United Airlines Building in Chicago

• Construction finish: 1992
• Designed by: DeStefano + Partners
• Cost: $80,000,000
• Type: Skyscraper
• Stories: 50
• Maximum Height: 668 feet / 204 meters

• Rentable floor space: 959,258 square feet

• April 18, 1990: Groundbreaking
• July 26, 1991: This building tops out.
• 1995: In a Chicago Tribune poll, this building is named one of the city's ten favorite buildings (It came in #7).
• 2006: This building is renamed the United Airlines Building. The airline got $$6,600,000 in tax breaks to move its headquarters from the suburbs into this building.
• 2007: United Airlines ads a large illuminated "UNITED" sign to the top of this building.

• Architect: Ricardo Bofill
• Developer: Prime Group
• It is not uncommon for skyscrapers to skip a floor or two here and there. In most the 13th floor is skipped because of superstition. In this building the 49th floor is skipped so it can claim to be 50 stories tall.
• The cladding is Portuguese Royal granite.

• This was one of the filming locations for the movie The Negotiator.
• This was one of the filming locations for the movie A Lover For My Husband.

• Gables over the entrances that echo the pediments at the top of the building.

-"Wafer-thin granite columns seemingly glued onto its silver-tinted glass, 77 W. Wacker is disturbingly two-dimensional, a kind of paste-on Parthenon."

-Chicago Tribune, May 11, 2003

• CAIF - Chicago Architecture Info Forum

• 55 West Wacker
• 200 North Dearborn Apartments
• Waterview Tower
• Leo Burnett Building
• Clark Street Bridge
• Loop Transportation Center
• Dearborn Street Bridge
• LaSalle-Wacker Building
• Eastland Disaster Monument
• The Goodman Theater

There are six comments.

  I just love it. Combines simplicity with elegance - beautiful but not overstated. This building just mezmerized me - inside and out. Quite gorgeous when it's lit up at night too.

Shereen F. - Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 @ 8:42pm  

  My husband was the project manager for Harmon Contract Glazing on this project! Beautiful building!

Angie - Saturday, June 13th, 2009 @ 8:24am  

  This building's lobby has gained a firm place in my "best architectural memories" since visiting in 1997. And that's quite astonishing since Chicago is full of buildings that are milestones in the history of architecture.The white parian (i.e. from the greek island of Paros) marble and the soft whisper of thin water foils falling from the walls created a magically quiet atmposphere.

Leonardo Scalfi - Friday, April 24th, 2009 @ 9:33am  

  This is a wonderful building, its pattern is graceful but simple.

Sean - Friday, September 5th, 2008 @ 5:13pm  

  The only reason I can't give 5 stars is I don't know many details. But for it's beauty, it is difficult to surpass. It's combination of traditional form and modern materials give it a distinct look that mimics earlier Chicago arcitecture, and current. The way nature reflects off of extensive areas of glass makes it begin to disappear against the sky, interrupted only by it's minimalist exo-structure.

Aryn Alschuler - Friday, May 30th, 2008 @ 8:41pm  

  My girlfriend calls this the Plaid Building.

Clint - Sunday, January 20th, 2008 @ 2:21pm