Chicago Board of Trade Building

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mackensen (talk | contribs) at 04:52, 1 August 2007 (→‎Building details: consistent image size). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Chicago Board of Trade Building
The Chicago Board of Trade Building was Chicago's tallest from 1930 until 1965.
LocationChicago, Illinois
Built1930
ArchitectHolabird & Root
Architectural styleArt Deco
NRHP reference No.78003181[1]
Added to NRHPJune 16, 1978

The Chicago Board of Trade Building is located at 141 West Jackson Boulevard at the foot of the LaSalle Street canyon, in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. First designated a Chicago Landmark on May 4, 1977,[2] the building was subsequently listed as a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1978.[3][4] The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 16 1978. Originally built to house the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), it is now the primary trading venue for the CME Group, the entity formed in 2007 by the merger of the CBOT and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.[5]

The 141 West Jackson address hosted the former tallest building in Chicago designed by William W. Boyington before the current Holabird & Root structure, which held the same title for over 35 years.[6] The current structure is known for its art-deco architecture, sculptures and large scale stone carving, as well as large trading floors. A three-story tall art deco statue of Ceres, goddess of grain, caps the building. A popular sightseeing attraction and motion picture location, the building has won awards for preservation efforts and office management.

History

Early locations

On April 3 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade opened for business at 101 South Water Street. When 122 members were added in 1856, the location was moved to the corner of South Water and LaSalle Streets. After another temporary relocation west on South Water Street in 1860, the first permanent home was established inside the Chamber of Commerce Building on the corner of LaSalle and Washington in 1865. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed this building. The exchange reopened in a temporary location two weeks after the fire in a 90 feet square (729  m2) wooden building known as "The Wigwam" at the intersection of Washington and Market Streets,[7] before reclaiming its home in a new building constructed at the Chamber of Commerce location one year later.

Permanent home

In 1882, construction began on a new home for the CBOT, and the resulting new building opened at the current location on May 1 1885. It was designed by architect William W. Boyington, known previously for his work on the Chicago Water Tower. Built from structural steel and Maine granite, with a rear of enameled brick, the edifice was 10 stories tall and featured a tower Template:Ft to m tall containing a large clock and [undue weight? – discuss] bell, which was topped by a Template:Ft to m copper weather vane in the shape of a ship. Construction cost $1.8 million. With 4 elevators and a great hall Template:Ft to m high decorated by a stained-glass skylight and ornate stone balusters,[8] it was the first commercial building in Chicago to feature electric lighting.[9] It was also the first building in the city to exceed Template:Ft to m in height and at the time was the tallest building in Chicago. In 1895, the clock tower was removed and the "tallest building in Chicago" record was then held by the Template:Ft to m tall Masonic Temple Building.[6] Built on caissons surrounded by muck, the trading house was rendered structurally unsound in the 1920s when construction began across the street on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The 1885 building was subsequently demolished in 1929,[10] and the exchange temporarily relocated to Van Buren and Clark while a new building was constructed at the LaSalle and Jackson site.

Night view of the top of The Chicago Board of Trade.

Building details

Architecture

In 1925, the Chicago Board of Trade commissioned Holabird & Root to design the current building. The general contractors Hegeman & Harris constructed the building for $11.3 millon, although the reported 20 year mortgage value was $12 millon.[11][12] Clad in gray Indiana limestone, topped with a copper pyramid roof, and standing on a footprint running Template:Ft to m east and west on Jackson Boulevard and Template:Ft to m north and south on LaSalle Street, the Template:Ft to m tall art-deco styled building opened on June 9 1930. It serves as the southern border for the skyscrapers hugging LaSalle Street and remains taller than surrounding structures for several blocks. The Chicago Board of Trade has operated continuously at its twelfth location since the opening, initially occupying Template:Ft2 to m2 of an available Template:Ft2 to m2 of floorspace,[13] and dedicating Template:Ft2 to m2 to the world's largest trading floor.[14] The advent of steel frame structural systems provided the ability for completely vertical construction, but as with many skyscrapers of the era, the exterior was designed with multiple setbacks at increasing heights, which served to allow additional light into the ever increasing concrete valleys in urban cores. At night, the setbacks are upwardly lit by floodlights, further highlighting the structure's vertical elements. The night illumination design was a common contemporary Chicago architectural theme seen also in the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, Jewelers Building, Palmolive Building and LaSalle-Wacker Building.[15] Interior decoration includes polished surfaces throughout, use of black and white marble, prominent vertical hallway trim, and an open three-story lobby which at the time of opening housed the world's largest light fixture. Though One LaSalle Street had five more floors, the CBOT building was the first in Chicago to exceed a height of Template:Ft to m. After surpassing the Chicago Temple Building, it was the tallest in Chicago until the Richard J. Daley Center was completed in 1965. It remains the tallest art-deco building outside Manhattan.[6] Known for their work on the Brooklyn Bridge, the family-operated factory of John A. Roebling supplied much of the Template:Mi to km of wire rope used in the building and all the cables used in the building's 23 Otis elevators.[13] Beneath the main trading floor over Template:Mi to km of telephone and telegraph wires were once hidden. In fact, Template:Mi to km of wires (considered possibly the most direct long distance wire from any building) once ran from the room.[16] Despite the fact that the building was commissioned for the Chicago Board of Trade the building's first tenant was the Quaker Oats Company who moved in on May 1 1930.[17]

