Two Prudential Plaza (Chicago, Illinois)
N 41° 53.125 W 087° 37.362
16T E 448336 N 4637241
Two Prudential Plaza, 303 m tall skyscraper in the Chicago Loop area of Chicago, was built in 1990 and is one of most interesting parts of the City's skyline. Two Prudential Plaza is currently the 5th-tallest building in Chicago...
Waymark Code: WM6HNQ
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/07/2009
Views: 16
Reminiscent of a number of other skyscrapers around the world, Two Prudential Plaza successfully takes the art moderne aesthetic and updates it for a new generation.
The building rises from an artificial hillside plaza as a dramatic shaft piercing the sky. Along the way it goes through several chevron-shaped setbacks until it reaches the top - a diamond shape created by chamfering the corners of the block. The building's grid pattern is represented in these cuts as stripes as if the architect cut into a layered candy. Further visual interest is generated by long glass channels which run down all four sides of the building, leaping over the setbacks like crystal waterfalls that sprout from gables at the roofline. The entire affair is topped with a short spire, a spike really, which helps end the building's skyward ambitions.
One of the few things this building has going against it is its neighbors. It is blocked in by the dated (though beloved) One Prudential Plaza, and overshadowed by the Aon Center to the north. There are few angles from which this building can be fully appreciated...