Railway Exchange Building - Chicago, IL - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The terra cotta ornament on this building is very worth seeing, with many of the details I have posted visible right at the entryway or in the vestibule. The lobby is designed to imitate the lobby of the Rookery and is very dramatic as well. It was designed by Daniel Burnham, an architect and city planner renowned for his work developing the city of Chicago and particularly for his work on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

The Chicago Architecture Center offers a history of this building:

"Chicago has long been an important railroad center, beginning with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad in 1848. By 1900, there were six passenger terminals downtown, and 15,000 people worked for the railroads. As a result of this large employee population, administrators needed affordable office space.

"The Santa Fe Railroad approached the renowned architecture firm of D.H. Burnham to solve this problem. The proposed new Railway Exchange Building would be shared by the Santa Fe and several other railroads. Burnham’s designs for the World’s Columbian Exposition, just 11 years earlier, popularized the Greek and Roman-inspired Classical architectural styles in Chicago. The glazed white terra cotta of the Railway Exchange echoes the famed White City. Like many tall office buildings of the time, it’s vertically organized with a heavy base, a repeating shaft and an ornate capital—like a column.

"Burnham, along with chief designer Frederick Dinkelberg, went to great lengths to bring light and air inside. The entire building wraps around a central light well, like a square doughnut, with a glass atrium capping the grand two-story lobby. The steel skeleton frame allows for larger windows, and the projecting bays increase the amount of light streaming inside, bringing great visual interest to the building’s facade.

"Burnham immediately moved his firm into the building upon completion. His offices offered commanding views of Michigan Avenue and Lake Michigan. The railroad corporations who once occupied the building moved out over time, and today a number of well-known architecture firms—as well as the Chicago Architecture Foundation—formerly call the building home."

(visit link)

Street address: 224 S. Michigan Ave Chicago, IL 60604 County / Borough / Parish: Cook Year listed: 1982 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture, Commerce Periods of significance: 1900-1924 Historic function: Commerce/Trade Current function: Business Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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