It was designed and constructed during the heyday of Art Deco in Chicago by John A. Holabird and John Wellborn Root Jr., themselves second-generation architectural royalty. The prolific pair’s structure confidently occupies its prestigious site while boldly communicating its contribution to the Chicago economy.
A BUILDING THAT REFLECTS ITS TIME
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Art Deco styling was at the peak of its popularity in Chicago. Its influence could be felt in fashion, art, interior design and architecture. Many of the most popular characteristics of the decorative style can be seen in the Chicago Board of Trade Building's design.
The plentiful gray Indiana limestone piers, dark windows and spandrels—so recessed they practically disappear—work together to give the building a striking vertical emphasis. Its streamlined, geometric and abstract exterior ornamentation, and the building’s throne-shaped massing, are also indicative of the period’s Art Deco trend. A faceless aluminum statue of Ceres, by artist John Storrs, sits atop the building’s pyramidal roof. The straight lines on her garment and her machine-made appearance make her the quintessential Art Deco ornament for this completely stylized structure.
A building that reflects its use
The Chicago Board of Trade Building is home to the world’s oldest futures and options exchange. Chicago, which sits on the edge of the prairie, has been the center of both grain distribution and grain trading since the 1840s. The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was established in 1848 as a central location for negotiating and conducting transactions on the future prices of commodities. Not coincidentally, 1848 was also the year the first railroads arrived in Chicago and the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened, both of which made distribution of raw materials more efficient.
The building’s ornamentation cleverly communicates the activity happening inside.. A Mesopotamian farmer holding grain and a Native American holding corn make several appearances around the building and represent some of the options traded on the building’s multiple trading floors.
Watch: Top of the Trade
How did people view the city from the Chicago Board of Trade Building? Tony Malcaluso, author of Secret Spaces Atop Chicago, reflects on the Chicago Board of Trade’s observation deck as the place to experience the city from above. For three and a half decades, the Chicago Board of Trade Building had the highest public view of the city, closing after the John Hancock Building opened its observation deck to the public in 1969.
Did you know?
The current Chicago Board of Trade Building was completed in 1930 and was designed to replace a previous Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) headquarters that stood on the same site since 1885.
Did you know?
In 2007, the CBOT merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to form the CME Group, the largest and most diverse derivatives exchange in the world.
Did you know?
The pyramidal roof once housed an observatory deck, popular with Chicagoans in the 1930s-1970s.
