Chicago Board of Trade Building

How to Get There

From Downtown Chicago (1 mi): Head south into the Loop via LaSalle Street, continue to the intersection of LaSalle Street and Jackson Boulevard, and enter the Chicago Board of Trade Building at 141 W. Jackson Blvd.

Overview

The Chicago Board of Trade Building is a 44-story, 604-foot (184 m) Art Deco skyscraper located in the Chicago Loop, standing at the foot of the LaSalle Street canyon. Built in 1930 for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), it has served as the primary trading venue of the CBOT and later the CME Group, formed in 2007 by the merger of the CBOT and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In 2012, the CME Group sold the CBOT Building to a consortium of real estate investors, including GlenStar Properties LLC and USAA Real Estate Company.

The CBOT has been located at the site since 1885. A building designed by William W. Boyington stood at the location from 1885 to 1929, being the tallest building in Chicago from its construction until its clock tower was removed in 1895. The Boyington building became unsound in the 1920s and was demolished in 1929, being replaced by the current building designed by Holabird & Root. The current building was itself Chicago's tallest until 1965, when it was surpassed by the Richard J. Daley Center.

The current structure is known for its Art Deco architecture, sculptures and large-scale stone carving, as well as large trading floors. An aluminum, three-story Art Deco statue of Ceres, goddess of agriculture (particularly grain), caps the building. The building was listed as a Chicago Landmark in 1977 and a National Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places honoree in 1978.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Chicago Board of Trade Building", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0