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| Chicago Board of Trade | |
| U.S. National Historic Landmark | |
 The Chicago Board of Trade Building was Chicago's tallest from 1930 until 1965. | |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois USA |
|---|---|
| Built | 1930 |
| Architect | Holabird & Root |
| Added to NRHP | June 16, 1978 |
The Chicago Board of Trade Building houses the Chicago Board of Trade, the world's largest futures and options exchange. It is located at 141 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, in the Chicago Loop community area. First designated a Chicago Landmark on May 4, 1977, the building was subsequently listed as a National Historic Landmark on June 16, 1978, which added the building to the National Register of Historic Places. The tallest building in Chicago for over 35 years, the structure is known for its art-deco architecture with large scale stone carving and is a popular sightseeing attraction. The building has won awards for preservation efforts and office management.
History
Early locations
On April 3, 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) opened for business at 101 South Water Street. When 122 members were added in 1856, the location was moved to the corner of South Water and LaSalle streets. After another temporary relocation west on South Water Street in 1860, the first permanent home was established inside the Chamber of Commerce Building on the corner of LaSalle and Washington in 1865. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed this building. The exchange reopened in a temporary location two weeks after the fire in a 90-ft by 90-ft wigwam at the intersection of Washington and Market, before reclaiming its home in a new building at the Chamber of Commerce location one year later.
Permanent home
A new home for the CBOT began construction in 1882 and opened at the current location on May 1, 1885. It was designed by architect William W. Boyington, known previously for his work on the Chicago Water Tower. Built from steel and Maine granite, with a rear of enameled brick, the edifice was 10 stories tall and featured a 320 foot tower containing a large clock and 4,500 pound bell, which was topped by a 9 foot by 8 foot copper weather vane in the shape of a ship. Construction cost $1.8 million. With 4 elevators and a great hall 80 feet high decorated by a stained-glass skylight and ornate stone balusters, it was the first commercial building in Chicago to feature electric lighting. In was also the first building in the city to exceed 300 feet in height and at the time was the tallest building in Chicago. In 1895, the clock tower was removed and the "tallest building in Chicago" record was then held by the 302 foot tall Masonic Temple Building. Built on caissons surrounded by muck, the trading house was rendered structurally unsound in the 1920s when construction began across the street on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The 1885 building was subsequently demolished in 1929, and the exchange temporarily relocated to Clark and Van Buren streets while while a new building was constructed at the LaSalle and Jackson site.
Building details
Architecture
Commissioned in 1925 to architects Holabird & Root, it was built by general contractors Hegeman & Harris for $12 millon. Clad in gray Indiana limestone, topped with copper pyramid roof, and standing on a footprint running 174 feet east and west on Jackson Boulevard and 240 feet north and south on LaSalle Street, the 605 foot tall art-deco styled building opened on June 9, 1930. Its twelfth home, the Chicago Board of Trade has operated continuously at the location since the opening, initially occupying 70,000 of an available 600,000 square feet of floorspace, and dedicating 19,000 square feet to the world's largest trading floor. The advent of steel frame structural system provided the ability for completely vertical construction, but as with many skyscrapers of the era, the exterior was designed with multiple setbacks at increasing heights, which served to allow additional light into the ever increasing concrete valleys in urban cores. At night, the setbacks are upwardly lit by floodlights, further highlighting the structure's vertical elements. Interior decoration includes polished surfaces throughout, use of black and white marble, prominent vertical hallway trim, and an open three-story lobby which housed the world's largest light fixture in opening years. Though One LaSalle Street had five more floors, the CBOT building was the first in Chicago to exceed a height of 600 feet. After surpassing the Chicago Temple Building, it was the tallest in Chicago until the Richard J. Daley Center was completed in 1965. It remains the tallest art-deco building outside of New York City. Known from work on the Brooklyn Bridge, the family factory of John A. Roebling supplied much of the 20 miles of wire rope used in the building and all cables used in 23 Otis elevators.
Artwork
Sculptural work by Alvin Meyer, the onetime leader of Holabird & Root's sculpture department, is prominent on the buildings facade. Adjacent to each side of the 13 foot diameter clock facing LaSalle Street are hooded figures, an Egyptian holding grain and a Native American holding corn. Similar figures are repeated at the uppermost corners of the central tower. About 30 feet above the street, representations of bulls protrude from the building's north side and a lesser amount on the east side, a reference to a bull market.
