Delaware Building
- Architect
- Wheelock & Thomas,2 story add + atrium 1889 Huber
- Year
- 1872
- Style
- Italianate
- City
- Chicago, IL
The Delaware Building rose in 1872 during the frantic rebuilding after the Great Chicago Fire, and it's now one of the few structures downtown that still reads as a genuine 1870s survivor. Wheelock & Thomas designed the original five-story building with a precast concrete facade, an early use of that material, wrapped in an Italianate style rare among the Loop's later steel-and-glass towers.
the building
Storefront base, added floors. The first two stories were built mostly of metal and glass to create display windows for ground-floor shops. In 1889 architect Huber added two more floors on top and removed three bays from the Randolph Street facade to accommodate the change.
the style
The Delaware Building is one of the last Italianate fronts left in the Loop, giving it an unusually 1870s texture in a district largely rebuilt with more modern structures. Its precast concrete facade was an early use of that material downtown.
More on Italianatesignificance
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 18, 1974, and designated a Chicago Landmark on November 23, 1983, recognition of its rare surviving 1870s character in the modern Loop.
nearby
- Oliver Building
- Nederlander Theatre
- Daley Center
- McCarthy Building
- Chicago Theatre
- Page Brothers Building