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Reid Murdoch and Company Building, LaSalle Drive, River North, Chicago, IL
Reid Murdoch and Company Building, LaSalle Drive, River North, Chicago, IL

Built in 1913-1914, this Chicago School-style building was designed by George C. Nimmons for Reid Murdoch and Company, a grocery wholesaler, to serve as a warehouse and office building. The building has also been known variously as the Reid Murdoch Building, Reid Murdoch Center, and City of Chicago Central Office Building. Early in its history, the building served as a makeshift hospital after the July 24, 1915 sinking of the S. S. Eastland in the Chicago River on the south bank of the Chicago River in front of the building, killing 844 in one of the worst maritime disasters in United States history. The building was originally symmetrical, but in 1930, LaSalle Street was widened, leading to the loss of one of the bays at the western end of the building and the relocation of the western facade, with the work being carried out in a way that is almost imperceptible. In 1955, the building became home to offices of the City of Chicago, housing the State Attorney's Office, traffic courts, and office space for several city departments, with government offices being housed in the building until 1998, when it was sold into private ownership and rehabilitated as an office building. The building features a red brick exterior with terra cotta trim, large banks of windows in the central bays of the eight-story main block of the building, with one-over-one double-hung windows arranged in groups of four, with arched windows on the seventh floor just below the parapet, and flanked by piers with decorative terra cotta trim at the capitals, spandrel panels between the sixth and seventh floors, a balcony along the first floor facade, with a terrace below at ground level along the Chicago River, more widely spaced window bays at the end facades with brick pilasters between individual window openings and gabled parapets, and a central tower with four clock faces above balconies on the eleventh floor, a terra cotta cornice below the low-pitch pyramidal whipped roof at the top of the tower, and corner pilasters. The building’s footprint is nearly rectangular, except for a portion of the eastern facade that set back far from Clark Street, creating a courtyard that is presently occupied by a glass vestibule and surface parking lot, with the Carroll Avenue and Clark Street facades being far more spartan and utilitarian than the LaSalle Drive and Chicago River-facing facades being far more detailed and ornate. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1976. The building presently houses several restaurants and office tenants, with the largest office tenant being Encyclopedia Britannica.

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Taken on: November 7, 2022
Sets appears in:   • Near North Side (Chicago)    • Chicago School Architecture    more » • Industrial Architecture    « less
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Reid Murdoch and Company Building, LaSalle Drive, River North, Chicago, IL

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