American skyscrapers reached their zenith of romantic urbanity in the early 1930s, when towers in the Art Moderne and Deco styles sprang up to give big cities some of their best 20th Century architecture.
In Chicago, Holabird & Root designed such trim, stone-clad, setbacked gems as the Palmolive, Daily News and Board of Trade Buildings. In New York, Rockefeller Center comprised the most dense cluster of 1930s-style
skyscrapers. Dozens of equally marvelous Manhattan towers were turned out by the likes of Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker and other now almost-forgotten firms.
It was within this dramatic stylistic tradition that Chicago`s new AT&T Corporate Center building was shaped under the hand of Adrian Smith, the foremost designer in the office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The 60-story giant at the southeast corner of Monroe and Franklin Streets is another major success for Smith, who in recent years has become one of the nation`s most formidable architects.
AT&T`s most compelling virtue is that it captures essences of its 1930s forerunners without falling into the cheap Postmodern practices of pastiche, slapdash ornamentation and tired witticism. It is an office building that speaks of historicism, yet is clearly in the spirit of its own time. In this respect, it is akin to Smith`s strikingly handsome NBC building, which he designed simultaneously.
At a distance, the first thing apparent about AT&T is its prominent place in a new triumvirate of South Loop giants that also includes Sears Tower and the recently completed 65-story building at 311 S. Wacker Drive. Smith wanted to offer AT&T as a strong presence without competing head-on against Sears`
unbeatably massive, volumetric power. He met that challenge quite deftly by giving AT&T a more fine-grained, filigreed look.
AT&T`s exterior walls-clad in predominantly beige granite-are divided into three vertical planes, the center of which is slightly recessed in a gesture of formality. Major setbacks occur at the 30th, 45th and 59th floors, corresponding to the termination of elevator banks. A less pronounced setback at 17 suggests the heights of Chicago`s earliest skyscrapers.
The tower`s windows are for the most part vertically paired in a rhythm that has become common since the International Style`s spartan grids began falling out of favor.
Spandrels beneath the windows are of dark green aluminum carrying a silkscreened pattern which unfortunately fades into near-invisibility at most distances and angles. They are the least successful elements of the building`s composition in the opinion of Smith himself, one of those rare architects who is candid about misjudgments. Far more effective are the boldly shaped mullions that emphasize the building`s verticality and cast enlivening shadows.
How a tall tower meets the ground and presents itself non-intimidatingly at the pedestrian level is always one of most difficult problems in designing a building as large as the 1.7 million square foot AT&T. Smith met the challenge with predictable skill. Ground floor retailing windows, ornamental wall-mounted lamps and a generous planting of trees accomplish part of the downscaling task. Smith`s meticulous detailing and careful use of materials account for the rest.
Yet if the skyscraper is merely welcoming to passersby, it becomes a real extravaganza once a visitor steps inside.
There was a time not so long ago when office tower lobbies seldom offered more than terrazzo floors, travertine walls and a few potted ficus trees. Today, many have reached a level of aggressive opulence unequaled since the days when architects contrived to make movie palace interiors outshine the works of, say, Michelangelo or Brunelleschi.
This can reach questionable extremes. It can also generate extraordinary contrasts, notably when ordinary folk board elevators in such palatial spaces to reach offices where they labor in drywalled hives offering little visual appeal. Still, corporate posturing and the need to market speculative office space with flair have changed little since the extravagant lobby era of the 1930s, now revived.
AT&T`s lobby is perhaps the most sumptuous space of its kind and vintage in the city, rivaled only by the gold leaf-slathered interior of the 190 S. LaSalle St. building.
Smith and his colleagues, with the blessings of AT&T and developer Richard Stein, employed tons of marble and granite, bronze, oak millwork, art glass, huge chandeliers, sconces and patterned walls and floors fit for a coronation-or perhaps something even bigger if the Vatican ever tires of traditional venues.
It must be said that within any fair-minded judgmental context, Smith and his collaborators got all of this right. The scale, the detailing, the palette-all were handled with taste and a good deal of care. If the lobby and its ancillary spaces are still a bit too Balaban & Katz for some tastes, well, that is a subjective matter not worth belaboring. Some people don`t like the Piranesian lobby gestures in John Portman-designed hotels, either.
In any case, even the finishing and ornamentation of AT&T`s lobby are not quite as important as the manipulation and procession of spaces that enhance the building now and will give it still further interest in the future.
The single grandest spatial device is a ground floor arcade that cuts through the center of the building and runs all the way from its main entrance on Monroe Street to its southern wall.
When recently begun work is completed on a Smith-designed 34-story office tower adjoining AT&T to the south, the arcade will be extended all the way to Adams Street. This indoor, block-long pedestrian promenade flanked by shops and such will join the ranks of older grand arcades such as those which bisect the Merchandise Mart and the LaSalle National Bank Building.
For the time being, a surprise awaits anyone who enters AT&T and walks toward the already splendorous arcade`s temporary dead end. Covering that solid wall is a large trompe l`oeil done on canvas by virtuoso illusionist Richard Haas. The painting makes it appear that the adjoining building and the arcade extension are already complete. Looking at it, one seems to see Adams Street in the distance. Mirabile visu!
In addition to the sweep of the arcade, there are other generous expressions of space. Having passed through the three-story main entrance lobby, one passes into another lobby where escalators run up to AT&T`s security-heavy reception area and elevators (rental space tenants have their own elevators.)
The AT&T lobby is topped by a 5-story atrium, which in turn is capped with an 11-story atrium enhancing views from AT&T offices. The relationships of the spaces quickly become clear at first seeing, and anyone is free to gawk at the ground floor sights during weekday business hours.
Knowledgeable architecture buffs will not be disappointed if they look for an echo of New York`s AT&T building, the Philip Johnson-designed tower that put Postmodernism into commercial orbit a decade ago-and which sports circular windows in its base.
Smith made an unmistakable if fairly conservative bow to the Johnson icon by giving Chicago`s AT&T skyscraper a circular window shape above its main entrance and again in a series of interior wall openings at the top of the escalator banks.
Under Smith`s direction, technicians will soon intensify exterior floodlighting of AT&T, a fillip which is becoming de rigueur on skyscrapers these days. Rows of single-point lighting sources at setback levels are already supplemented by lights pointing upward and illuminating larger expanses of the building.
One troubling and perhaps uncorrectable aspect of AT&T`s skyline presence is found at its summit. Rooftop mechanical equipment is set back from the corners, but the bits of canted ornamentation that screen it at some points result in in an odd appearance from certain perspectives.
At a distance, AT&T`s summit presents an indeterminate look that fails to reflect the virtues of either an orthodox flat top or a satisfyingly defined tower form that becomes more slender as it rises. At this writing, four tall spires are scheduled to be belatedly put in place atop AT&T by means of a helicopter (flagpoles had been considered as another alternative). Final assessment of the tower`s top must await that finishing touch.
Even if the topside ambiguity is not resolved to perfection, however, that will diminish to only a small degree the quality of Smith`s performance. The AT&T building is a powerful and decorous structure that enhances the streetscape as well as the skyline. Its rich reprise on the drama of 1930s architecture is welcome, indeed.
