Inland Steel Building

“The 1950s was a time not only of great prosperity but also of tremendous optimism for the nation, the steel industry, and for the company itself. When it outgrew the space it had occupied in the First National Bank Building for nearly fifty years, Inland Steel decided to build its own headquarters building in downtown Chicago.”

“The Inland Steel Building was the first skyscraper in downtown Chicago designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, an architectural firm that had been started here in the 1930s.”

“After the fair, the two opened an office together. In 1939, engineer John O. Merrill (1896- 1975) joined the firm which then became Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. From the beginning, the firm was a nationwide, decentralized operation that specialized in corporate architecture.”

“It was the first Loop office building designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which had been founded in the city in 1936 and continues to be one of its major architectural firms.”

“This was a time of great optimism for the company, the steel industry, and the nation. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had led the Allied forces to victory in the war, was as President leading the United States to expanded economic and political power throughout the post-war world.”

“After the war the company shifted its production back to domestic needs and participated in the nation's post-war prosperity by manufacturing steel for consumer products such as automobiles, stoves, refrigerators, and washing machines.”

“By the time of Joseph Block's death in 1914, the assets of the company he had been instrumental in founding twenty years before had increased 190 times. The year he died, Inland's annual production was less than half a million tons; just three years later, it topped a million tons for the first time.”

“Showcase and showplace for steel, a prestige building for its owners, so it is for the city, so it is as a piece of architecture." Architectural Forum wrote: "the new Inland building supports the notion that there may be new life for the old downtown areas of big cities." It was appropriate that the first tenant of the ground-floor commercial space was the Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry, an organization devoted to promoting the city.”

“Block said at the time, "Of course, the most important thing is the sale of steel. But on the other hand, we believe that painting and sculpture belong in a modern office building to enhance its beauty." American sculptor Richard Lippold, whose work in steel the Blocks had seen at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, was commissioned to create a monumental sculpture for the lobby of the building.”

“Additional capital was still needed, however, and Jones decided to approach Joseph Block, a partner in the Block-Pollak Iron Company, dealers in used rail steel in both Cincinnati and Chicago, who was in Chicago visiting the Columbian Exposition.”