Richard J. Daley Center

The Richard J. Daley Center is defined by its reddish-brown exterior, clad in Cor-Ten steel that was intentionally left to develop a natural rust patina. Completed in nineteen sixty-five as the Chicago Civic Center, the thirty-one-story skyscraper features bronze-tinted glass and massive structural bays supported by only sixteen steel columns. These columns, shaped like crosses, taper in width as they rise to reflect decreasing loads. Although the building reaches six hundred forty-eight feet in height, it lacks the floor count typically found in such a tower because of its exceptionally high ceilings, designed to accommodate over one hundred twenty courtrooms.