, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1969); 900 North Michigan Avenue, Kohn Pedersen Fox, architect (1989); Park Tower, 800 N. Michigan Avenue, Lucien LaGrange & Assoc., architect (2000); The Aon Center (formerly, Amoco Building; originally, Standard Oil Building), 200 E. Randolph Street, Edward Durell Stone; Perkins & Will, architects (1973); Trump International Hotel and Tower, Adrian Smith, architect (2009); At right: James House, 1560 North Sandburg Terrace, Solomon Cordwell Buenz, architect (1971).
Chicago. July 2016. Author’s photograph. 3.28 mb DSC_0045 (1)
Looking north on Wabash Avenue from Randolph Street, the Chicago elevated train follows a north-south route along Wabash Avenue and has been part of downtown since the late 1890’s. The “Kemper” sign is on the relatively dull modernist Kemper Building, now One East Wacker, Shaw, Metz & Assoc., architect (1962). Followed by 35 East Wacker Drive (formerly Pure Oil Building; originally, Jewelers Building) with its distinctive dome, Glaver & Dinkelberg; Thielbar & Fugard, Assoc. Archs., architect (1926). Partial view is Trump Tower.
Chicago. September 2016. Author’s photograph. 3.89mb DSC_0740 (1)
Right to left: The 233 E. Wacker Drive building (known as Columbus Plaza) in Chicago is 48-story apartment building, Fujikawa Conterato Lohan and Associates, architect (1978-1980). The 111 E. Wacker Drive building (known as One Illinois Center) in Chicago, is a 30-story Modernist building featuring bronze anodized aluminum and dark-tinted glass, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in association with Joseph Fujikawa, architect (1967-1970). The Swissôtel Chicago at 323 E. Wacker Drive, is a 45-story, triangular, all-glass luxury hotel, Harry Weese and Associates, architect (1989). The 345 E. Wacker Drive building (known as Coast at Lakeshore East) in Chicago is a 40-story residential apartment tower, bKL Architecture LLC, architect (2013).
Chicago. September 2016. Author’s photograph. 4.93mb DSC_0745 (1)
From the Riverwalk looking north along N. St. Clair Street: at right, the 27-story spandrel glass and metal panel 633 N. St Clair St. building, Loebl Schlossman [later; Dart] & Hackl, architect (1991). At left, the 63-story pinkish, rose-hued Swedish granite 161 Chicago Avenue East building (known as Olympia Centre) is a mixed-use retail, office, and residential skyscraper, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1984-85). At right, the 74-story gray marble facade Water Tower Place, the first vertical shopping center on Michigan Avenue (8 floors), also includes the Ritz-Carlton hotel, luxury condos, and office space, Edward D. Dart (Loebl Schlossman Bennett and Dart), architect (1975). The John Hancock Center—now officially 875 North Michigan Avenue—is a 100‑story, tapered mixed‑use skyscraper known for its iconic X‑bracing. Often described as a “vertical city,” it is considered one of the first major mixed‑use skyscrapers in the world and includes office space (floors 13–41), about 700 condominiums (floors 44–92), and the highest indoor swimming pool in North America on the 44th floor. Its 94th‑floor observation deck offers panoramic views of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Bruce Graham of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1969). It was engineered by Fazlur Rahman Khan, who pioneered the tubular structural system used in the tower.
Chicago. September 2016. Author’s photograph. 5.06mb DSC_0756 (2)
The Carbide and Carbon Building rises from 230 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago like a gleaming Art Deco toast to the Jazz Age, Burnham Brothers, architect (1929). The 37‑story tower is instantly recognizable: its base wrapped in polished black granite, its shaft clad in deep green terra cotta, and its crown shimmering with 24‑karat gold leaf. Legend has it the architects shaped the building to resemble a champagne bottle — a fitting symbol for a city that never stopped celebrating its own ambition.
Chicago. October 2015. Author’s photograph. 3.90mb.
Above: Alexander Calder’s Flamingo (1974)sits in Federal Plaza designed by modernist architect Mies Van Der Rohe. Behind it is Mies’ 45-floor John C. Kluczynski Building at 230 S. Dearborn Street and on a sunny east side of South Dearborn his 30-story Dirksen Federal Courthouse. Moving south across Jackson Boulevard is the 5-story 33 West Jackson Boulevard building built in 1910 (with additions/remodels stretching through 1917). Next to it is The Standard Club at 321 South Dearborn Street built in 1926 and designed by Albert Kahn. The Fisher Building (1896) at 343 South Dearborn Street and its annex is next further south. Designed by D.H. Burnham & Company, it was completed in 1896. The Old Colony building on the other side of the L tracks was built between 1893 and 1894, When it officially topped out, the 17-story, 215-foot high-rise briefly held the title of the tallest building in Chicago. It was designed by the legendary architectural firm of Holabird & Roche. The framework was engineered by Corydon T. Purdy who designed it with a highly advanced, pioneering skeletal steel-frame structure that carries the entirety of the building’s massive weight allowing the exterior features absolutely no self-supporting walls.
Chicago. June 2022. Author’s photograph. 7.24 mb
Above: On the west side of Clark Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard—visible directly behind Alexander Calder’s Flamingo sculpture—the prominent structures are from left to right: The Commercial Office Building located at 118 South Clark Street (directly tucked between the Bankers Building and Jackson Boulevard)—was completed in 1920 and designed by the prolific Chicago architectural firm Holabird & Roche, Willis Tower in the distance, The Bankers Building (105 West Adams Street, completed in 1927 by the Burnham Brothers, a 476-foot Art Deco masterpiece featuring characteristic deep light courts and upper-tier setbacks), and, on the other side of Adams Street, The Field Building at 140 S. Clark. Completed in 1934 by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, it stands as one of the finest premier masterpieces of Art Deco skyscraper design in the entire United States. A corner slice of the Edison Building is also pictured.
FEATURE Image: View from the west,Steuben Club Building/Randolph Tower, 188 W. Randolph Street, Chicago. The building’s telescoping tower anticipates the design direction of the firm’s celebrated 1 North LaSalle Street Building completed in 1930. August 2021. Author’s photograph. 12.72mb_9354 (1)
The Steuben Club Building, later known as Randolph Tower, embodies a pivotal moment in Chicago skyscraper design when architects Karl M. Vitzthum and John J. Burns were moving from traditional historic styles toward a more vertically expressive modern skyscraper aesthetic. The building stands as both a significant product of late-1920s Chicago architecture and a precursor to the firm’s even more monumental work, especially the 1 North LaSalle Building.
The 1929 limestone tower whose shape may be the last surviving skyscraper reflective of the 1923 zoning law with setbacks and a telescoping tower presages Vitzthum & Burns’ mighty 1 N. LaSalle Street Building in 1930. Randolph Tower was restored in 1993 by Stenbro, Ltd. and in 2013 opened as the residences of Randolph Tower City. In addition to its 15-story tower, the building is 27 stories tall and 465 feet high built on rock caissons. German-born Karl Martin Vitzthum (1880-1967) and John Joseph Burns (1886-1956) built some of Chicago’s best-known skyscrapers of the 1920s and 1930s. The firm also built, in 1953, St. Peter’s Church in the Loop at 110 W. Madison Street two doors down from the corner skyscraper of 1 N. LaSalle Street Building. Karl M. Vitzhum was architect on the Midland Hotel (then the Midland Club Building ). Built in 1927, it is 22 stories of roaring 1920’s Beaux-Arts architecture.
Karl Martin Vitzthum (1880-1967). One of the architects of the Steuben Club Building/Randolph Tower with partner John J. Burns. The skyscrapers they built starting in 1925 until the Great Depression became taller and more vertical as time progressed and are some of the most visible soaring stone structures of the period in downtown Chicago.
Randolph Tower demonstrates the firm’s progression away from Beaux-Arts classicism toward streamlined modernism and greater vertical emphasis. Its massing and setbacks may represent one of the last surviving Chicago skyscrapers reflecting the influence of the 1923 zoning law.
Karl Martin Vitzthum (Architect), Steuben Club Building, Chicago, Illinois, Perspective Randolph Street, 188 West (Building address), 1924-1928, Watercolor and tempera on paper 86 × 35.6 cm (33 7/8 × 14 in.) The Art Institute of Chicago. see – https://www.artic.edu/artworks/158560/steuben-club-building-chicago-illinois-perspective – retrieved September 21, 2024.
With each building the move from classicism to Modernism is clear as well as pure verticality. During the 1980s and 1990’s, I worked in one of Vitzthum & Burns’ mid1920s office buildings in Chicago – The Old Republic Building at 307 North Michigan Avenue built in 1925. My airy office on the 7th floor looked right onto Michigan Avenue where I could admire the Carbide and Carbon Building across the street built in 1929.
At 27 stories and 465 feet tall, it remains a prominent feature of Chicago’s Loop skyline. Vitzthum & Burns were major contributors to Chicago’s architectural identity during the city’s final great skyscraper boom before the Great Depression.
Steuben Club Building/Randolph Tower. August 2021. Author’s photograph. 82% 7.88 mb _9354
Vitzthum arrived in Chicago from Germany in 1914 and worked with architectural firms such as Graham Anderson Probst and White, Burnham & Co., and White, Jarvis & Hunt. He often worked with Fredrick J. Teich (1874- n.a) prior to establishing his own firm with John J. Burns in 1919. Vitzthum was a young architect on Burnham’s staff when he worked on some engineering details for the old Comiskey Park (1910-1990). The partnership of Vitzthum and Burns started in 1919 and ended with Burns’ death in 1956. Though known for eclectic styled bank buildings throughout the Midwest, the pair had built the one-screen 1,000 seat The Hollywood Theatre at Fullerton Avenue and Greenview Avenue in 1926. The theatre closed in 1957 after being renamed the Holly Theatre and was demolished soon afterwards. It is a parking lot today for a local Walgreens across the street from Facets movie theatre.
