Chicago Architecture Series- Chicago Board of Trade Building

This is my first post in a series of posts that will be dedicated to highlighting some of my favorite buildings in the Windy City.

The Chicago Board of Trade anchors the south end of LaSalle Street in Chicago's financial district.  This canyon of buildings is one of the iconic images of Chicago.  This stretch of architectural heaven has featured prominently in recent Hollywood films such as The Untouchables, Road to Perdition, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight. 

Construction on the Board of Trade Building began in 1929 and officially opened June 9, 1930.  The Board of Trade has continuously occupied the twelfth floor of the building since its opening.  The famous Chicago firm Holabird & Root handled the design of the building, and made it an art-deco masterpiece.  Total construction costs were 11.3 million dollars.  The building was the first in Chicago to reach a height greater than 600 feet, and held the title as the city's tallest until the Richard J. Daley Center opened in 1965.

Alvin Meyer, the head of Holabird & Root's sculptural department, provided several works that feature prominently in and around the building.  His hooded figures peer down ominously onto LaSalle Street from either side of the thirteen foot diameter great clock above the main entrance to the building.  One is an Egyptian figure holding grain and the other a Native-American holding corn.  The agricultural theme that is carried throughout the property hints at the Board's history of being primarily a commodities exchange.

 

The building itself is capped by a thirty-one foot sculpture of the goddess Ceres.  The aluminum piece weighs over three tons, and is blank faced.  Appearing around the height of about forty-five floors, Meyer thought no one would be able to see the face clearly anyway, so he left it blank.

His twin sculptures Industry and Agriculture also appear on site.

Art-deco detailing in the building's appearance and interiors have made it a true gem of that era.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark in 1978, the Chicago Board of Trade Building is one of Chicago's and America's architectural treasures.