Kluczynski Federal Building
- Architect
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- Year
- 1974
- Style
- International Style
- City
- Chicago, IL
- Collection
- mies in chicago
The John C. Kluczynski Federal Building is a 45-story, 562-foot tower at 230 South Dearborn Street, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1974 as the final piece of the Federal Center complex. It replaced the Chicago Federal Building by Henry Ives Cobb and was named for Congressman John C. Kluczynski, who represented Illinois's 5th District from 1951 until his death in office in 1975.
the building
Steel-and-glass curtain wall. The steel-framed tower is sheathed in bronze-tinted glass set into aluminum frames, with black-painted steel spandrel panels below the windows and projecting steel I-beam mullions dividing each bay, the same vocabulary Mies used across the Federal Center.
Recessed lobby. The two-story entrance lobby is recessed behind the building's steel grid, opening onto the Federal Center's plaza.
the style
Mies designed the tower in the International Style, using an exposed steel-and-glass grid without applied ornament, the same aesthetic he applied to the Federal Center's other two buildings so the complex would read as a unified whole.
More on International Stylethe architect
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed the Kluczynski Federal Building as part of the Federal Center complex, one of three towers he designed for the site alongside the Loop Station Post Office and the Dirksen Courthouse, among his major late Chicago commissions.
More on Ludwig Mies van der Rohesignificance
The Kluczynski Federal Building is a National Register of Historic Places contributing property, one of three Mies-designed structures, with the Dirksen Courthouse and the Loop Station Post Office, that make up the Federal Center.
more by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
nearby
- Monadnock Building
- Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse
- Chicago Federal Building
- Phenix Building
- Fisher Building
- Marquette Building