The building’s restoration in 1993 and residential conversion in 2013 illustrate the adaptive reuse of historic skyscrapers for contemporary urban life.
SOURCES:
Frank A. Randall, History of Development of Building Construction in Chicago, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded by John D. Randall, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1999, pp. 331 and 319.
Saliga, Pauline A., editor, The Sky’s The Limit A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers, Rizzoli New York, 1990, p. 133.
Alice Sinkevitch, AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 84.
FEATURE image: FISHER BUILDING, 343 S. Dearborn Street, view from the south. Author’s photograph, December 2017.
The 1895–96 Fisher Building represents a pivotal triumph in early skyscraper design, demonstrating how Charles B. Atwood’s flamboyant Gothic Revival aesthetics combined with Edward Clapp Shankland’s rapid steel-frame engineering to evolve the glass-and-terra-cotta formulas pioneered by the Reliance Building (1895) into Chicago’s oldest surviving 18-story-plus landmark.
Fisher Building (1895-1896), looking east. To the left is Burnham & Root and Holabird & Roche’s Monadnock Building (1891-1893) and to the right is Holabird and Roche’s Old Colony Building (1893-1894). In the background is Graham, Anderson, Probst & White’s bright red international style CNA Center (1972). September 2015. Author’s photograph,
Structural engineer Edward Clapp Shankland managed the deep-pile foundation design and rapid steel-framing work, allowing the building’s first 13 stories to rise in just two weeks.
Daniel Hudson Burnham, c. 1890. In 1873 Burnham and Root entered into partnership in Chicago. In 1894 Burnham reorganized his office to include, among other partners, Charles B. Atwood who designed the Fisher Building.
The success of the 14-story Reliance Building at 32 N. State Street built by Daniel H. Burnham (1846-1912) and John Wellborn Root (1850-1891) in 1890-91 and Burnham & Co. in 1894-95 led directly to the construction of the 18-story Fisher Building in 1895. (The final two stories were added over a decade later during its 1907 expansion).
The Fisher Building was also designed for Burnham & Co. by Charles B. Atwood (1849-1895). The Fisher Building was three stories taller than the Reliance Building and possessed even more flamboyant Gothic detailing as it is sheathed in golden terra cotta on its visible façades.
Reliance Building (1890-1895), Chicago. September 2015. Author’s photograph. 87% 7.78mb DSCN1939 (2)
Built directly following the success of the landmark Reliance Building, the Fisher Building was constructed four stories taller (originally standing at 18 stories compared to the Reliance’s 14) and sheathed in a highly decorative golden terra cotta.
Charles B. Atwood c.1880. Public Domain.
The Fisher Building’s façade with its depictions of sea creatures in homage to the building’s namesake, Lucius G. Fisher (1843-1916), an Illinois paper company magnate and architect, was painstakingly restored and adapted for contemporary use in 2001. The rectangular prism with its Gothicized ornamentation sits on 25-foot piles under spread foundations engineered by Edward Clapp Shankland (1854-1924).
Ed Shankland was Daniel Burnham’s structural engineer through 1898 and worked on the Reliance Building and the Fisher Building. Public Domain.
In the mid-1890s, the skyscraper was erected quickly with pride. The steel frame’s first 13 stories were erected in two weeks. The building has oriel windows and engaged colonettes at its corner piers. In 1907, a 2-story vertical addition was built, raising the building to 20 stories, alongside a matching 20-story northern tower expansion by architect Peter J. Weber with Shankland as structural engineer.
Lucius Fisher (1843-1916). Born in Wisconsin, Fisher was an Illinois paper magnate who commissioned Daniel Burnham and Company to build the 18-story, 275-foot-tall Fisher Building in the Chicago Loop in 1895. Completed in 1896, the structure was later expanded in 1907 with a two-story vertical addition and a matching northern tower. Following this expansion, the landmark Fisher Building stands today as the oldest extant 20-story building in Chicago. Public Domain.
In 2002 the main entrances on Dearborn Street and Plymouth Court were recreated. Over 1000 wood-frame windows were replaced or repaired and over 6000 terra-cotta pieces were also replaced. May 2015. Author’s photograph.
Reorganized into Daniel Burnham’s office in 1894, partner Charles B. Atwood designed the Fisher Building with intricate Gothic details and whimsical sea creature motifs as a nod to paper magnate Lucius G. Fisher.
Fisher Building (1895-86) at Plymouth Court and Van Buren Street, looking northwest. October 2017. Author’s photograph,
Completed in 1896, the structure claims the title of the oldest surviving 20-story building in the city of Chicago.