Statue of Industry
Statue of Agriculture

Artwork

Sculptural work by Alvin Meyer, the onetime leader of Holabird & Root's sculpture department, is prominent on the building's façade. Adjacent to each side of the Template:Ft to m diameter clock facing LaSalle Street are hooded figures, an Egyptian holding grain and a Native American holding corn.[18][19] Similar figures are repeated at the uppermost corners of the central tower, just below the sloping roof. The additional Template:Ft to m Industry and Agriculture relief sculptures are pictured right and are considered a part of a four piece set.[20] About Template:Ft to m above street level, representations of bulls protrude from the building's north side and to a lesser degree on the east side, a reference to a bull market.

The central structure is capped by a Template:Ft to m tall aluminum statue of the Roman goddess of grain, Ceres, as a nod to the exchange's heritage as a commodities market. This statue was assembled from 40 pieces.[21] As it is located near the forty-five story point, sculptor John H. Storrs believed onlookers from nearby structures would be at too great a distance to clearly see the statue's face, and so it was left blank.

Removed from the agricultural trading room in 1973, artist John W. Norton's three-story mural of Ceres shown bare-breasted in a field of grain underwent extensive restoration in Spring Grove, Illinois by Louis Pomerantz before being displayed in the atrium of the 1980s addition.[22]

Trading floor

According to the June 16 1930, Time, visitors carrying ripened wheat heads stared in curiosity at the six-story tall trading room directly above the lobby and behind the large windows located below the clock facing LaSalle Street. At the center of the room, Time reported on the items being traded in "pits" organized based on commodities type with pits names such as the corn pit, soybean pit or wheat pit. The individual pits are raised octangonal structures where open outcry trading occurs. Steps up the outside of each octagon provide an amphitheater atmosphere, and enable a large number of traders to see each other and communicate during trading hours. This type of trading pit was patented in 1878.

Trading floor at the Chicago Board of Trade.

The trading area is surrounded by desks allowing workers to support transactions. In the early days of operation, the desks served as a relay point between the pits and those wishing to buy or sell. When trade orders and information began to be communicated by telegraph, morse code operators were employed, later replaced by phone operators. In the late 20th century, electric display boards lined the walls of the trading hall and the advent of electronic trading resulted in computers being placed on desktops.

Subsequent additions to the Board of Trade Building moved the agricultural and financial trading floors out of the original trading room and into new spaces in the additions. In 2004 the historic 1930 trading floor, already substantially altered (and unused for more than two years), was demolished and its pits filled with concrete. It was renovated in a modern style and now is leased to a privately owned options trading firm.[23]

Expansion

Chicago Board of Trade logo

In 1982, the owners added a Template:Ft to m[24][25] 23 story expansion to the south side of the building. It was topped by an octagonal ornament shaped similarly to the terraced trading pits and was designed in a postmodern style by Helmut Jahn. Colored black and silver, with a sunlit atrium on the 12th floor facing the south wall of the older structure, the annex provided a four-story granite lined agricultural trading floor, then the world's largest at Template:Ft2 to m2. Even as the Sydney Futures Exchange and other markets were ceasing outcry trading, Mayor Richard M. Daley led the groundbreaking on January 17 1995, for additional expansion into a five-story building to the east designed by architects Fujikawa Johnson and structural engineers TT-CBM. The $175 million structure would add Template:Ft2 to m2 of trading space (when opened in 1997) and house the world's largest trading floor.[26] It was nicknamed the "Arboretum" by some in reference to expansion supporter CBOT Chairman Patrick H. Arbor.[14] The logo of the CBOT is a graphic representation of a trading pit, and is featured prominently on stonework facing Clark Street and on street level barriers at the service entrance on Van Buren Street. The addition has a twelve story atrium and melds historical and contemporary design with art deco references such as setbacks, central tower, symmetrical projecting wings, pyramidal roof and abstract cascade and scallop lobby design.[27]

Renovation

Lobby mailbox at the Chicago Board of Trade.

