Municipal Courts Building
- Style
- Chicago School
- City
- Chicago, IL
- Collection
- the chicago school
The Municipal Courts Building, also called the Lake View Building, is a skyscraper at 116 S. Michigan Avenue built from 1906 to 1907 as a temporary home for Chicago's Municipal Court. Developer Jacob L. Kesner built it on a strip of land only 40 feet wide, one of the few landowners willing to grant the court a short-term lease.
the building
A rushed, contested deal. The building was finished later than planned, offered less square footage than promised, and charged higher rent than a competing warehouse offer — irregularities that prompted Mayor Edward Dunne to open an ethics investigation into how the contract had been approved.
Built in two phases. Originally 12 stories, the building lost its anchor tenant when the Municipal Court moved out in 1911; Kesner then added five more stories, bringing it to its present height.
the style
Cataloged as Chicago School architecture, seen here in a slender skyscraper built on a lot only 40 feet wide.
More on Chicago Schoolsignificance
Added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 29, 1985.
nearby
- Peoples Gas Building
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Chapin and Gore Building
- Symphony Center
- Gage Group
- Railway Exchange Building