The oldest standing high-rise in Chicago

The Rookery is a historic office building at 209 South LaSalle Street in the Loop community area of downtown Chicago. Completed in 1888 by architects Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings and was once the location of their offices. Standing 181 feet tall, it is recognized as the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago.

The building demonstrates a transitional moment in architecture, combining masonry bearing walls with a mix of cast and wrought iron framing. To support the structure on Chicago's swampy soil, Root designed a grillage foundation where iron rails and beams are combined in a crisscross pattern and encased in concrete. The exterior facade features a combination of Roman Revival and Queen Anne styles, with rough-faced granite on the lower stories and brick on the upper stories.

Inside, a two-story central light court clad in white terracotta provides natural illumination for the interior offices. The skylight atop this court is composed of 5,000 glass panes. Between 1905 and 1907, Frank Lloyd Wright remodeled the lobby in his Prairie style, adding white marble with Persian-style ornamentation, brownish steel, and golden tracery. This work represents Wright's only building in the Chicago Loop.

Today, the building remains a vibrant office space and is designated as a Chicago Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. Visitors can see the curved, heavily ornamented double staircase winding upward from the lobby's second floor and the retail arcade that was once described as the first indoor arcade in the United States.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons