Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse

The Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse is an International Style skyscraper designed by Mies van der Rohe, in association with Schmidt, Garden and Erikson, C. F. Murphy Associates, A. Epstein and Sons, and built between 1960 and 1964, for a reported $35.0 million dollars, in Chicago, IL.

Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse 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 Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse is also known, or has been known as, Dirksen Federal Building, or Dirksen Building.

Its precise street address is 219 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

The Dirksen Federal Building is one of the three buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe that make up the Chicago Federal Center. The other two are the United States Post Office and the Kluczynski Federal Building, all connected by the Federal Plaza.

The entire complex is organized on a 8,53m grid pattern subdivided into six 1,42m modules. This pattern extends from the granite-paved plaza into the ground-floor lobbies of the complex towers, where the floors and elevator walls are also granite. The lines of the grid continue vertically up the buildings.

Mies van der Rohe was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Schmidt, Garden and Erikson, C. F. Murphy Associates, A. Epstein and Sons.

The Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse can be categorized as an International Style building.

The Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse was completed in 1964. By 1964 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 Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse was not well received by everyone at the time.

The Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse uses a frame structure made of steel columns and reinforced 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 bronze-tinted glass windows with bright aluminum frames, matte black steel spandrels, and projecting black-painted I-beam sunshades. This organization emphasizes the impressive height of the tower.

The building is elevated on pilotis at the plaza level, allowing for a retracted double-height lobby that attempts to reduce the barriers between inside and outside .

Another material found at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse is black-walnut, found in the walls of the Courtrooms.