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Modernizing Modernism: Challenges with Preserving Post-War Buildings

Modernizing Modernism: Challenges with Preserving Post-War Buildings. The Inland Steel Building. 30 West Monroe Street, Chicago, Illinois. National Historic Tax Credit Conference Chicago, Illinois September 25, 2008. Inland Steel Building.

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Modernizing Modernism: Challenges with Preserving Post-War Buildings

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  1. Modernizing Modernism: Challenges with Preserving Post-War Buildings The Inland Steel Building 30 West Monroe Street, Chicago, Illinois National Historic Tax Credit ConferenceChicago, Illinois September 25, 2008

  2. Inland Steel Building • Completed in 1958 as corporate headquarters for the Inland Steel Company. • Designed by Bruce Graham and Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. • Unique design with external columns and separate service tower allowed completely unobstructed floor plates.

  3. Historic and Architectural Significance • First modern glass skyscraper constructed in Chicago Loop. • First Chicago skyscraper designed by SOM. • First fully air-conditioned office building in Chicago. • First use of insulated glass units in a Chicago skyscraper. • Designated a Chicago Landmark in 1998. • Listing on the National Register of Historic Places in process.

  4. The Project • The Inland Steel Building is being rehabilitated and repositioned as an office building to compete in the 2008 marketplace. • Project seeks 20% federal historic rehabilitation tax credits, thereby requiring compliance with Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. • As a Chicago Landmark, changes to exterior and lobby are subject to review and approval by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. • A challenge of rehabilitating the Inland Steel Building for the current market is to preserve significant modern interior features while accommodating the needs of a variety of tenants.

  5. The Challenge: Preserve Modern Interior Significant Interior Features • Entry lobby and first floor retail space. • Unique lighting pattern on second floor. • Clear span office floors. • Modular partition wall system.

  6. Entry Lobby and First Floor Retail Space • Retain Richard Lippold sculpture “Radiant One” in lobby. • Restore original lighting system. • Reveal textured glass and marble features. • Restore elevator lobby ceiling.

  7. Entrance lobby with sculpture, looking east towards elevator lobby, circa 1958.

  8. Current condition of ground floor elevator lobby, showing non-original lighting and Bubinga paneling.

  9. Non-original Bubinga paneling in entrance lobby.

  10. Second Floor Lighting Pattern • Second floor ceiling originally featured grid of square light boxes that extended through the wall plane to the exterior soffits. • Light boxes were removed from interior. • Rehabilitation proposes to restore original lighting configuration.

  11. 1957 SOM Drawing of Second Floor Lighting Configuration.

  12. Current condition of second floor ceiling, showing non-original interior lighting and original exterior lighting.

  13. Clear Span Office Floors • Separate service tower allowed office spaces with no interior obstructions. • Remodeling by individual tenants has obscured original open floor plans on most floors. • Rehabilitation proposes to remove non-original partitions and reveal clear span office spaces.

  14. View of typical office floor, circa. 1957.

  15. Examples of later tenant remodeling.

  16. Proposed office interior.

  17. Modular Wall Partition System • Interior office spaces defined by modular system of wall partition panels manufactured by E. F. Hauserman Company. • Panels designed to snap into Celotex ceiling system for easy office reconfiguration. • Rehabilitation proposes to retain Hauserman panels on some floors and introduce new modular system.

  18. Offices with Hauserman panels, circa 1958.

  19. Surviving Hauserman panels.

  20. Hauserman textured glass panels with clear glass transoms.

  21. Proposed new modular partition system.

  22. Summary • The Inland Steel Building is one of the defining commercial high-rises of the Post-War era of modern architecture and a beloved Chicago Landmark. • A challenge of rehabilitating the Inland Steel Building for the 2008 market is to preserve significant modern interior features while accommodating the needs of a variety of tenants. • The project will retain the Richard Lippold sculpture in the lobby, restore the original system of light panels on the first floor, and reveal obscured marble and textured glass features. • The distinctive lighting configuration on the second floor will be restored. • Inappropriate partition walls will be removed from office floors to reveal original clear span spaces. • Hauserman wall panels will be retained on some floors, and a new modular partition system will be installed on remaining office floors.

  23. Allen F. JohnsonDirector, Midwest OfficeMacRostie Historic Advisors LLC 53 West Jackson Boulevard, Suite 1357 Chicago, IL 60604 (312) 786-1700; ajohnson@mac-ha.com macrostiehistoric.com

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