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Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse

1960s architecture in the United States1964 establishments in IllinoisCentral ChicagoCourthouses in IllinoisFederal buildings in the United States
Federal courthouses in the United StatesGovernment buildings completed in 1964Government buildings in ChicagoInternational style architecture in IllinoisLudwig Mies van der Rohe buildingsModernist architecture in IllinoisSkyscraper office buildings in ChicagoUse mdy dates from March 2020
Chicago Federal Center
Chicago Federal Center

The Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse, commonly referred to as the Dirksen Federal Building, is a skyscraper in the Chicago Loop at 219 South Dearborn Street. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1964. The building is 384 feet (117 m) tall with 30 floors; it was named for U.S. Congressman Everett Dirksen. The building houses the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the United States Bankruptcy Court, the United States Marshal for the Northern District of Illinois, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and local offices for various court-related federal agencies, such as the Federal Public Defender, United States Probation Service, United States Trustee, and National Labor Relations Board. It is one of three buildings making up the modernist Chicago Federal Center complex designed by van der Rohe, along with Federal Plaza, the U.S. Post Office (Loop Station) and the Kluczynski Federal Building. Separate from the Federal Plaza, but opposite the Kluczynski Building across Jackson Boulevard, is the Metcalfe Federal Building.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse
South Dearborn Street, Chicago Loop

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N 41.8788 ° E -87.629 °
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Dirksen Federal Building and US Courthouse

South Dearborn Street 219
60604 Chicago, Loop
Illinois, United States
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Chicago Federal Center
Chicago Federal Center
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Chicago Federal Building
Chicago Federal Building

The Chicago Federal Building in Chicago, Illinois was constructed between 1898 and 1905 for the purpose of housing the Midwest's federal courts, main post office, and other government bureaus. It stood in The Loop neighborhood on a block bounded by Dearborn, Adams and Clark Streets and Jackson Boulevard. The site held an 1880 post office, courthouse and customhouse which was cleared to make way for the new building. The 1905 building was itself demolished in 1965 and replaced with the Kluczynski Federal Building. The push for a new building was spearheaded by postmaster Washington Hesing with backing by civic leaders and Illinois's members of Congress. The explosion of Chicago's population, especially after the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, strained the earlier facility beyond capacity. When the Exposition began, the Post Office Department in Chicago employed 998 clerks and 935 carriers. By the time Congress approved funding for a new building, the post office had expanded to 1,319 clerks and 1,096 carriers. Other agencies housed in the building complained of poor planning and shoddy construction which resulted in crumbling plaster, broken plumbing and flooding.The new building was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by architect Henry Ives Cobb. The floorplan was a six-story Greek cross atop a two-story base with a raised basement. The building was capped by a dome at the crossing that held an additional eight floors of office space in its drum for a total of 16 floors. The gilt dome extended 100 ft (30 m) above the drum.

Kluczynski Federal Building
Kluczynski Federal Building

The Kluczynski Federal Building is a skyscraper in the downtown Chicago Loop located at 230 South Dearborn Street. The 45-story structure was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1974 as the last portion of the new Federal Center. It is 562 feet (171 m) tall and with the Mies designed post office and plaza stands on the site previously occupied by the Chicago Federal Building by the architect Henry Ives Cobb. It was named in honor of U.S. Congressman John C. Kluczynski, who represented Illinois's 5th congressional district from 1951 to 1975 after his death that year. This is one of three buildings by van der Rohe in the Federal Center Plaza complex: the others are the Loop Station Post Office and the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse. The Kluczynski Building is constructed of a steel frame and contains 1,200,000 sq ft (110,000 m2) of space. The exterior is sheathed in bronze-tinted glass set into bright aluminum frames. Beneath the windows are steel spandrel panels painted flat black and windows are separated horizontally by steel mullions of projecting steel I-beams also painted black. The two-story lobby is recessed allowing for a colonnade or pilotis to encircle the building at street level. The interior walls and floors of the lobby are covered in granite which extends to the plaza. The lobby contains several commemorative tablets which were removed from the previous building. The entire complex is based on a 28 ft (8.5 m) grid pattern so that seams of the granite pavers in the plaza extend into the building lobbies and up the sides to create unity among the three structures. The Center is similar to Mies' earlier Toronto-Dominion Centre and was expanded in 1991 with the addition of the 28-story Metcalfe Federal Building to the south across Jackson Boulevard.In 2009, GSA undertook a major project to improve energy efficiency which included solar film on windows, LED lighting upgraded HVAC and other mechanical systems. After the work, the building received a LEED Silver certification.Alexander Calder's sculpture Flamingo, a 53-foot (16 m) red steel sculpture, was unveiled on the plaza October 24, 1974. The sculpture was conserved and restored in 1998. The plaza is also the site of a weekly farmers' market during the spring and summer seasons, open to the community. Federal agencies in the building include the Air Force Recruiting Service, the Department of State Passport Agency, Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, Office of Personnel Management, Consumer Product Safety Commission, General Services Administration and offices for both the U.S. senators from Illinois, Richard "Dick" Durbin and Tammy Duckworth.Following his election as president on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama established his administration's transitional offices in the federal building, prompting heightened security measures in the surrounding area.