2018

The Marshall Field and Company Building, which now houses Macy’s at State Street in Chicago, Illinois, was built in two stages – north end in 1901-02 (including a columned entrance) and south end in 1905-06, and was the flagship location of the Marshall Field and Company and Marshall Field’s chain of department stores. Since 2006, it is the main Chicago mid-western location of the Macy’s department stores. Visitors to the Macy’s store can’t help but look up when walking through the building’s first-floor cosmetics department – it provides a distant view of a shimmering vaulted ceiling that covers 6,000 square feet and comprises 1.6 million pieces of iridescent glass. The 5th floor provides an up-close view and it’s simply jaw-dropping. The dome ceiling was designed by renowned glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany (it’s the largest Tiffany mosaic in existence) and crafted by a group of 50 artisans who worked atop scaffolds for over 18 months to complete the project.

The Reliance Building is a skyscraper located at 1 West Washington Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The first floor and basement were designed by John Root of the Burnham and Root architectural firm in 1890, with the rest of the building completed by Charles B. Atwood in 1895. It is the first skyscraper to have large plate glass windows make up the majority of its surface area, foreshadowing a design feature that would become dominant in the 20th century. The Reliance Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970; and on January 7, 1976, it was designated a National Historic Landmark. The Reliance Building is also part of the Loop Retail Historic District, a collection of over one hundred buildings that reflects the growth of State and Wabash Streets as the central retail district of Chicago. The building fell into disrepair starting in the 1940s, and was restored in the late 1990s. Since 1999, the building has housed the 122-room Staypineapple, An Iconic Hotel, The Loop (formerly the Hotel Burnham) and Atwood Cafe.

Lightscape is a multisensory experience consisting of LED reeds and integrated sound in planters along the sidewalks. These prairie grass landscape, are of varying heights, with the tallest being up to 9 feet high. These are situated in about 18 locations, in the seven blocks on State Street from Lake Street to Van Buren Street. Each cluster has about 56 reeds, and each reed runs on only three watts. It is activated daily from 8 a.m. – 11 p.m. The Lightscape changes with the seasons and on special occasions. The initial holiday installation was called, "Season of Lights, Sounds of the Season." It featured lights in synchronization with songs including such classics as "Carol of the Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."

Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra painted a rainbow-colored mural of blues legend Muddy Waters, who gained acclaim playing clubs on the South and West sides of Chicago in the 1940s and ‘50s.

Sullivan designed the corner entry to be seen from both State and Madison, and that the ornamentation, situated above the entrance, would be literally attractive, which would give the store an elegant unique persona important to the competitiveness of the neighboring stores. The building is one of the classic structures of the Chicago school. The way this technique was used on the lower floors of the building were so elaborate that it used the natural lighting and shadows to seem almost as if it were magically floating above the ground. The top floor of the 1899 and 1904 sections of the building were recessed to create a narrow loggia topped by an intricately detailed cornice that projected beyond the facade of the building. This was removed around 1948 and the 12th floor redesigned to replicate the lower floors.