The Reliance Building at 1 W. Washington Street in Chicago was designed by John Wellborn Root, who did the ground floor and basement in 1890, and Charles B. Atwood, who designed the upper floors in 1895. Root died before finishing his part. William Ellery Hale, who bought the lot, is the developer described, and the article names no client.
The Chicago School design uses a steel frame, white glazed terra-cotta cladding and large plate-glass windows with projecting bays, and the text calls it proto-Modernist. Concrete caissons reach up to 125 feet (38 m). The article gives no height or story count.
It opened in March 1895 with electricity and telephone service in every office. A 1948 storefront covered the original ground floor. The city bought it in 1994, and rehabilitation finished in 1999. It is now a 122-room hotel, and the article gives no public access beyond that.
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