Carbide and Carbon Building
- Architect
- Burnham Brothers, Inc.
- Year
- 1929
- Style
- Art Deco
- City
- Chicago, IL
- Collection
- chicago deco
The Carbide and Carbon Building at 230 North Michigan Avenue is a 37-story, 503-foot Art Deco tower completed in 1929 by the Burnham Brothers, Hubert Burnham and Daniel Burnham Jr., sons of Daniel Burnham, as the regional office of Union Carbide and Carbon Co. It was built by the Paschen Brothers construction family and designated a Chicago Landmark in 1996.
the building
Black granite and gold terra cotta. The tower is clad in black granite at the base rising into green and gold terra cotta, trimmed with gold leaf and bronze, giving the building its distinctive dark, jewel-toned Art Deco skin on Michigan Avenue.
Hotel conversion. A $106 million renovation led by Lucien Lagrange & Associates converted the office tower into the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago, which opened in 2004 with 383 rooms and 13 suites; the hotel closed in 2017 and reopened in 2018 as the St. Jane Chicago, named for the Chicago social activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams.
the style
The building's Art Deco design uses dark granite, green-and-gold terra cotta, and gold leaf and bronze trim to give Union Carbide and Carbon's regional office a lustrous presence on Michigan Avenue.
More on Art Decothe architect
The Burnham Brothers, Hubert Burnham and Daniel Burnham Jr., were the sons of architect Daniel Burnham; they designed the tower under the firm name Burnham Brothers, Inc.
significance
The Carbide and Carbon Building was designated a Chicago Landmark on May 9, 1996, decades before its 2001-2004 conversion into a hotel, first as the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago and, since 2018, as the St. Jane Chicago.
nearby
- Chicago Motor Club Building
- Virgin Hotels Chicago
- Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist
- Old Republic Building
- Old Dearborn Bank Building
- Mather Tower