The main building is capped by a 31 foot tall aluminum statue of the Roman goddess of grain, Ceres, as a nod to the exchange's heritage as a commodity market. Assembled from 40 pieces, the statue does not have a face adorning the head. At nearly forty-five stories tall, sculptor John H. Storrs believed onlookers from nearby structures would be at too great a distance to clearly see the statue's face.
Removed from the agricultural trading room in 1973, artist John W. Norton's three story mural of Ceres shown bare-breasted in a field of grain underwent extensive restoration in Spring Grove, Illinois by Louis Pomerantz before being displayed in the atrium of the 1980's addition.
Trading floor
In the issue released on June 16, 1930, Time reported on visitors carrying ripe wheat heads awed by the views of the 6 story tall 113 ft. x 163 ft. trading room directly above the lobby and behind the large windows below the clock facing LaSalle Street. Traded items are grouped in "pits" such as the corn pit, soybean pit or wheat pit. For the CBOT, the individual pits are raised octangonal structures where open outcry trading occurs. Steps up the outside and down the inside of the octagon provide an amphitheater atmosphere, and enable a large number of traders to see and communicate during trading hours.
Expansion
In 1982, a 275 foot 23-story addition topped by an octagonal ornament shaped siliarly to the terraced trading pits, and designed in a postmodern style by Helmut Jahn, was added to the south side. Colored black and silver, with a sunlit atrium on the 12th floor facing the south wall of the older structure, the annex provided a 4 story granite lined agricultural trading floor, then the world's largest at 32,000 sq. feet. Even as the Sydney Futures Exchange and other markets were ceasing outcry trading, Mayor Richard M. Daley led the groundbreaking on January 17, 1995, for additional expansion into a five-story building to the east designed by Fujikawa Johnson. The $175 million structure would add 60,000 square feet of trading space when opened in 1997 and house the world's largest trading floor, nicknamed the “Arboretum” by some in reference to expansion supporter CBOT Chairman Patrick H. Arbor. The logo of the CBOT is a graphic representation of a trading pit, and is featured prominently on stonework facing Clark Street on street level barriers at the service entrance on VanBuren Street.
Renovation
In 2005, the building experienced an extensive $20 million renovation directed by Chicago architect Gunny Harboe, whose restoration work included Loop landmarks the Rookery Building and Reliance Building. The project included restoration of the main lobby with emphasis of the design features of the art-deco era, elevator modernization, façade renovation and cleaning, and the continued renovation of upper floor corridors and hallways. An improved electrical infrastructure, with 10 feeds from 7 different Commonwealth Edison electrical substations, was added in addition to redundant cooling systems and upgraded telecommunications capabilities.
When the old CBOT building was demolished in 1929, the two 5-1/2 ton and 12 foot tall granite statues of classically styled godesses from an unknown sculptor were moved from the second floor ledge above the razed building's main entrance were into the gardens of Arthur W. Cutten, a wheat and cotton speculator that was bankrupted during the Great Depression. One goddess represents agriculture and is shown leaning on a cornucopia. The other represents industry and appears with the bow of a ship and an anvil. The statues were found in 1978 near Glen Ellyn, Illinois by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, on land acquired from Cutten's estate. After being displayed in a preserve parking lot at Danada Forest Preserve for several years, both were returned to the CBOT building's plaza and rededicated on June 9, 2005.
Pedestrian passageways
Passing over the VanBuren Street elevated tracks, a green glass enclosed steel frame bridge connects the southwest corner of the 23-story addition to the Chicago Stock Exchange. The building is connected to surrounding properties via underground pedestrian passageways.
Proximity to transit
Positioned in the southwest corner of the Loop, the building is closeby to two elevated stations of the Chicago 'L'. The Quincy station is one block to the west, with the LaSalle/VanBuren station located one block south. Additionally, CTA Blue Line service is provided at the Jackson and LaSalle stations, each two blocks away. Union Station stands five blocks to the west on Jackson Boulevard, providing terminal service for Amtrak and select service for Metra. Additional Metra service is provided at the LaSalle Street Station, two blocks due south.
