311 S. Wacker Dr. by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates from the air.
Image courtesy of Flicker.
311 South Wacker Drive sits just South of the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago. From the south side, the building is framed perfectly within its larger neighbor to the north. Its crown has a 70’ tall cylinder flanked by four smaller cylinders that all light up at night. There has been an ongoing myth that the crown was designed to look like the architect’s wife’s engagement ring. More elaborate tales even have the architect’s fiancé passing away during design or construction and the crown subsequently taking shape as a secret memorial to lost love. Unfortunately for this myth, the design architect from Kohn Pedersen and Fox Associates has been happily married for 45 years. The crown was actually inspired as a modern version of the crown of the Tribune Tower.
The Tribune Tower Crown.
Image courtesy of Panoramio
Carbide and Carbon Building crown by Bunham Brothers.
Image courtesy of Metroscenes.
In the waning years of Prohibition, Daniel Jr and Hubert Burnham, sons of the famous architect and city planner Daniel Burnham, were commissioned by the Union Carbide and Carbon Co to build an office tower on North Michigan Ave in Chicago. The resulting Art Deco beauty, Carbide and Carbon building, was clad in dark green terra cotta with gold leaf accents. The building now houses the Hard Rock Hotel. The prevalent design myth says the building was designed to look like a champagne bottle.
The real story is a little more interesting. The building was inspired by Raymond Hood’s American Radiator Building in New York City. Hood’s design was significantly inspired by Eliel Saarinen’s unbuilt design for the Tribune Tower in Chicago. Saarinen won second place in the competition while John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood won.
The American Radiator Building by John Raymond Hood.
Image courtesy of Skyscraper City.
Eliel Saarinen’s unbuilt Tribune Tower Competition entry.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Brothers in the 1930’s. They later left the firm to start their own. John Ogden Merrill joined them in 1939 to create Skidmore Owings & Merrill, the same firm where Suzanne started out.
The Chicago Civic Opera Building by Graham Anderson Probst & White.
Image courtesy of Chicago Architecture Info.
