ARCHITECT ATLAS
Loading atlas
Harold Washington Library Center

Harold Washington Library Center

Hammond, Beeby and Babka

Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
400 S. State Street, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Client / Owner
Chicago Public Library
Year
Completed 1991
Access
Public
Typology
Cultural

The Harold Washington Library Center at 400 S. State Street in Chicago was designed by Hammond, Beeby and Babka for the Chicago Public Library. It opened on October 7, 1991. The article calls the style New Classical Postmodernism and lists the Guinness record as the largest public library building in the world.

The exterior is red brick and granite, and the building has 10 floors. It has about 972,000 square feet, including the rooftop winter garden. Seven aluminum acroteria by Kent Bloomer top it, with owl figures by Raymond Kaskey, and wall medallions depict Ceres.

The lower level has the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium. The third floor has a makerspace with 3D printers and laser cutters, and the ninth floor holds the Winter Garden and special collections.

Comments

  • Loading comments…
Be kind. Anyone can flag a comment for review.

Sign in

or

Your profile

3 to 24 letters, numbers, underscores or periods. It’s shown with your comments.

Contact us

Questions, corrections or ideas? Your message goes straight to the Architect Atlas owner.

Save to list

    Edit information

    We look the building up on Wikipedia for you. Architect Atlas lists buildings that have their own Wikipedia article: our test for notoriety and our source of truth.

        Typology
        Style (one to three)
        Photo (shown in a 4:3 frame)

        Drag and zoom to frame the building well. New photos are checked before they appear.

        Every change is checked before it goes live: facts against Wikipedia, photos by eye.