Tenants
The Chicago Board of Trade occupies 33% of available space, with financial and trading concerns occupying 54% of the 3 building complex. In addition to Ceres Restaurant in the lobby, other busineses provide personal banking, insurance, travel services, beauty services, and healthcare. Throughout its history commodities speculators, such as "Prince of the Pit" Richard Dennis, have maintained offices in the building to remain close to trading. In 2007, the U.S. Futures Exchange, a competitor of the CBOT formerly known as Eurex US, announced a move from the Sears Tower into the 14th floor.
In popular culture
Visitors
The landmark has also been honored by the presence of dignitaries, including the first President of the United States to visit the Exchange, George H.W. Bush in 1991, followed by a visit from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov on May 7, 1992. In 1996, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalyn toured the CBOT when campaining for son Jack. During the 1996 Democratic National Convention, U.S. Vice President Al Gore was hosted at the Exchange's Democratic Senatorial Campaign reception. When U.S. President George W. Bush toured the agricultural trading floor on January 6, 2006, he was hailed from the corn trading pit with "Hook 'em, Horns!", a reference to his home state of Texas. Interest groups such as the Chicago Architecture Foundation provide scheduled tours showcasing the architecture and select portions of the trading operations.
Film
Trading operations have also been used as scenes in movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the streetscape in the LaSalle Street canyon is used in the movies The Untouchables and Road to Perdition., Film critic Roger Ebert complemented use of the location in the 2005 film Batman Begins, and the building was graphically depicted as the headquarters of the fictional Wayne Enterprises.
Graphic arts
Depicted with the tower in a Rand McNally map from 1893, later lithographs of the first 141 Jackson Street location display a red roofed building without a tower. Memorabilia of the current building also is poupular, with postcards of panoramic scenes from LaSalle Street, the clock, and lighted upper decks having been produced for decades. Photographer Andreas Gursky has used the location for still life prints, e.g. 1997s Chicago Board of Trade, I and 1999s Chicago Board of Trade, II.
Literature
The building and trading pits of the 1885 building were prominently featured in The Pit, the second novel by Frank Norris in the Epic of Wheat trilogy.
Awards
- 1985 - the 23-story addition won the Best Structure Award from the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois.
- 2006 - the building was awarded the Landmarks Illinois’ annual Real Estate and Building Industries Council award for its preservation efforts.
- 2006 - the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago presented the CBOT building with The Office Building of the Year award recognizing the high quality of office space and excellence in management of the building.
Notes
- Kamin, Blair (2006-08-06). "DECO RESURRECTION". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2007-02-25.
- "Chicago Board of Trade Building". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
- "National Historic Landmarks Survey: Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Illinois" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "Early History". Retrieved 2007-02-24.
- "Original Board of Trade building". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "Architectural Details" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-02-24.
- "Original Chicago Board of Trade Building". Retrieved 2007-02-24.
- "Original CBOT floorspace". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "History of CBOT". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "20 Miles of Wire Rope". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "Time references building artwork". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "Time references Ceres statue". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- Gems http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0407280227jul28,1,3550140.story?coll=chi-entertainment-utl=Visual Gems. Retrieved 2007-02-26.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help); Missing or empty|title=(help) - "Ceres in Chicago". Time Magazine. 1930-06-16. Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "Time notes size of trading room". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "Chronological History of CBOT". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "Aboretum nickname". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "2005 Renovations". 2005. Retrieved 2007-02-24.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - "Infrastructure improvements". Retrieved 2007-02-24.
- "Sculpture replacement". Retrieved 2007-02-24.
- "Eurex moving to CBOT". Retrieved 2007-02-27.
- "Jimmy Carter visit". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "Prominent Visitors". Retrieved 2007-02-22.
- "President hailed from corn pit". Retrieved 2007-02-27.
- "Filming Location for Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Retrieved 2007-02-26.
- "Road to Perdition locations". Retrieved 2007-02-25.
- "Ebert comments on Batman Begins". Retrieved 2007-02-25.
- "Filming Location for Batman Begins". Retrieved 2007-02-25.
- "CBOT Receives Landmarks Illinois' Annual Real Estate and Building Award". Retrieved 2007-02-21.
- "CBOT Receives Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago Buidling of the Year award". Retrieved 2007-02-22.
See also
External links
Official Building Page from CBOT.com Template:Geolinks-US-streetscale
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