Smurfit-Stone Building (Chicago, Illinois)
N 41° 53.089 W 087° 37.499
16T E 448147 N 4637176
Smurfit-Stone Building, 177 m tall skyscraper in Chicago, is thanks to its unmistakable shape also known as the "Diamond Building". Smurfit-Stone is not tall, but its architecture creates from it one of the most significant landmarks of the City..
Waymark Code: WM6HNE
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/07/2009
Views: 26
One of Chicago's signature skyscrapers, what the Smurfit-Stone building lacks in height, it more than makes up for in style. Its gleaming white exterior is accented with dark pinstripes of windows. Its orientation embraces Lake Michigan just a few hundred meters away, while at the same time it's characteristic slanted roof mimics, mocks, or yearns to be part of the sailboat crowd in the nearby Chicago Harbor.
The Citicorp Center in New York and other skyscrapers have experimented with slanted roofs. What makes the Smurfit-Stone building special is the orientation of the slant. The architects didn't merely take a square and cut a wedge out of it like a children's block. They cut it on an angle, using a simple subtractive motion to create a diamond shape in the sky. Closer examination reveals that it isn't even a simple diamond, but rather two nearly identical triangles, but that is a detail lost on most observers. What they delight in is the notion that the building is still not done inventing itself. That it is growing with a leading angle like a massive lily sprouting on the lakeshore. Others fail to see the beauty and whimsy intrinsic to this building. Instead, they see it as an affront to the other classic Chicago architecture on Michigan Avenue.