Chicago, IL: 1958 Inland Steel Headquarters, Chicago's First Fully Air Conditioned Building

(3D Satellite)

Unlike the Sears, Hancock and IBM buildings, this building has retained the name of the corporation that built it.

Screenshot @ 0:04

3D Satellite

This was the first office building to be fully air conditioned. Because the air conditioning allowed them to use office space in the middle of the building, they showcased the strength of steel by putting the columns only along the sides and using 60' girders to provide clear span office space. "Each level boasts 177 feet by 58 feet of unobstructed, usable space....When completed in 1958, Inland Steel was the first building constructed in Chicago's Loop in more than 20 years. Its sleek sophisticated design ushered in a new era of modernity in the city. The primarily glass façade is completely devoid of ornamentation. This must have been a surprising change for Chicagoans accustomed to the richly ornamented terra cotta, brick and stone facades of the past." [ArchJourney]

Screenshot @ 1:07

Elevators, restrooms, utilities, etc. were put in an adjacent windowless tower. The service tower is sheathed in stainless steel. [InlandSteelBuilding] "The exterior columns of the building were clad with brushed stainless steel cladding. The irony was that Inland Steel were only producing carbon steel at the time of construction so the stainless steel for the building had to be purchased from another steel company." [DoubleStoneSteel]

Sceeenshot @ 1:22

sah-archipedia, higher resolution is available on the web page
"By the 1950s, Chicagoland had overtaken Pittsburgh as the nation’s steel manufacturing center, but Inland was the only company actually located in the city....As many historians have noted, this was the earliest example of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s theory of universal space employed for a multistory office building, making Inland Steel the first in a long line of glass-and-steel, unobstructed-open-plan towers. In its form, structure, and style, this typology would dominate American commercial architecture for the next two decades."

 

Mike Joyce comment on a post
I'll never forget going as a teenager downtown in 1960, I was stunned when looking up as I emerged from the subway on the Inland Steel bldg.'s Dearborn St. side A gleaming stainless steel skyscraper soared, and loomed, above me. So amazing I will never forget it. This photo doesn't do it justice.

"At its peak of production in 1978, the company produced 8.6 million tons." [DoubleStoneSteel has a history of Inland Steel]

The sculpture that is in the lobby.

SOM
Richard Lippold’s Radiant One sculpture

THE INLAND STEEL BUILDING: A COLLECTION OF CHICAGO FIRSTS

• First fully air-conditioned building
• First indoor, underground parking facility
• First to use two-inch thick, dual-glazed glass to help with climate control
• First building constructed on steel pilings
• First building with automated window washing and mail distribution systems

[architecture]