Inland Steel Building: Model of Final Design
<p>As one of the first two high-rise buildings constructed in downtown Chicago after the Great Depression, this model represents part of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill’s push to reimagine the corporate office building, along with the Lever House in New York. The architects separated the functions of the Inland Steel Building into two towers: a 19-story office block and a 25-story service unit. As a result, the floor plans have no interior columns or partitions, allowing maximum flexibility and a bright new image of the modern office, with a green tinted-glass curtain wall and bright stainless-steel mullions.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1949
- Medium
- Mixed media model
- Dimensions
- Vitrine: 122.5 × 64.5 × 82 cm (48 1/4 × 25 3/8 × 32 1/4 in.); Base: 60 × 51 × 69 cm (23 5/8 × 20 1/8 × 27 1/8 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
Artist
Drawing
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is an American architectural firm founded in 1936 that shaped postwar modernism through large-scale civic and commercial buildings characterized by steel frames, glass curtain walls, and rational grid systems. The practice pioneered the corporate modernist aesthetic in projects ranging from office towers to cultural institutions, establishing a template for institutional architecture that prioritized structural clarity and material honesty.
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Record
Verified by WattsOS- Year
- 1949
- Medium
- Mixed media model
- Dimensions
- Vitrine: 122.5 × 64.5 × 82 cm (48 1/4 × 25 3/8 × 32 1/4 in.); Base: 60 × 51 × 69 cm (23 5/8 × 20 1/8 × 27 1/8 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1949-030975
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified