Rookery Building

The Rookery Building stands at 209 S LaSalle Street in the Loop, Chicago's historic financial district in Illinois. Designed by Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root and completed in 1888, it was an early and influential high-rise, with load-bearing masonry exterior walls combined with an interior iron and steel frame, a hybrid system of its period. It rises about eleven stories around a central light court and was named for the temporary city hall that once occupied the site, a place associated with roosting birds and politicians. The building is richly detailed on the outside in brick, terra cotta and ironwork. The interior is the main draw: the light court is capped with a glass roof, and an ornate oriel staircase winds upward through the space. In 1905 Frank Lloyd Wright remodeled the lobby and light court, replacing heavy Victorian ornament with white marble and gold-toned decoration, simpler geometry and new lighting. Later decades brought changes to the lobby, and a major restoration in the early 1990s brought it back closer to Wright's design, with further work since. The Rookery is a National Historic Landmark and remains an active office building, so access is organized differently from a museum: the lobby is open to the public on weekdays during business hours, and guided tours are offered by the Chicago Architecture Center and other groups. Visitors walking in can see the light court and staircase from the ground floor, and tours add upper-level views and context on the Burnham and Root partnership and Wright's changes. The building is a short walk from the Art Institute, the Chicago Board of Trade Building and other Loop landmarks on LaSalle Street's historic financial corridor. A visit usually takes 20 to 45 minutes, depending on whether a tour is joined.