SOURCES:
AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Alice Sinkevitch, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, pps. 62-63.
The Sky’s The Limit: A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers, Jane H. Clarke, Pauline A. Saliga, John Zukowsky, New York: Rizzoli, 1990, pps. 33-35.
Chicago’s Famous Buildings, 5th Edition, Franze Schulze and Kevin Harrington, The University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 82-83.
Frank A. Randall, History of Development of Building Construction in Chicago, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded by John D. Randall, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1999, pps. 37 and 164-65.
FEATURE Image: Burnham Brothers, Art Deco elevator bank, 105 W. Madison (1929), Chicago. December 2015. Author’s photograph. 3.99mb DSC_0958 (2).
105 W. Madison Street represents a critical structural and stylistic pivot in Chicago’s architectural history, where the Burnham Brothers masterfully blended their father’s classical traditions on the building’s exterior with a spectacular, forward-looking Art Deco lobby design.
The Legacy of the Loop: 105 W. Madison Street
In the heart of Chicago’s Loop, at the prominent intersection of Madison and Clark Streets, 105 W. Madison Street occupies a crucial footprint in the historic heart of Chicago’s Loop. Erected in 1929, the 22-story structure represents a pivotal moment in American urban architecture, capturing the exact structural transition where neoclassical restraint met the soaring, stylized energy of the early Art Deco movement.
The Burnham Brothers and the Architectural Shift
The building stands as a testament to one of Chicago’s most formidable architectural dynasties. It was designed by the Burnham Brothers firm, helmed by Daniel Hudson Burnham Jr. (1886–1961) and Hubert Burnham (1882–1968)—the sons of the legendary urban planner and architect Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846–1912). While their father famously reshaped Chicago with classical Beaux-Arts symmetry and monumental masonry, the brothers used the roaring twenties to push the city’s skyline into modernity.
Daniel Hudson Burnham Jr. (1886–1961). Tuesday, July 20, 1926, Chicago Tribune. Public Domain.
Hubert Burnham (1882-1968). Public Domain.
At 105 W. Madison, the brothers meticulously honored classical traditions while simultaneously streamlining them for the machine age. The exterior utilizes a classic tripartite façade—mirroring a classical column with a distinct base, a soaring shaft, and a decorative crown. The building’s skin is composed of a warm, light-brown applied masonry, punctuated by highly stylized, low-relief terra-cotta accents that add textural depth without disrupting the structure’s sleek lines. The recessed window treatments act as dramatic vertical piers, drawing the eye upward and intentionally emphasizing the skyscraper’s soaring height.
The Art Deco Interior
While the exterior nods to traditional civic dignity, the interior lobby completely surrenders to the opulent, geometric future of Art Deco, transforming a commercial gateway into a stunning visual experience.
Art Deco elevator bank, 105 W. Madison (1929), Chicago. December 2015. Author’s photograph. 3.99mb DSC_0958 (2).
The lobby’s 1929 elevator bank transcends its utilitarian purpose to function as a piece of fine industrial art, serving as a rare, preserved capsule of pre-Depression optimism in the heart of the Loop.
The focal point of this ground-floor space is the spectacular elevator bank, which functions as a piece of fine industrial art. Framed by polished, heavily veined marbles and dark granites, the elevator indicators and doors feature intricate, geometric brass and bronze fretwork. The chevron patterns, sunburst motifs, and stylized biological forms cast a warm, metallic glow across the lobby floor. This design language turned a mundane daily routine—waiting for an elevator—into a theatrical celebration of modern progress. As a pristine survivor of the 1929 building boom, the lobby remains a rare, living capsule of pre-Depression architectural optimism.
FEATURE Image: Alexander Calder’s Flamingo successfully transforms Chicago’s Federal Center Plaza by humanizing, energizing, and completing Mies van der Rohe’s austere modernist architectural ensemble through color, scale, movement, and sculptural form. Author’s photograph. June 2022. 7.73 mb
Alexander Calder’s Flamingo (1974) transformed Chicago’s Federal Center by introducing movement, whimsy, and human-scaled organic form into one of the city’s most rigorously ordered modernist spaces. Set amid Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s rectilinear architecture, Calder’s monumental red stabile demonstrates how public art can soften, animate, and humanize the urban environment without diminishing its architectural power.Alexander Calder’s Flamingo was unveiled on October 25, 1974, in a dedication ceremony with the artist. Alongside Picasso and Cloud Gate, it is one of Chicago’s iconic outdoor public artworks.
In downtown Chicago’s Federal Center Plaza on South Dearborn Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard is Alexander Calder’s 53-foot-tall painted steel plate “stabile object” entitled Flamingo. The Chicago Federal Center was completed in 1974 with Calder’s artwork. The design project began in 1958 and included three International-style government buildings by modernist architect Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) within a public plaza design that was completed in 1974. Flamingo, commissioned after Mies’ death for $250,000 by the Government Services Administration, was unveiled on October 25, 1974 with the 76-year-old Calder present for its dedication ceremonies and festivities. With the commission Calder understood the significant impact of his artwork for the Federal Center Plaza in Chicago.
Calder’s prolific and impressive art career started in the early 1920s. Fifty years later, Flamingo (a.k.a., “the Calder”) in Chicago’s historic Federal Center Plaza is a later work, whose maquette Calder made before it was intended for Chicago.
During his artistic career’s many decades and years, Calder never stopped developing in his art. The 1974 steel sculpture painted red-orange is four stories tall and makes a powerful impact on the streetscape where it is an integral part. Along with Chicago’s Picasso in 1967 and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate (“the Bean”) in 2004, Calder’s Flamingo in 1974 has taken its well-deserved place among Chicago’s most iconic outdoor public artworks.
From the inventor of the mobile, Calder turned later to the development of the stabile of which Flamingo is a masterwork. Starting in the mid1950s and into the 1970’s, Calder produced scores of stabiles in many shapes and sizes for display around the world.
“Most architects and city planners want to put my objects in front of trees or greenery. They make a huge error. My mobiles and stabiles ought to be placed in free spaces, like public squares, or in front of modern buildings, and that is true of all contemporary sculpture” – Alexander Calder. Quoted in Jed Perl, Calder: The Conquest of Space: The Later Years: 1940–1976 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2020).
June 2022. Author’s photograph. 7.24 mb
Above: On the west side of Clark Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard—visible directly behind Alexander Calder’s Flamingo sculpture—the prominent structures are from left to right: The Commercial Office Building located at 118 South Clark Street (directly tucked between the Bankers Building and Jackson Boulevard)—was completed in 1920 and designed by the prolific Chicago architectural firm Holabird & Roche, Willis Tower in the distance, The Bankers Building (105 West Adams Street, completed in 1927 by the Burnham Brothers, a 476-foot Art Deco masterpiece featuring characteristic deep light courts and upper-tier setbacks), and, on the other side of Adams Street, The Field Building at 140 S. Clark. Completed in 1934 by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, it stands as one of the finest premier masterpieces of Art Deco skyscraper design in the entire United States. A corner slice of the Edison Building is also pictured.
Titled Flamingo, the towering abstracted “Calder red” painted stabile object can evoke reactions to it that are unexpected. Calder’s stabile masterwork was unveiled in October 1974 which was the same year the Sears Tower (in the background) was completed, and which was at that time the world’s tallest building (today it is ranked no. 26). From Federal Center Plaza, Chicago’s 20th century architectural history is readily on display in its downtown buildings in a range of shapes, sizes, textures and design styles.
The work’s vivid red color and sweeping curves contrast with Mies van der Rohe’s black steel-and-glass buildings.
May 2014. Author’s photograph. 3.28 mb
Because of its monumental size, Flamingo can be intimidating. Actual flamingo shorebirds vary in size, but none are no more than 3 to 5 feet tall, and weigh about 5 to 7 pounds. At 53 feet tall, Calder’s immense stabile in Chicago is about the size of a giant sauropod dinosaur which would weigh around 60 tons.
“It’s really just for differentiation, but I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red” – Alexander Calder. Katharine Kuh, The Artist’s Voice: Talks with Seventeen Artists (New York: Harper & Row, 1962).
November 2015. Author’s photograph. 260kb 25%
Alexander Calder trained and worked as a mechanical engineer before he became an artist. The graceful design and construction of Flamingo is expressed by nearly one-inch-thick steel plates buttressed by ribs and gussets joined overhead by lofty arches and resting on three legs as if it is nearly weightless. Even his largest stabiles (of which Flamingo is one) are made so they can be easily unbolted and taken apart to be transported and assembled at the place of destination.
Calder’s Flamingo demonstrates how monumental public sculpture can become an active architectural partner, transforming a formal modernist plaza into a more dynamic, accessible, and memorable civic space.
May 2014. Author’s photograph. 4.82 mb
In Federal Center Plaza is a complex of three buildings of varying scales by Mies van der Rohe: the broad 30-floor Everett McKinley Dirksen Building at 219 S. Dearborn Street completed in 1964 (at right), the lean 45-floor John C. Kluczynski Building at 230 S. Dearborn Street completed in 1974 (not pictured), and the single-story U.S. Post Office building at 219 S. Clark Street (not pictured). Calder’s Flamingo sits on its three pillars like a lunar lander that reflects the arcaded bases of Mies van der Rohe’s buildings that surround it as well as provide a sweeping contrast of curves and bright stand-out color against the surrounding modernist buildings’ monochrome glass-and-steel grid appearance. Calder’s artwork achieved more than the sum of these parts – it transformed Mies’ overall somber architectural trio into a more dramatic and complex quartet that included Calder’s art. The 30-story Dirksen Building is across Dearborn Street.
