Marquette Building

The Marquette Building in Chicago's downtown Loop district is an architectural masterpiece, designed in 1895 by the firm of Holabird & Roche and built by the George A. Fuller Company. One of the earliest steel-frame skyscrapers of its era, it is still regarded as an outstanding example of the Chicago School of Architecture. The sixteen-story building stands out for its facade of brown terra-cotta arranged in horizontal bands, marked by wavelike ornamentation and the characteristic long, horizontal Chicago windows. These windows consist of large panes of glass flanked by narrow, divided sash windows, and thanks to the steel frame they allow for non-load-bearing masonry walls. Originally reddish in color, the facade was heavily darkened for decades by soot from downtown before it was restored.

Visitors can not only admire the building from the outside but also explore its richly decorated interior. The two-story lobby is laid out around a central light well and holds an ensemble of mosaics, sculptures, and bronze work commemorating the expedition of Jacques Marquette, the first European to settle in Chicago. Above the main entrance are four relief panels by the sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil, depicting scenes from the journey through the Great Lakes region. In the atrium, a mosaic frieze by Tiffany Studios adorns the hexagonal railing; it is decorated with glazed Tiffany glass, mother-of-pearl, and semiprecious stones, and portrays Marquette's life and his encounters with Native Americans.

The building has had an eventful history and has served, among other things, as the headquarters of numerous railroad companies. Today it is owned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which completed a comprehensive four-year restoration in 2006 that included reconstructing the original crowning element and cleaning the facade. Since 2007, the foundation has presented a free interactive audio-video exhibit on the ground floor that explains the building's history and its contribution to Chicago's architecture. The lobby also connects the Marquette Building with the neighboring National Building, providing a sheltered pedestrian passage through downtown.