This classic building in downtown Chicago has many interesting design elements and flourishes. It used to house Frank Lloyd Wright’s office.
The historical marker reads:
Chicago Landmark
Fine Arts Building
Solon S. Beman, architect
1885
Converted to Fine Arts Building in 1898
Built by the Studebaker company for the assembly and display of their carriages and wagons, this building was converted into studios and theaters for artists and craftsman in 1898. The interior public spaces, featuring murals on the tenth floor, remain almost untouched from the 1898 remodeling.
Designated a Chicago Landmark on July 7, 1978
by the City Council of Chicago.
Michael A. Bilandic, Mayor
Commission On Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks.
Here is more about the building from the Chicago Architecture Center:
In 1883, the Studebaker Carriage Company planned to make Chicago the center of its retail business while maintaining manufacturing in South Bend, Indiana. Two years later, the company commissioned what was originally known as the Studebaker Building on Michigan Avenue to serve as a carriage factory and showroom.
By 1896, having secured larger manufacturing quarters, the Studebaker family converted the building to studios for artists, musicians, architects and others. The building became a home to both the women’s suffrage movement and the Arts and Crafts movement in the Midwest. To this day, it houses artists’ lofts, art galleries, dance and recording studios, interior design firms, musical instrument makers and other businesses associated with the arts. Classical piano music echoes through its corridors as visitors take one of the last manually operated passenger elevators in the city up to tour violin makers’ studios or hear a performance by the Jazz Institute of Chicago.
The building was designed by Solon S. Beman and was highly influenced by the then-popular Richardson Romanesque style. Its 11-story load-bearing walls feature rusticated granite and limestone piers, ornamented columns and round arches accommodating five bays of oriel windows. Five stories of smaller window groupings above the arches complete a facade that is capped by a decorative cornice.
Though the building is spectacular from the street, it is all the more enchanting inside. During the 1898 restoration, the building’s “Venetian Court”—a courtyard in the middle of the building with a light well and sculpture garden—was created. It stretches from the fourth floor all the way up to the roof. Also painted during the restoration were the Art Nouveau murals that decorate the main entrance.
(
visit link)