Flamingo by Alexander Calder is a masterwork stabile in Chicago’s downtown. Its monumental scale remains approachable because pedestrians can walk around, beneath, and through it.
May 2013. Author’s photograph. 3.60 mb 102_0480 (1)
November 2015. Author’s photograph. 484 kb 25%
Above: Calder’s Flamingo after dark with the one-story Post Office illumined within behind it (above). Alexander Calder deliberately placed the sculpture in an open urban setting where contemporary sculpture could interact with modern architecture.
June 2022. Author’s photograph. 6.87mb
Above: Calder’s stabile is one of the most monumental public art commissions in Chicago. Flamingo’s height and breadth (it fills a space of about 1440 square feet) achieves a largesse that does not forgo a human scale as it allows pedestrians to freely walk around, under and through it. The 45-story Kluczynski Building is at left.
November 2015. Author’s photograph. 3.77mb
Above: Flamingo lighted at night in late November where there is already a snow pile on the sidewalk in Chicago’s Federal Center Plaza presaging the Chicago winter. In summer months there is a regular farmer’s market on the Federal Center Plaza. It is also the location for a variety of political gatherings year-round. The Kluczynski Building is behind.
Rather than functioning as an isolated object, the sculpture changes how viewers experience the entire Federal Center complex.
October 2015. Author’s photograph. 3.90mb.
Above: Alexander Calder’s Flamingo (1974) sits in Federal Plaza designed by modernist architect Mies Van Der Rohe. Behind it is Mies’ 45-floor John C. Kluczynski Building at 230 S. Dearborn Street and on a sunny east side of South Dearborn his 30-story Dirksen Federal Courthouse. Moving south across Jackson Boulevard is the 5-story 33 West Jackson Boulevard building built in 1910 (with additions/remodels stretching through 1917). Next to it is The Standard Club at 321 South Dearborn Street built in 1926 and designed by Albert Kahn. The Fisher Building (1896) at 343 South Dearborn Street and its annex is next further south. Designed by D.H. Burnham & Company, it was completed in 1896. The Old Colony building on the other side of the L tracks was built between 1893 and 1894, When it officially topped out, the 17-story, 215-foot high-rise briefly held the title of the tallest building in Chicago. It was designed by the legendary architectural firm of Holabird & Roche. The framework was engineered by Corydon T. Purdy who designed it with a highly advanced, pioneering skeletal steel-frame structure that carries the entirety of the building’s massive weight allowing the exterior features absolutely no self-supporting walls.
In October 1974 Alexander Calder was in Chicago for a “Calder Festival” where two of his major works were being dedicated – Flamingo for Federal Center Plaza (depicted above with the Kluczynski Building) and Universe, a motorized mural for the Sears Tower. Reflecting the artist’s lifetime interest in circuses, Calder joined in the city’s circus-themed parade in his honor. In another major cultural event in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art held a large retrospective exhibition of Calder’s art from October to December of 1974.
June 2022. Author’s photograph. 6.20mb
Above: Flamingo sits within a classic Chicago Loop streetscape looking south down South Dearborn Street, framing a beautiful juxtaposition of the city’s architectural evolution. On the left side of the street sits the massive, dark steel-and-glass the Kluczynski Federal Building designed by Mies van der Rohe. On the immediate right foreground is the ornate, reddish-brown stone facade of the Marquette Building (1895). Directly past it rises the colossal, dark brick wall of the Monadnock Building (1891), showcasing its iconic, smooth masonry curves and deep-set bay windows stretching a full block south toward Van Buren Street. In the distant vista is the historic red brick tower of the Old Dearborn Station clock tower (1885) stands out against the sky, acting as a visual anchor at the very end of the street corridor.
May 2024. Author’s photograph. 88% 7.78 mb
Above: This wide angle of federal Plaza frames several historic and modernist landmarks surrounding Alexander Calder’s Flamingo sculpture. These include a portion of John C. Kluczynski Federal Building, Loop Station Post Office, The Commonwealth Edison Building and The Marquette Building.
May 2013. Author’s photograph. 2.80 mb 102_0488 (1)
August 2021. Author’s photograph. 96% 7.91mb DSC_6798
Above: Looking east along West Quincy Street toward Federal Plaza, this view captures a striking convergence of Chicago’s historic and modernist architecture. Framing the corridor is, on the left, a slice of the Rookery Building, completed in 1888 by the firm Burnham & Root, and the Clark Adams Building originally known as the Bankers Building, completed by the Burnam Brothers in 1927. On the right is the Central Standard Building, originally the Continental Illinois National Bank Building, completed in 1924 by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. Anchoring the vista is the sweeping red curve of Alexander Calder’s Flamingo. Just in front of it stands the transparent glass entrance to the single-story United States Post Office (1973), an integral element of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s original Federal Plaza design. Rising behind the plaza and dominating the upper half of the scene is the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building, Mies’s landmark expression of modernist architecture, creating a dramatic contrast with the richly detailed Art Deco and classical forms that line Quincy Street.
