Inland Steel Building

Inland Steel Building
Inland Steel Building
	Inland Steel Building in May 2007
General information
Location	30 W. Monroe Street; Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates	41°52′52″N 87°37′45″W / 41.8810°N 87.6291°W
Construction started	1956
Completed	1957
Height
Roof	332 feet (101.2 m)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Structural engineer	Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
References
	Inland Steel Building
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	30 W. Monroe St., Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates	41°52′51″N 87°37′43″W / 41.88083°N 87.62861°W
Area	0.5 acres (0.2 ha)
Built	1958
Architect	Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Graham, Bruce & Walter Netsch
Architectural style	International Style
NRHP reference No.	09000024
Added to NRHP	February 18, 2009

The Inland Steel Building is a skyscraper located at 30 W. Monroe Street in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the city's defining commercial high-rises of the post–World War II era of modern architecture.^[1]^[4] Its principal designers were Bruce Graham and Walter Netsch of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architecture firm.^[1] The building is managed and leased by MB Real Estate. The Inland Steel Building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1998.^[1]

Architecture

The use of brushed stainless steel cladding reflects the corporation that commissioned the building as its headquarters, the Inland Steel Company.^[1]

The placement of all structural columns on the building's perimeter—and the consolidation of elevators and other service functions in a separate tower—allowed for a highly flexible interior floor layout with no interior columns.^[1] This design is a good example of the widely held principle of the era, "form follows function" (Louis Sullivan). The lobby features a sculpture of gold, stainless steel and enameled copper by Richard Lippold entitled Radiant I.^[5]

The building would later serve as the prototype for SOM’s much larger One Chase Manhattan Plaza in New York City, completed in 1961. Key architectural and structural concepts incorporated in the building influenced those used in the design and construction of the Cooperative Insurance Tower in Manchester, United Kingdom, which was completed in 1962.

Chicago Landmark status

The Inland Steel Building was only three years old when first honored in 1960 as an architectural landmark by Chicago's fledgling Commission on Chicago Architectural Landmarks. A metallic plaque related to that 1960 designation can be found in front of the building on Monroe Street.^[6] It was one of 38 buildings in Chicago honored by that original commission.

That commission was later replaced by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, which designated the Inland Steel Building as a Chicago Landmark on October 7, 1998.^[1] A square plaque related to that later landmark designation can be found next to the metallic plaque.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "Inland Steel Building". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
^ "Inland Steel Building". Emporis Corporation. Archived from the original on December 9, 2006. Retrieved February 8, 2008.
^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
^ Schulze, Franz & Harrington, Kevin (2003). Chicago's Famous Buildings (5th ed.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 75. ISBN 0-226-74066-8.
^ Marter, Joan. The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, (Google Books link), Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 172-73, (ISBN 0195335791), (ISBN 9780195335798).
^ "Inland Steel Company Building Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
^ "Inland Steel Building Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved January 27, 2025.

External links

[landmark-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "Inland Steel Building". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. Retrieved December 16, 2012.

[2] "Inland Steel Building". Emporis Corporation. Archived from the original on December 9, 2006. Retrieved February 8, 2008.

[nris-3] "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.

[4] Schulze, Franz & Harrington, Kevin (2003). Chicago's Famous Buildings (5th ed.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 75. ISBN 0-226-74066-8.

[marter-5] Marter, Joan. The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, (Google Books link), Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 172-73, (ISBN 0195335791), (ISBN 9780195335798).

[6] "Inland Steel Company Building Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved January 27, 2025.

[7] "Inland Steel Building Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved January 27, 2025.

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Buildings in italics have been demolished.

v t e Chicago Landmark skyscrapers
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See also	Washington Block

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