LaSalle-Wacker Building
- Architect
- Holabird & Root
- Year
- 1930
- Style
- Art Deco
- City
- Chicago, IL
- Collection
- chicago deco
The LaSalle-Wacker Building is a 41-story skyscraper completed in 1930 at the north end of the LaSalle Street canyon, designed by Holabird & Root with Andrew Rebori as associate architect. Originally planned at 37 stories, the developer expanded the site by buying an adjoining L-shaped lot, allowing the tower to grow taller before it opened as an office building clad in limestone and granite.
the building
The rooftop beacon. A beacon atop the building could once be seen from as far as 200 miles away, and the tower is lit from below at night with its peak typically washed in cobalt blue, a nighttime illumination scheme it shared with the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, Jewelers Building, Palmolive Building, and Chicago Board of Trade Building.
On screen and on air. The building appeared as a backdrop in the 2005 film Batman Begins, and from 1954 to 1995 it housed the studios of WFMT, America's first radio superstation.
the style
Holabird & Root designed the tower, with Andrew Rebori as associate architect, in a stepped Art Deco form clad in limestone and granite that culminates in the illuminated beacon at its peak.
More on Art Decothe architect
Holabird & Root was a prominent Chicago architecture firm; here the firm worked alongside associate architect Andrew Rebori on the LaSalle-Wacker Building's design.
nearby
- 77 West Wacker Drive
- James R. Thompson Center
- Trustees System Service Building
- Reid, Murdoch and Company Building
- Randolph Tower
- Leo Burnett Building