By placing a monumental red sculpture of sweeping organic curves within Mies van der Rohe’s disciplined modernist complex, Alexander Calder transformed Chicago’s Federal Center into a dynamic conversation between art, architecture, and public space.
Sources:
Bach, Ira J., and Mary Lackritz Gray. A Guide to Chicago Public Sculpture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983.
FEATURE image: Oriental Theatre completed in 1926 and renamed the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in 1997. It became the Nederlander Theatre in 2019. December 2017. Author’s photograph.
The Oriental Theatre, designed by Cornelius Ward (C.W.) Rapp and George Leslie Rapp in 1926, represents both the architectural extravagance of America’s movie-palace era and the enduring cultural vitality of Chicago’s Loop entertainment district. Through its exotic design, long performance history, and successful restoration, the theater serves as a living monument to the evolution of popular entertainment in Chicago across nearly a century.
Ford Center For the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre, Chicago. December 2017. Author’s photograph. 5 mb.
Rapp & Rapp designed nearly four hundred theatres in the United States between 1906 and 1926.
In Chicago’s Loop, the Oriental Theatre opened on May 8, 1926. During the first half of the 20th century, Randolph Street was one of the city’s most bustling entertainment districts.
Designed by the architectural firm of Rapp & Rapp—brothers Cornelius Ward (C.W.) Rapp (1861-1926) and George Leslie Rapp (1878-1941)—the Oriental Theatre was one of their many ornate movie palaces that they built. As its name “Oriental” suggested, it was imagined in a style inspired by a Western fantasia of India and South Asian themes and motifs. Inspired by this architecture of India and the Far East, lights consisted of elephant heads with tusks, walls were adorned with soft silk and regal velvets, and the ceiling was garishly decorated with plasterwork elephants and other exotic beasts.
The theater’s architecture embodied a fantasy interpretation of Indian and Far Eastern motifs, featuring elephants, rich fabrics, elaborate plasterwork, and lavish ornamentation.
Rapp & Rapp were alumni of the University of Illinois School of Architecture. The firm designed scores of theatres across the country in the first decades of the 20th century. The Rapp brothers were born in Carbondale in southern Illinois. Twenty-eight-year-old C.W. Rapp formed a partnership in 1889 with older architect, Canadian-born Cyrus P. Thomas (1933-1911) and they practiced together in Chicago until 1895. C.W. Rapp operated his own office for a decade until he formed a partnership with his brother G.L. Rapp in 1906. With stage entertainment and the boom of moving pictures after 1910, the firm of Rapp & Rapp quickly developed a reputation for their fantastic designs for silent film theatres in the Chicago area. Drawing on a large palette of architectural revival styles, Rapp & Rapp designed nearly four hundred theatres in the United States between 1906 and 1926.
In Chicago Rapp & Rapp designed State Street’s Chicago Theatre (1921) and the Bismarck Hotel and Theatre (1926). In New York City they built the since demolished Paramount Theatre (1926) in Times Square and the still-standing smaller-scaled Paramount Theatre (1931) in Aurora, Illinois.
Rapp & Rapp were among America’s premier movie-palace architects and designed such landmarks as Chicago’s Chicago Theatre and New York’s Paramount Theatre.
In the mid1990s, after the Oriental Theatre had been closed and shuttered for over a decade, it underwent a multi-million-dollar restoration and expansion by Daniel P. Coffey & Associates. It reopened as the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in 1998. Following its expansion, the former Oriental Theatre seats over 2,000 patrons.
Entertainment legacy
In the 1920s, the Oriental Theatre presented both movies and vaudeville acts. When talkies arrived, the Oriental Theatre became predominantly a movie house in the 1930s. Live stage, theatrical, and concert performances continued for mid20th century Chicago audiences during an era when Randolph Street was a mecca for crowds seeking out their favorite star performers. It also hosted smaller and vibrant live entertainment venues where one could seek out up-and-coming talents.
Duke Ellington and his orchestra made frequent appearances at the Oriental Theatre which welcomed patrons by way of an exotic ornate style. Some big names and legends in entertainment were seen at the Oriental Theatre including Judy Garland, George Jessel, Fanny Brice, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Cab Calloway, Eddie Cantor, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Jean Harlow, Billie Holiday, Bob Hope, Al Jolson, Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, The Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, Frank Sinatra, Sophie Tucker, Sarah Vaughan, Henny Youngman, and a cast of thousands.
The Oriental Theatre closed in 1981 and remained shuttered for the rest of the 1980’s and into the early 1990’s depriving many young urban professionals from enjoying entertainment in a venue that, with its reopening in 1998, has operated continuously for nearly 100 years.
