Riverside Plaza in Chicago

• Construction start: 1925
• Construction finish: 1929
• Designed by: Holabird & Root
• Type: Office Building
• Maximum Height: 302 feet / 92 meters

• This was the first private building in Chicago to incorporate a public plaza in its design. *The side of the building facing the Chicago River is decorated with important scenes from the history of journalism. Among the people depicted are Joseph Pulitzer, Joseph Medill, and Horace Greeley.
• The concourse from the plaza to the lobby used to be decorated with a 180-foot-long frieze of newspaper scenes by John Warner Norton. It was removed and put into storage in a warehouse in Wisconsin in the 1990's.

• This is the first building in Chicago to use the concept of "air rights" in order to build over a railroad right-of-way.

• Reliefs at ground level depicting the history of printing, by Alvin Meyer.

• CAIF - Chicago Architecture Info Forum

• METRA Ogilvie Transit Center
• Citigroup Center
• Madison Street Bridge
• River Center
• 10 South Canal
• Gateway Center I
• Civic Opera Building
• The Boeing Corporate Headquarters
• 550 West Washington
• Heller International Building

There are three comments.

  Actually, Benj, it's Art Deco. It is a beautiful building and it compliments the Civic Opera, across the river, very well.

Mario C. - Sunday, March 29th, 2009 @ 4:07pm  

  I love the look of this building. I pass by often on the way to work on Madison St. I think it has that Gotham City feel to it. No wonder Chicago is the new home of the Dark Knight in recent films.

I think this a totally amazing building - Friday, August 3rd, 2007 @ 11:06am  

  Gorgeous!What a beautiful example of Art Nuveau.A lovely companion to the Civic Opera House. Wonderful scalloping and other touches, carved into the sandstone. The only problem is the very bland plaza that faces the river. Hopefully just a matter of time before money and energy is devoted to adding it to the renovated plazas further south.

Benj Kanters - Sunday, April 29th, 2007 @ 6:21pm