Also known as: Buckingham Plaza Built: 1982 Designed by: Fujikawa Johnson & Associates Type: Skyscraper Stories: 44 Maximum Height: 400 feet / 122 meters Location: 360 East Randolph Street, Chicago, United States
Building Rating 50% of readers like the Buckingham.
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A building out of both space and time, The Buckingham arrived in Chicago's New East Side before most of the rest of the city even knew there was a New East Side.
The Buckingham takes great pains to let its residents view the world around them. Though it is saddled with brown horizontal stripes that limit its vertical and visual appeal, the bands are used to create a series of long windows that look out on Lake Michigan, Grant Park, Lake Shore Park, and Chicago's Loop skyline.
There is no shortage of corners to help with the visual appeal. The tower block's edges move out toward the corners to create 16 corner opportunities on each floor. It is not uncommon to see someone standing in the corner of what is presumably a living room admiring the 180-degree view this arrangement affords them.
From Upper Randolph Street the building looks otherwise unremarkable. But from other vantage points you can see evidence of the history of development in the city. The Buckingham predates most other skyscrapers in the area. It stood upon its podium waiting for the rest of the city to fill in around it for decades. Finally, with the conversion of a railroad yard into a master planned development of skyscraper, the Buckingham's defiance is paying off as townhomes and shops snuggle up to it and hide the brutal podium that has lifted this building above the rabble for most of its existence.
