330 N. Wabash Avenue Building

The 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building is an International Style skyscraper designed between 1968 and 1969 by Mies van der Rohe, and built between 1970 and 1972 in Chicago, IL.

330 N. Wabash Avenue Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The building has changed names several times over the years, and is also known as:

• One IBM Plaza.
• IBM Building.
• AMA Plaza from 2013 until this day.

Its precise street address is 330 North Wabash, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

The 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building is a structure of significant importance both for the city of Chicago and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the International Style style. Because of that, the 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building was officially declared as a national landmark on November 1^st 2007, and was included in the National Register of Historic Places on March 11^th 2010.

With its prismatic mass, steel structure, elegant curtain wall, glass lobby, and plaza flowing from the interior, the IBM building exhibits all the characteristics of a Miesian skyscraper.

Mies died in August 1969, before the construction of the tower began..

At the time of its completion in 1972 the 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included a state-of-the-art electrical system for both heating and cooling, which was operated by an IBM computer of course.

Last but not least, the elevators were the first in the city to include the "fireman's recall," which, in case of any sign of fire in the building, directed them directly to the ground floor.

Mies van der Rohe was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building a reality:

• C.F.Murphy Associates in charge of Structural Engineering
• IBM Company as the Main Developer

The 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building can be categorized as an International Style building.

The 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building was designed in 1968. By 1968 the International Style movement had already left its early days behind and could be considered a mature movement, which does not mean it was loved and accepted by everyone, on the contrary. The International Style was accepted by the architecture community way before it was by the general public, and it is therefore likely that the 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building was not well received by everyone at the time.

The 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a classical Mies curtain wall, similar to the ones found at the Seagram Building in NYC and other skyscrapers designed by Mies.

The windows of the curtain wall feature bronze-tinted glass with dark anodized aluminum sunshades and mullions beneath each of them, outlining their structure. Double glazing was used in the curtain wall to combat the entry of heat and cold into the spaces, creating an unprecedented thickness in this type of facade.

Other materials found at the 330 N. Wabash Avenue Building include, travertine, another of Mies's favorite materials, found in large slabs covering the walls of the lobby, polished pink granite, used in the floor tiles of the lobby and the plaza, and plastic thermal insulation, used between the exterior and interior layers of the curtain wall.