Also known as: AT&T 10 South Canal Formerly: Illinois Bell Building Built: 1968-1971 Designed by: Holabird & Root Type: Skyscraper Stories: 27 Maximum height: 538 feet / 164 meters Location: 10 South Canal, Chicago, United States
D on’t ridicule this building simply because it is another bland brown block in a neighborhood of glitzy glass and steel skyscrapers. 10 South Canal looks utilitarian because it is. The primary purpose of this building is to house telephone equipment. Computers don’t need windows. They don’t need doors. And they don’t need their building to look pretty. In buildings of this type, ornamentation is a bad thing because it calls unnecessary attention to a piece of vital infrastructure. Moreover, unnecessary doors and windows are nothing more than passages for dust and other contaminants to follow to foul up the works. What you end up with is a building that looks like it was designed by a computer for a computer. And that’s the way they like it.
Michael M. Modern
Monday, March 19th, 2007 @ 2:52pm
Rating: Two stars. It is my understanding that this building was designed to be not only fire-proof and earthquake-proof but nuclear bomb proof, all to protect vital communications links. But I agree that it did not have to look this brutalist.
Mike Heck
Friday, January 12th, 2007 @ 8:38pm
Rating: One star. While ornamentation may well be a bad thing in a building of this type but a structure that resembles something out of a post-apocalyptic nightmare is something else altogether. Let me say, that is just what this building is reminiscent of. I would truly hate to be greeted by this image upon arriving at a nearby office every morning for work. Leave it to AT&T to come up with something as atrocious as this.
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New York, United States
Michael M. Modern
Two stars.
One star.