Skyscraper of the Day, Part 19

Conway Building, corner of Clark and Washington Streets.  D. H. Burnham & Co., 1913.  View from northeast.  (Contemporary post card, collection of the author)

Four large neoclassical office blocks designed by Burnham’s office around the time of his death in 1912–People’s Gas, the insurance Exchange, the Conway, and the Continental and Commercial Bank–represented a full deployment of Beaus-Arts aesthetics to the large commercial skyscraper, in line with the classical vision of Burnham and Bennett’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. . . .

Financed by the Marshal Field Estate and completed in 1913, the Conway ranked just behind the Insurance Exchange in area and, at $3,500,000, cost.

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


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