John Deere Building - Moline, IL
N 41° 28.642 W 090° 25.546
15T E 714936 N 4594950
An impressive building within a wooded setting.
Waymark Code: WM3ZNY
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/12/2008
Views: 118
Constructed in 1963, this modern style building sits upon a 680- acre landscaped woodland. One of the man-made lakes contains several mute swans. Visiting ducks and geese fly in and out frequently.
This is the World Headquarters for John Deere and Company, a manufacturer of farming equipment. It is located at One John Deere Place, Moline, IL 61265.
Facades are articulated by external louvers hung from extended steel detailing. The weathering steel produces its own cinnamon brown protective coat.
John Deere, a Vermont blacksmith, settled in Grand Detour, IL in 1837 and set up his business. While working in his shop, Deere heard farmers lament that the rich Illinois soil stuck to the wooden and iron plows they had brought from the East. Deere tackled the problem and shaped a steel plow out of a discarded saw blade. The soil slid smoothly off the highly polished steel surface, and as the demand for his plows increased, Deere began production using steel imported from England and later from Pennsylvania. High freight costs forced him to seek better transportation facilities, and in 1847 he moved from Grand Detour to Moline, Illinois, on the Mississippi River, where he began manufacturing plows in quantity.
Eero Saarinen, Architect for this building was also the designer of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
In 1961, at the age of 51, Saarinen died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just one week before the construction began on the site for the Deere & Company headquarters building.
Information was aquired from the two web sites listed below and an Illinois Historical Marker.