Commonwealth Edison Substation
Life Span: 1930-Present
Location: 121 North Dearborn street
Architect: Holabird & Roche
Chicago Tribune, January 19, 1930
By Philip Hampson.
Once again the Commonwealth Edison company demonstrates the feasibility of making beauty one with utility in a strictly industrial building through two structures which it will erect immediately. One of the buildings is a three story substation to be erected at 121 North Dearborn street. The other is a service station to cover a large site at the northwest corner of California avenue and Addison street.
And besides helping the cause of a better looking Chicago, these buildings will fit in with President Hoover’s construction policy, for the Dearborn street structure will cost $350,000 and that on Addison, $1,000,000. a total of $1,350,000. Holabird & Root designed both buildings.
Lines to Be Simple.
Taking the Dearborn street edifice first, we find that it’s to be faced with huge slabs of Indiana limestone resting on a base of Egyptian black granite. It will be characterized by the simple vertical lines of of modern architecture. A little ornamentation will be found in bronze doors, window frames, and grills, and some sculptural work above the door and at the upper corners of the building.
The substation will front 46 feet 5 inches, with a depth of 80 feet. A future extension of 46 feet is planned for the south. Foundations are being installed capable of carrying an additional seven stories. There will be three basements, extending 40 feet below the sidewalk. Technical equipment for a substation will be installed on the various floors, which will be served by a fast freight elevator and a thirty-five ton winch for bringing in heavy machinery.
- Holabird & Root designed the above structure—a substation to be erected at 121 North Dearborn street at a cost of $350,000 for the Commonwealth Edison company. It will be three stories high for the present but will have foundations capable of carrying seven more floors. Gilbert Hall is the delineator. The “Spirit of Electricity” sculpture on the right was designed by Sylvia Shaw Judson.
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