Palmolive Building
- Architect
- Holabird & Root
- Year
- 1927
- Style
- Streamline Moderne
- City
- Chicago, IL
Completed in 1929 for the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company, the Palmolive Building rises 37 stories at 919 N. Michigan Avenue as one of Holabird & Root's defining Art Deco towers. Its site on the young Magnificent Mile signaled Michigan Avenue's shift from a residential boulevard to a corporate address, and its later life as headquarters for Playboy magazine gave the tower a second identity entirely.
the building
PLAYBOY on the roofline. When Playboy Enterprises bought the leasehold in 1965 and moved its editorial and business offices in, the building was renamed the Playboy Building and the word P-L-A-Y-B-O-Y was spelled out in 9-foot illuminated letters across the north and south roofline. Playboy held the lease until 1990, after which the building took the plainer name 919 North Michigan Avenue.
Offices to condos. Developer Draper and Kramer bought the building in 2001 and, working with Booth Hansen Architects, converted it to residential use. The first two floors were kept as upscale office and retail space, while the upper stories became high-end condominiums.
the style
The Palmolive Building is counted among Chicago's Art Deco and Streamline Moderne towers, part of the wave of setback skyscrapers that rose along Michigan Avenue in the years before the Depression, when Holabird & Root was among the city's leading firms working in the style.
More on Streamline Modernethe architect
Holabird & Root was one of Chicago's leading Art Deco firms of this period, and the Palmolive Building stands as one of its Michigan Avenue statements from the late 1920s.
significance
The Palmolive Building was designated a Chicago Landmark on February 16, 2000, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
nearby
- Drake Hotel
- 875 North Michigan Avenue
- Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago
- 227 East Walton Place Apartment Building
- Bryan Lathrop House
- Chicago Avenue Pumping Station