Chicago Board of Trade
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Architect: Holabird & Root, addition Murphy/Jahn
Year Completed: 1930, addition completed 1980
Location: 141 West Jackson, Chicago, Illinois
Style: Art Deco
The Chicago Board of Trade is my favorite Art Deco skyscraper in Chicago. Holabird & Root were the most popular Chicago architects of the Art Deco era, and this is probably their most famous Art Deco skyscraper. In 1980, an addition designed by Murphy/Jahn was added. The building as a whole is unusual in that it combines the old Art Deco styling of the original building with new Postmodern styling in the new addition.
The Chicago Board of Trade sits at the end of the LaSalle financial district, almost like a throne. In the first picture above you can see the canyon effect of LaSalle ending with the Chicago Board of Trade building.
The Chicago Board of trade was founded in 1848 and is the oldest futures and options exchange in the United States. It deals mainly in wheat, corn, oats, soybeans and long-term financial instruments. The tall windows underneath the clock originally housed a 6-story trading floor. Due to space needs, the trading floor was split horizontally into two levels in 1975.
The original building is a 45-story tower above a 9-story base. The third picture above shows the top of the tower, which has a copper pyramidal roof topped with a 32-foot aluminum statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. John Storrs, the sculptor who designed the statue, did not include any facial features on the statue, most likely an Art Deco stylization.
The La Salle Street entrance to the building features figures and a clock designed by Illinois artist Alvin Meyer, the head of Holabird & Root's sculpture department. As is common with Art Deco architecture, the building's sculptures reflect its use. These figures, shown in the second picture above, are holding wheat and corn. The Ceres statue at the top of the building is holding a sack of corn (or money) in one hand and wheat in the other.
The 3-story lobby is also typical Art Deco. It features marble and nickel materials and translucent glass lights provide diffused light.
When the addition was built, great attention was paid so that the addition would complement and blend with the original structure. The 24-story addition is black and silver, which contrasts with the original building's grey limestone. The atrium in the addition features a mural of Ceres by artist John Warner Norton that was removed several years earlier from the trading floor of the original building.
The fourth picture above shows the addition with the original tower rising above it. You can see the Ceres statue at the top.