Carbon and Carbide Building
Life Span: 1929-Present
Location: 230 N. Michigan avenue
Architect: Burnham Brothers
CARBIDE & CARBON building, at 230 N. Michigan avenue, on the southwest corner of E. South Water street, built in 1929, is 40 stories high, with two basements, on rock caissons. Burnham Brothers were the architects and Charles Harkins the engineer.
Chicago Tribune, January 30, 1927
What will be Boul Mich’s tallest and most monumental structure between Madison street and the link bridge is announced for the southwest corner of East South Water street and the boulevard. Henry Paschen of Paschen Bros., builders and contractors, yesterday secured this site and will erect a twenty-nine story Gothic skyscraper costing several millions.
Architect Zachary T. Davis has designed one of the most imposing and interesting structures to be found in the country. Every office in the huge building will have outside light and air. In other words. there’ll be no center well, with several hundred offices having their windows looking into an inside court. The building will be a “U” shaped, with the open court facing north, so that all tenants will have outside exposures.
Express Lifts to 29th Floor.
Another interesting feature will be the running of four express elevators direct from the boulevard level to the topmost story without a change. The main building will be twenty-three stories high, with local an express elevators. Soaring above this will be a setback tower of six stories.
The use of setbacks, by the way, has been carried out by Mr. Davis on a much more extensive scale than usual. His combination of sweeping perpendicular lines with setbacks gives the big new Boul Mich skyscraper a smashing air of distinction which should make it one of, the distinctive architectural attractions of the city.
Mr. Pasclren hasn’t yet christened his new skyscraper. This is to be announced later. He has decided, however, that all the outside walls will be of the same material, probably of Bedford stone. There’ll be no rear or side walls of common brick to mar the architectural ensemble.
Total Rental $8,200,000.
The site will front eighty-four feet on the boulevard and the same distance on widened Garland court, on the west. It will have a north frontage on East South Water street of 131½ feet. It has been leased by Mr. Paschen from Clara G. Lydon and Kate A. Lawler for ninety-five years at a total rental of approximately $8,200,000.
The north section of the site, 50×131½, was acquired by Thomas F. Keeley in 196 for $150,000 and the south portion was secured in 1923 through a ninety-nine year lease from the heirs of the Quan estate by Clara G. Lydon and Kate A. Lawler, sisters of Mr. Keeley, at a term rental averaging $17,000 annually.
The corner building and land was once occupied by a hotel known as the Fort Dearborn and was conveyed by Mr. Keeley to his sisters, Clara and Kate, in the settlement of the estate of Michael Keeley. founder the Keeley Brewing company. This is one of several pieces of property owned by Clara G. Lydon and Kate A. Lawler. This particular property has not been occupied for commercial purposes for several years.
Just recently the first floor Wan hidden from public gaze by a huge billboard telling the world why it should consume a certain brand of candy bar. It is claimed that the terms of Mr. Paschen’s lease call for the highest rental so far obtained for property in this locality.
Emphasizes Building Activity. James J. Kelley was attorney for the Lydon and Lawler interests in negotiating the lease and David Levinson, of Sonnensehein. Louteman & Levinson. represented Mr. Paschen. There were no brokers in the deal.
The decision of Mr. Paschen to erect his huge building at Michigan and East South Water calls attention again to the unparalleled skyscraper development at the northeast corner of the loop district. Four big structures are under way or nearing completion within two blocks of Mr. Paschen’s tower and several others are centert, plated for the immediate neighberhood.
Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1928
REPORT UNION CARBIDE TO BUILD ON MICH. BOUL.
A $3,000,000 skyscraper is to be built at the southwest corner of South Water street and Michigan avenue in the near future and will be occupied in large part by the Union Carbide and Carbon corporation, according to reports current yesterday.
At present the corporation occupies space in three loop buildings, and the tentative plans Indicate that 60 per cent of the new structure will be devoted to their needs. The site is owned by Paschen Brothers, contractors, who obtained it from the Keeley and Quan estates on a ninety-nine year lease.
