#field building

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The Field Building, also known as the LaSalle National Bank Building and Bank of America Building was designated a Chicago Landmark February 9,  1994.    

[archinform]

The Field Building, Chicago - part 2

Photos by Roger Jones, July 5, 2024

This is an addendum to my original post on the Field Building, which you can read here.

Entrance lobby and escalator

Lobby information desk

Elevator lobby

Art deco clock

Building directory

Clark Street entrance

Lobby ceiling fixture

[archinform]

The Field Building, Chicago

by Roger Jones

June 19, 2024

Two views of the Field Building, c. 1930

The field building, 135 S. LaSalle St., Chicago, was built 1928 - 1934, and designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. Built by the estate of department store founder Marshall Field, it was the last major office building completed prior to a two-decade construction hiatus caused by the Great Depression and World War II. Its site formerly was occupied by the Home Insurance Building (1884), designed by William Le Baron Jenney.

Built at a cost of $12 million, the building featured 43 floors, and height of 163.1 m / 535 ft, and a surface of 111 484 m² / 1 200 000 ft. upon completion. It had entrances on both Lasalle and Clark Streets. The Field Building has also been known as the LaSalle National Bank Building, or Bank of America Building.

The building also featured 42 high-speed elevators, advanced technology at the time. Other innovations included polished aluminum window frames, radiant heat, dual elevators sharing one shaft, and pure drinking water delivered to drinking fountains in each office. The first and second floors were connected by escalators.

The building was designated a Chicago Landmark on February 9, 1994.

135 S. LaSalle, Solomon Cordwell Buenz

A distinctive moderne structure, the building's stripped-down design features smooth surfaces, limited ornament, and clean lines.

Straight vertical lines give the building a look as new as 1959. The main exterior material is limestone. The [lower] entrances made extensive use of white bronze and black granite, also with a complete lack of extraneous detail. As far as materials and craftsmanship are concerned, another Field building may never be built, architects say. The cost would be prohibitive. Three kinds of marble were used in the vast lobby arcade and corridors - white, from Vermont; a green variety, from Italy; and a delicately toned tan marble, also from Italy. The Field building took the entire output of the quarry producing the tan marble. It is irreplaceable, said Palmer. All the marble was cut and laid so that the patterns match from one slab to another. Source: Fuller, Ernest, "Famous Chicago Buildings," Chicago Tribune, January 3, 1959

Home Insurance Building, 1885 (demolished 1931), William Le Baron Jenney, architect

Plaque in the Field Building lobby

Postcard view

Photos from the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago

Photos from the Hedrich-Blessing Archive, Chicago History Museum

View of lobby, showing "bookend" tan marble above elevator doors

Field Building ground floor plan.

My photographs:

Graham, Anderson, Probst & White

The Chicago firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White was founded in 1912 originally as Graham, Burnham & Co., as the successor to the D.H. Burnham Company. In 1917, the Burnhams left the firm, and Graham and the others, (William) Pierce Anderson, Edward Mathias Probst, and Howard Judson White formed the subsequent firm.

The firm got the majority of the big commissions from 1912 to 1936, including iconic buildings such as the Wrigley Building, Merchandise Mart, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Civic Opera House, and the old main U. S. Post Office. They also designed built the Terminal Tower in Cleveland and Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City.

It was the largest architectural firm under one roof during the first half of the twentieth century, its closest rival being the firm of Holabird and Root.

Architectural historian Carl Condit commented on the Field Building: "Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White turned their backs once and for all on the past and produced a Sullivanesque skyscraper stripped down to essentials, a dense array of uniform vertical limestone bands, topped by a horizontal spandrel that simply marks the outer face of the parapet at the roof."

Major works by the firm in Chicago: the Wrigley Building, Merchandise Mart, Civic Opera House, Union Station, and Field Museum

Sources:

Online:

Chicagology: Field Building

Chicago Landmarks

Lasalle Reimagined

Chicago History Museum images

YouTube: Why Chicago razed the first skyscraper / The Field Building

Architecture and planning of Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White, 1912-1936 : transforming tradition, by Chappell, Sally Anderson. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1992. Available on Internet Archive

Journals:

Field Building, Chicago Ill. Architectural record. 1932 Apr., v. 71, p. 277. Ill 

The sky's the limit: high-rise history in Chicago. Inland Architect. 1990 Jan.-Feb., v.34, no.1, p.60-[63]. Photos

The Field building, Chicago's newest skyscraper. Architectural Record. 1934 Aug., v. 76, p. 120-128. ill, plans

[rabbitcruiser]

The Field Building, also known as the LaSalle National Bank Building and Bank of America Building was designated a Chicago Landmark February 9,  1994.    

[rabbitcruiser]

The Field Building, also known as the LaSalle National Bank Building and Bank of America Building was designated a Chicago Landmark February 9, 1994.

[rabbitcruiser]

Financial District, Chicago

The Field Building, also known as the LaSalle National Bank Building and Bank of America Building is an art deco office building at 135 South LaSalle Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark February 9, 1994.

The construction of the Field Building was completed 1934 as a 535 feet (163.1 m) 45-story skyscraper on the site bounded by South Clark Street, South LaSalle Street and West Adams Street.  The architect was the firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White.  It is considered the last major office building erected in Chicago prior to the Great Depression/World War II construction hiatus which ended with the building of One Prudential Plaza in 1955. 

Many of the latest innovations such as high-speed elevators and air conditioning were incorporated into the building's design. The lobby features a multi-level arcade between LaSalle and Clark Streets allowing pedestrians to walk between the two streets and access the retail space without exiting the building.  The elevator indicator panel and mailbox in the lobby are in an integrated design which resembles the building's exterior shape.

The building rises from a four-story base that covers the entire site.  The exterior of the first story is faced in polished black granite. Windows are framed with polished aluminum or monel metal and have black and polished aluminum spandrel panels.  The entrances on the east and west facades rise the entire height of the base and are also framed in black granite.  Five pilasters faced in white Yule marble separate the bays containing revolving doors that provide access to the lobby.

The upper stories are sheathed in limestone with windows grouped vertically and recessed to emphasize the building's height.  The 45-story rectangular tower is centered on the base and buttressed by a shorter 22-story tower at each of its four corners. 

Several buildings occupied this site until construction commenced in 1931.  The world's  first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building (1885-1931), occupied the western portion facing LaSalle and Adams Streets. On December 7, 2004 a fire broke out on the 29th floor that also spread to the 30th floor, 25 people were injured.

Source: Wikipedia

[rabbitcruiser]

The Field Building, also known as the LaSalle National Bank Building and Bank of America Building was designated a Chicago Landmark February 9, 1994.    

[greenvillegreengirl]

Art Deco US Mail letter box in the Field Building

Chicago, IL

Original photo mine