In 2005, the building experienced an extensive $20 million renovation directed by Chicago architect Gunny Harboe, whose restoration work included Loop landmarks the Rookery Building and Reliance Building. The project included restoration of the main lobby with emphasis of the design features of the art-deco era, elevator modernization, façade renovation and cleaning, and the continued renovation of upper floor corridors and hallways.[28][29] Though impractically small for modern use, mailboxes in the lobby were restored to original condition to follow the theme of vertical lines found throughout the complex. An improved electrical infrastructure, with 10 main feeds from 7 different Commonwealth Edison electrical substations, was added in addition to redundant cooling systems and upgraded telecommunications capabilities.[30]

When the old CBOT building was demolished in 1929, two [undue weight? – discuss] Template:Ft to m tall gray granite statues of classically styled goddesses were moved from the second floor ledge above the main entrance into the gardens of the 500 acres (2 km²) estate of Arthur W. Cutten, a wheat and cotton speculator who went bankrupt during the Great Depression. One goddess represents agriculture and is shown standing with wheat and leaning on a cornucopia. The other represents industry and appears with the bow of a ship and an anvil.

The statues were found in 1978 near Glen Ellyn, Illinois by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, on land acquired from Cutten's estate. After being displayed in a parking lot at Danada Forest Preserve for several years, both were returned to the CBOT building's plaza and rededicated on June 9 2005.[10]

Pedestrian passageways

Sandwiched between the 1930 and 1982 buildings, in the space where a street was formerly located, a wide street-level walkway connects the plaza on LaSalle Street to Van Buren Street between in what would ordinarily be the building's first floor. Passing over the Van Buren Street elevated tracks, a green glass-enclosed steel frame bridge connects the lower southwest corner of the 23 story addition to the Chicago Board Options Exchange (although this bridge was closed to pedestrian traffic in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks for security reasons).

Proximity to transit

Positioned in the southwest corner of the Loop, the building is near two elevated stations of the Chicago 'L'. The Quincy station is 1 block to the west and the LaSalle/VanBuren station is located between the CBOT and the Chicago Stock Exchange. Additionally, CTA Blue Line service is provided at the Jackson and LaSalle stations, each two blocks away. Union Station stands five blocks to the west on Jackson Boulevard, providing terminal service for Amtrak and select service for Metra. Additional Metra service is provided at the LaSalle Street Station, two blocks due south.

Tenants

The CME Group occupies 33 percent of available space, while financial and trading concerns occupying 54 percent of the three-building complex. In addition to Ceres Restaurant on the first floor of the lobby, other businesses provide personal banking, insurance, travel services, beauty services, and healthcare. Throughout its history, commodities speculators, such as "Prince of the Pit" Richard Dennis, have maintained offices in the building. In 2007, the U.S. Futures Exchange, a competitor of the CBOT formerly known as Eurex US, announced a move from the Sears Tower into the 14th floor of the CBOT building.[31]

In popular culture

Visitors

The landmark has been the site of a number of visits by dignitaries, including the Prince of Wales in October 1977. In 1991, George H.W. Bush became the first President of the United States to visit the Exchange, followed by a visit from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov on May 7 1992. In 1996, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalyn toured the CBOT while campaigning for son Jack.[32] During the 1996 Democratic National Convention, U.S. Vice President Al Gore was hosted at the Exchange's Democratic Senatorial Campaign reception.[7] When U.S. President George W. Bush toured the agricultural trading floor on January 6 2006, he was hailed from the corn trading pit with "Hook 'em, Horns!", a reference to his home state of Texas.[33] Interest groups such as the Chicago Architecture Foundation provide scheduled tours showcasing the architecture and selected portions of the trading operations.

Film

Movie star Will Rogers once roped a group of men in the pit during a visit.[34] Trading operations have been used as scenes in movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off,[35] and the streetscape in the LaSalle Street canyon is used in the movies The Untouchables and Road to Perdition.[36] Film critic Roger Ebert complimented the use of the location in the 2005 film Batman Begins,[37] in which film the building was depicted as the headquarters of the fictional Wayne Enterprises.

Graphic arts

Although depicted with the tower in a Rand McNally map from 1893, later lithographs of the first 141 Jackson Street location display a red roofed building without a tower. Memorabilia of the current building is abundant, with postcards of panoramic scenes from LaSalle Street, the clock, and lighted upper decks having been produced for decades. In views from the Museum Campus, the building's crown is framed by the middle floors of the taller Sears Tower in the background. Photographer Andreas Gursky has used the location for still life prints, e.g. 1997s Chicago Board of Trade, I and 1999s Chicago Board of Trade, II.

Literature

The building and trading pits of the 1885 building were prominently featured in The Pit, the second novel by Frank Norris in the Epic of Wheat trilogy.

Life on the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade is detailed in the nonfiction 2004 book Leg The Spread: A Woman's Adventures Inside the Trillion-Dollar Boys Club of Commodities Trading (ISBN 978-0767908559) by Cari Lynn.