The old building on the land has been unoccupied since the Wacker drive improvement waa completed..
- Carbon and Carbide Building under construction looking SE towards Grant Park, 1929.
Chicago Tribune May 13, 1928
Nearly a year and a half ago, on Jan. 30, 1927, to be exact, this department printed a story and picture pf a twenty-nine story office building to be erected at the southwest corner of Michigan and East South Water street by Henry Paschen of Paschen Bros. Since that time owners, architects, and the height of the project have changed.
Daniel A. Coffey and Alexander F. McKeown have acquired the leasehold from Mr. Paschen, and are having plans completed by D. H. Burnham & Co. for a forty story structure.
The Union Carbide and Carbon corporation is not to move its general offices from New York and occupy the new Boul Mich tower, as was announced by a morning paper last week. The Oxweld Acetylene company and other subsidiaries, however, are to occupy ten floors for offices and a ground floor store for display purposes. For this reason the structure is to be known as the “Carbide and Carbon building.”
Work to Start at Once.
The Carbide tower will represent a total investment reported to be approximately $4,750,000. The Greenebaum Sons Investment company has underwritten a $3,400,000 first mortgage bond issue at 6 per cent. Construction is set to start at once, with completion set for April 1, 1929.
Although color is fast becoming an important factor in the sale of most American products, owners and architects have overlooked to a noticeable extent its use in buildings. The Carbide tower, however, will be an exception, for D. H. Burnham & Co. have designed a structure to be entirely in green and gold, with a black base. It will be 508 feet above sidewalk level, it is claimed.
To Be in Green and Gold
The exterior walls will be of the same materials on all sides. The first three stories will be of highly polished black granite; the balance of the building will be faced with dark green terra cotta, with various lighter shades worked into the design. Gold faced terra cotta will be interpolated with the green to emphasize certain decorative features. These will be flood-lighted.
The lobby will be two stories high, with marble floors and walls and with ceiling of ornamental plaster in colors. Typical corridors will have marble wainscoting; all wood trim throughout will be of American walnut. The entire first basement will be used for automobile storage, with a capacity of forty cars.
Paschen Bros. have the general contract. The loan was negotiated by Young & Becker, Attorney were Newman, Poppenhusen, Stern & Hohnston, Sonnenschein, Berkson, Luntmann & Levinson, and Cook, Sullivan & Ricks.
The Carbide and Carbon Building belongs to this tradition which is perpetuated today by edifices such as the Sears and Quaker towers. The company openly acknowledged this, saying in a 1932 promotional piece:
- Visible by day from most parts of mid-town Chicago and flood lighted at night, the Carbide and Carbon tower serves as a distinctive and perpetual advertisement for its occupants.
As further proof that the building would remain synonymous with the integrity of the company, the brochure went on to say:
- oth the resources of this organization and its natural interest in maintaining a building worthy of housing its own Units are positive assurance that the reputation, appointments, and servicing of the building will always remain on their present high plane.
- Carbide and Carbon Building
Entrance
1929
- The forty story skyscraper shown is to be Chicago’s first experiment on a big scale with the free use of color architecture—something New York and other eastern cities have been doing for some time. It’s to be a green and gold shaft, with the gold parts flood lighted at night, and is to be erected, as originally announced more than a year ago, at the southwest corner of Michigan and South Water, from plans by D. H. Burnham & Co. Charles Morgan made this picture.
Facts
• 38 Story – 492 ft
• 23 story base – 15 story tower
• 345,000 sq ft
• The exterior is Terra Cotta & Glazed Brick
• Above the entrance is a bronze grill
• The gold on the tower is actual 24k gold
• Urban legend is the tower is based on a champagne bottle giving it its dark green color with
gold top
• The tower has a beacon which no longer is used.
- Carbon and Carbide Building blueprints iof the tower and entrance, 1928.
- Chicago Tribune
February 11, 1934
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