Chicago Icons: Connecting Past and Present
Compare and contrast iconic buildings from the 1890s to present and learn how older structures relate to new skyline additions.
- Walking
- Building
Reliance Building
Photo by Peter J. Sieger.
Step inside this restored 1895 office building, designed to attract Chicago’s early medical professionals with its gleaming white terra cotta exterior and expansive windows.
Photo by Peter J. Sieger.
Discover what it was like to work in this remarkable building as you visit the elevator lobby and explore an upper floor, where its detailed design lives on in a luxury hotel.
Architects and Styles
Meet
Main Lobby, 1 W. Washington St. entrance
Designed by John Wellborn Root and Charles Atwood, the Reliance Building is one of Chicago’s early skyscrapers and is now a designated city, state and national landmark.
The building is a great example of Chicago School tripartite design. Shaped by the demand for downtown office space following the Great Chicago Fire, its glass curtain wall foreshadowed the International Style and later Modernist buildings of the mid-20th century.
Tour Reviews
Window details
Photo by Peter J. Sieger.
Exterior Ornamentation
Lobby. Photo by Peter J. Sieger.
Mosaic tile flooring. Photo by Peter J. Sieger
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MORE ABOUT THIS BUILDING
Discover more about the Reliance Building in CAC's Buildings of Chicago online library.
Free Center Entry with Your Ticket
Ticket price includes entrance to the Chicago Architecture Center within 7 days of your walking or bus tour.