Ford Center for the Performing Arts in 1997 and the Nederlander Theatre in 2019
In 1997 the Oriental Theatre was renamed the Ford Center for the Performing Arts and restored and expanded for its re-opening in 1998. In 2019 the theatre was renamed in honor of James M. Nederlander (1922-2016), Broadway theatre owner/producer and Broadway In Chicago founder.
Today’s James M. Nederlander Theatre hosts touring pre-Broadway and Broadway shows whose résumé included a long-running production of Billy Elliot: The Musical. From June 2005 through January 2009, the theater housed a full production of Wicked, making it the most popular stage production in Chicago history. In December 2017, when the feature photograph was taken, a traveling national tour of Wicked had started its Chicago run.
After years of closure, the theater underwent a major restoration and expansion in the 1990s and reopened as the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in 1998. Renamed the James M. Nederlander Theatre in 2019, it continues to host major Broadway and touring productions, demonstrating the building’s enduring relevance.
Oriental Theatre sign, Chicago. July 2016. Author’s photograph. 4.63 mb.
Major entertainers such as Duke Ellington, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and many others appeared there.
Oriental sign at night, Chicago. December 2015. Author’s photograph. 6.51mb DSC_0866 (1).
SOURCES: Alice Sinkevitch, AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 54.
Feature Image: THE MENTOR BUILDING, 1906, 39 S. State Street (6 E. Monroe Street), Chicago. Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926), architect. Author’s photograph, 7/2015.
Howard Van Doren Shaw’s Mentor Building (1906) stands as a pivotal anomaly in Chicago’s architectural history, serving as the architect’s sole foray into skyscraper design while masterfully bridging the horizontal warmth of the Prairie style with idiosyncratic classical motifs.
Mentor Building. July 2015. Author’s photograph. 2.93 mb DSC_0111 (2)
Street Appearance
The lower portion of Howard Van Doren Shaw’s Mentor Building functions as a four-level retail and commercial base designed to anchor the high-rise while maximizing street-level storefront interaction in downtown Chicago. At street level, the building presents an open, highly transparent urban storefront that wraps around the corner of State and Monroe Streets. It is dominated by large showroom windows framed in dark, minimalist metal sash work.
Structural Function
Structurally, the lower portion serves as the open-perimeter foundation for a 17-story mixed-use skyscraper. Supported below by deep rock caissons, the skeleton framework allows the building’s immense weight to be carried by internal columns rather than thick, load-bearing exterior walls. This engineering feat allows the exterior facade of the first four floors to be completely opened up for massive windows without compromising structural stability.
Decorative Choices
The lower levels are clad in a light tan stone or terra cotta, creating a visually distinct, monumental “pedestal” that contrasts with the dark brown brick of the upper floors. Inspired by the Prairie style, the masonry piers emphasize strong horizontal bands and clean lines that anchor the building’s massive height to the ground.
Restrained Motifs.
While the windows are clean and modern, classical elements—such as subtle geometric molding patterns and small decorative brackets under the window transitions—subtly hint at classical motifs without cluttering the storefront displays.
Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926), 1906, THE MENTOR BUILDING, State and Monroe Streets, Chicago, from the southwest. July 2015. Author’s photograph, 7/2015.
Structural Profile and Purpose
A Mentor building has stood on the northeast corner of State and Monroe Streets since 1873. Until 1906, a 7-story building was erected here.1
The 1906 building by Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926) is 17 stories high with two basements on rock caissons.2 Shaw’s only skyscraper presents an unusual mixture of styles, a talent for which Shaw built his practice’s reputation starting in 1897. The building was designed as a mixed use skyscaper, including retail sales and commercial business.3
Architectural Elements and Materials
Inspired by the Prairie style, there are windows grouped in horizontal bands between a four-level base of large showroom windows. The top is classically inspired with details that are strong and idiosyncratic. The brown brick and terra cotta building retains the character of its classical sources though they are used as large-scale motifs.4
The Architect’s Biography
Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926). Public Domain.
Shaw studied architecture at Yale University and apprenticed in Chicago for William Le Baron Jenney (1832-1907). In Chicago and its northern suburbs Shaw had an illustrious career designing major commercial, church, and museum buildings and projects as well as mansions for the area’s elites.5
By blending conflicting design movements into a functional, early 20th-century mixed-use commercial space, Shaw challenged the rigid stylistic boundaries of the Chicago School and solidified his reputation as a master of eclectic architecture.
1 Frank A. Randall, History of Development of Building Construction in Chicago, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded by John D. Randall, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1999, p. 196.
2 Ibid., p. 265.
3 Saliga, Pauline A., editor, The Sky’s The Limit A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers, Rizzoli New York, 1990, p. 73.
4 Alice Sinkevitch, AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 59.
