Kluczynski Federal Building

The Kluczynski Federal Building is an International Style skyscraper designed between 1959 and 1966 by Mies van der Rohe, in association with Schmidt, Garden and Erikson, C. F. Murphy Associates, A. Epstein and Sons, and built between 1974 and 1975 in Chicago, IL.

Its precise street address is 230 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

The Kluczynski Federal Building is part of the Chicago Federal Center.

The origins of the complex can be found in Mayor's Richard J. Daley vision to save Chicago's economy, which suffered a lot in the 1950's. In the late 50s the US government announced a plan to update their facilities, and Mayor Richard J. Daley made a bid for the government to set up some of their facilities in this new complex that would be designed by Mies van der Rohe.

His plan paid off. The government bought into the idea of this new complex in the Loop district of Chicago, and brought in thousands of employees, which helped begin to recovered the delicate economy of the city..

The building underwent a major restoration between 2011 and 2013. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Cannon Design.

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.

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 at the very least we know that there was one other part involved, that was KONE as the company in charge of the elevators system.

The Kluczynski Federal Building can be categorized as an International Style building.

The Kluczynski Federal Building was designed in 1959. By 1959 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 Kluczynski Federal Building was not well received by everyone at the time.

The Kluczynski Federal 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.

Every element of the three buildings forming the Federal Center complex, the columns, benches, doors, pavers, or lamps, are aligned within this grid, illustrating one of Mies van der Rohe's well-known maxims: 'God is in the details"

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features bronze-tinted glass windows with aluminum frames, matte black steel spandrels, and projecting black-painted I-beam sunshades. This organization emphasizes the impressive height of the towers.

Another material found at the Kluczynski Federal Building is granite, used on the walls and floor of the lobby, thus providing continuity from the outise to the inside.