Pontiac Building
- Architect
- Holabird & Root
- Year
- 1891
- Style
- Chicago School
- City
- Chicago, IL
- Collection
- the chicago school
Built in 1891 at 542 South Dearborn Street in Printer's Row, the Pontiac Building is the oldest surviving downtown Chicago work by the architecture firm Holabird & Roche. The fourteen-story building is a steel-frame structure clad in brick, an early, clear statement of the Chicago School's structural approach to the tall office building.
the building
Two different facades. The Dearborn Street front carries three tiers of bay windows, while the Federal Street side has just one tier of bay windows flanked by two tiers of flat windows; on both fronts the outer tiers each span two bays while the middle tier spans only one.
Terra cotta and limestone trim. Terra cotta soffits sit beneath the window tiers at the second floor, and the building's cornice is terra cotta as well, while the first two floors are fronted with limestone piers topped with decorative capitals.
the style
The Pontiac is a straightforward Chicago School design: a steel skeleton frame wrapped in brick, with the structural logic left legible in the building's tiered bay windows rather than hidden behind historical ornament.
More on Chicago Schoolthe architect
The Pontiac Building is the oldest surviving downtown Chicago work by architects Holabird & Roche.
significance
The Pontiac Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976, in recognition of its architectural significance as an early Chicago School skyscraper.
nearby
- Manhattan Building
- Harold Washington Library
- Old Colony Building
- Leiter II Building
- Lakeside Press Building
- Metropolitan Correctional Center Chicago building