Schlesinger and Meyer Department Store.  Detail of Madison Street elevation.  (Photograph by Thomas Leslie)

It was the eventual expansion of Schlesinger & Mayer’s operations that produced the refined statement of function, structure, and construction for which the building became better known. . . .

On the exterior, the horizontal windows of the original were continued, broken by a corner element that offered a vertical accent and access to the corner of State and Madison-—the “busiest corner in the world.”

Taken from Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934 (University of Illinois Press, June 2013).