Leiter II Building
- Architect
- William LeBaron Jenney
- Year
- 1891
- City
- Chicago, IL
Built in 1891 for real-estate investor Levi Z. Leiter, the Second Leiter Building was designed by William LeBaron Jenney with a steel skeleton frame — one of the earliest commercial buildings of its kind still standing in the United States, engineered to be fireproof. Leiter leased the building to the department store Siegel, Cooper and Company, and from 1931 to 1986 it served as the downtown flagship of Sears, Roebuck and Company.
the building
Steel skeleton frame. Jenney's structural innovation here was a full metal skeleton frame carrying the building's loads, engineered to make the structure fireproof — among the earliest surviving examples of that construction method in the country, and a direct forerunner of the modern steel-frame skyscraper.
A department-store address. The building has carried several identities over its life: leased first to Siegel, Cooper and Company for about seven years, then to various tenants, before becoming the downtown flagship of Sears, Roebuck and Company from 1931 until Sears closed the store in 1986.
the style
The building is considered a landmark of the Chicago school of architecture, the movement defined by exposed steel-frame structure and, here, a prominent State Street facade with large plate-glass windows.
the architect
William LeBaron Jenney was a pioneer of steel-frame construction in Chicago; here he used a full metal skeleton to make the building fireproof, a hallmark of the innovations that earned him a place at the head of the Chicago school of architecture.
significance
A National Historic Landmark and Chicago Landmark (L-25), also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, designated January 14, 1997. It's remembered as one of the earliest surviving commercial buildings built with a metal skeleton frame in the United States.
nearby
- Harold Washington Library
- Manhattan Building
- Old Colony Building
- Auditorium Building
- 333 South Wabash
- Buckingham Building