Events

The celebration parade for the 2005 Chicago White Sox World Series Championship officially started at the intersection of Jackson and LaSalle Streets, directly in front of the building.

Awards

  • 1985: the 23-story addition won the Best Structure Award from the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois.
  • 2006: the building was awarded the Landmarks Illinois’ annual Real Estate and Building Industries Council award for its preservation efforts.[38]
  • 2006: the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago presented the CBOT building with The Office Building of the Year award recognizing the high quality of office space and excellence in management of the building.[39]

Position in Chicago's skyline

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "National Register of Historical Places - Illinois (IL), Cook County". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-03-02.
  2. ^ "Chicago Board of Trade Building". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
  3. ^ "National Historic Landmarks Survey: Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Illinois" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  4. ^ "Chicago Board of Trade Building". National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-03-30.
  5. ^ Brian Louis (2007-07-13). "For sale in Chicago: Huge room, no windows". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2007-07-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b c "Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago". Emporis. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Text "date" ignored (help)
  7. ^ a b "Our History". Chicago Board of Trade. 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  8. ^ "Vicinity of the Board of Trade (12. The Board of Trade Building)". The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  9. ^ "Architectural Details" (PDF). The Chicago Architecture Foundation. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  10. ^ a b Roeder, David (2005-06-09). "CBOT statues return home from suburbs". Chicago Sun-Times. FindArticles. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Bruegmann, p. 23
  12. ^ Bruegmann, p. 34
  13. ^ a b "20 Miles of Wire Rope in Chicago's Board of Trade Building". inventionfactory.com. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  14. ^ a b Gidel, Susan Abbott (December 1999/January 2000). "History of CBOT". Futures Industry Magazine. futuresindustry.org. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Saliga, Pauline A. (ed.), pg. 113.
  16. ^ Bruegmann, p. 39
  17. ^ Bruegmann, p. 35
  18. ^ "Art Inventories Catalogue (Chicago Board of Trade Building Reliefs: Babylonian Farmer), (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution. 2004. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  19. ^ "Art Inventories Catalogue (Chicago Board of Trade Building Reliefs: American Indian), (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution. 2004. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  20. ^ "Art Inventories Catalogue (Chicago Board of Trade Building Reliefs:), (Agriculture and Industry), (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution. 2004. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  21. ^ "Ceres in Chicago". Time Magazine. 1930-06-16. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ Artner, Alan G. (2004-07-28). Gems "A dozen visual gems you probably won't find listed in a travel guide". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ "CBOT Leases 1930 Trading Floor to PEAK6". PEAK6 Investments, LP. 2004-02-24. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
  24. ^ "Chicago Board of Trade". SkyscraperPage.com. 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
  25. ^ "Chicago Board of Trade Addition". Emporis.com. 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-22.
  26. ^ "A Chronological History of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)". ThinkQuest. Oracle Education Foundation. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  27. ^ Saliga, Pauline A. (ed.), pg. 159–60.
  28. ^ Kamin, Blair (2006-08-06). "DECO RESURRECTION". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ "North Building Renovations". Chicago Board of Trade. 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  30. ^ "Chicago Board of Trade Building Restored to Original Brilliance". Realcomm. 2006-12-14. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ Saphir, Ann (2007-02-20). "Former Eurex US to move to CBOT building". ChicagoBusiness. Crain Communications, Inc. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ Foster, Stella (2006-08-01). "Stella's Column". Chicago Sun-Times. City Club of Chicago. Retrieved 2007-02-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  33. ^ "President Discusses Strong and Growing Economy". The White House-Office of the Press Secretary. 2006-01-06. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ "Riot and Rememberance". Houghton Mifflin. 2002-02-22. Retrieved 2007-07-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. ^ "Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Filming Locations". Britannia Film Archives. 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
  36. ^ Nance, Kevin (2006-06-15). "Chicago architecture at home in 'Lake House': Movie takes". Chicago Sun-Times. FindArticles. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  37. ^ Ebert, Roger (June 13 2005). "Batman Begins". rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2007-02-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ "CBOT Receives Landmarks Illinois' Annual Real Estate and Building Award". Chicago Board of Trade. 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  39. ^ "CBOT Receives Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago Building of the Year award". Chicago Board of Trade. 2005. Retrieved 2007-07-14.

References

  • Bruegmann, Robert, "Holabird & Roche, Holabird & Root," Garland Publishing, Inc., 1991, ISBN 0-8240-3974-2.
  • Saliga, Pauline A. (ed.), "The Sky's The Limit: A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers," 1990, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., ISBN 0-8478-1179-4.

External links

Template:Geolinks-US-streetscale

Preceded by
Saint Michael's Church
 Tallest Building in Chicago
1885 – 1895 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Tallest Building in Chicago
1930 – 1965 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chicago_Board_of_Trade_Building&oldid=148432113"