Built: 1967-1970 Designed by: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Type: Skyscraper Stories: 30 Maximum Height: 362 feet / 110 meters Location: 111 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, United States
Building Rating 50% of readers like the One Illinois Center.
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I t's a shame that the anchor of such an important real estate complex is so... boring. The Illinois Center covers 83 acres along the main branch of the Chicago River. As such, it is one half of the gateway welcoming visitors to the city who choose to arrive by water.
It is seen in this context by local sailors returning from a weekend of fun, and by tourists who get to delight in the waterway running through Chicago's skyline just before the figure out their tour is about to end. At the heart of this complex is One Illinois Center. It is yet another black glass box that doesn't garner the same notoriety as its cousin, the IBM Building, a little bit downstream. Still, it's better than the mucky abandoned Illinois Central rail yard and warehouses it replaced.
One Illinois Center epitomizes the neighborhood it is in -- sterile, impersonal, and woefully negligent in providing anything on a human scale. Later additions to this area have tried to add a little diversity to the area, but even thought there are thousands of people living here, and thousands more tourists staying here, you'd never know it. There are few amenities, and even the cafes foolishly think boasting of being open from 11am-2pm is a good thing.
Mike K.
Sunday, January 17th, 2010 @ 4:39pm
Rating: Five stars. I think this building is a great example of a style of architecture which was the avant garde architecture of a period encompassing approximately the middle of last century 1939-1960's.
Brent Kampert
Friday, August 15th, 2008 @ 2:41pm
Rating: Two stars. I agree with David Shmuel, if they want it to look nicer on the river, repaint the whole building blue-green. Or even like the already built Swissotel on the river. It looks bad for it's current color.
Alan
Friday, August 15th, 2008 @ 10:05am
Rating: Four stars. The style of this architecture is historiric and its archetect was a genius. No, we don't want every building to look like this but it would be a foolish and boring world that did not explore this extrodinary form of Inetrantional Modern archetecture, which was revolutionary and a revelation, when it was built.
David Shmuel
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 @ 11:12pm
Rating: One star. This is one of those structures that makes you want to shout that the 1970s are over. It represents the worst of the period, depressingly industrial and completely lacking in vision. There is nothing to make this building appealing to the eye.
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Mike K.
Five stars.
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