Field Building

Field Building
  1. About the Field Building in Chicago
    1. Building Catalogations
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectural style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The Field Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, and built between 1931 and 1934 in Chicago, IL.

Field 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 Field Building is also known, or has been known as, LaSalle National Bank Building, or Bank of America Building.

Its precise street address is 135 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

The Field 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 Art Deco style. Because of that, the Field Building was officially declared as a national landmark on September 2nd 1994.

At the time of its completion in 1934 the Field Building incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included highspeed elevators, air conditioning, and concealed radiation.

Building's timeline

Construction begins
1931
93
Construction completed
1934
90
Declared NL
1994
30
years ago
2024

Architect and team

Graham, Anderson, Probst & White was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

Also known as GAP&W, the firm was founded in 1912 in Chicago, and remained active until 2006, when it finally closed its doors.

GAP&W is not only key in the evolution of Chicago's architecture because of the buildings they designed, which were many and nothing short of cutting-edge for their time, but also because two of their architects, Hubert Burnham and Daniel Burnham, eventually started their own practice, which became Burnham Brothers, yet another of the most influential firms the city has ever seen.

The firm's style evolved according to the times. Their first buildings had clear Beaux-Arts inspirations, but they eventually embraced the arrival of Art-Deco, as well as neogothic and neoclassicism.

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 Field Building a reality:

  • George A Fuller Company as the Main Contractor
  • Marshall Field as the Main Developer

Architectural Style

The Field Building can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Art Deco movement flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, with many historians marking the outbreak of World War II as its final decline. Even though a couple of decades might not seem as much, the Art Deco movement had a great impact on architecture, and it's widely represented in many American cities due to the development boom that happened during that time.

Art Deco marked the abandonment of traditional historicism and the embracement of modern living and the age of the machine. In architecture, that meant leaving behind the ornaments of Beux-Arts and Neo-Gothic buildings and instead favoring simplicity and visual impact through geometric shapes, clean lines, and symmetrical designs. Ornaments were still an important part of the design, but they became bold and lavish, and were often inspired by ancient cultures or industrial imagery, instead of nature.

The Field Building was completed in 1934, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

Spaces & Uses

The Field Building reaches an architectural height of 535ft (163.1m). It has a total of 45 floors, served by 42 elevators, which combined offer a total of 1,184,029 sqf (110,000m2) of usable space.

When it opened its doors to the public in 1934, the Field Building was primarily used as Office. Bank. Radio Station space. That however, is no longer the case, and today it mainly provides Commercial space.

535ft (163.1m)

Materials & Structure

The Field Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and 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 is non-load bearing either, as it is common in frame structure type buildings.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features Black granite in the base. Limestone in the upper stories..

Another material found at the Field Building is polished aluminum, used for the window frames.