About this property
AMA Plaza (formerly IBM Plaza or IBM Building; also known by its address 330 North Wabash Avenue) is a skyscraper in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was designed in the International Style by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, with C. F. Murphy as the associate architect, and was the last building Mies designed in Chicago before his death in 1969. The tower is 695 feet (212 m) tall with 52 stories and, when completed in 1972, initially housed the Chicago offices of the technology firm IBM. Since 2013, the 2nd through 13th stories have functioned as a hotel called the Langham, Chicago, while the remaining stories continue to be used as offices. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is designated as a Chicago Landmark. IBM officials first contacted Mies to design the building in 1966, and the company officially announced plans for the building in June 1968. Work began in February 1969, and the building was formally dedicated on September 20, 1972. After the last vacant offices were leased in 1975, the building remained fully occupied for two decades. IBM downsized its offices in the mid-1990s and sold it in 1996 to the Blackstone Group, which resold it in 1999 to Prime Group Realty. The building's two largest tenants, IBM and Jenner & Block, announced plans to move out during the mid-2000s, and the 2nd through 13th stories were sold off for hotel use in 2008. Following a major renovation of the entire building, Langham Hotels International opened the Langham hotel there in 2013, and the building was renamed that year for the American Medical Association (AMA), a major office tenant. Beacon Capital Partners bought the office stories in 2016 and conducted another renovation. AMA Plaza is positioned near the northern end of the site, set back from the Chicago River, and is surrounded by an outdoor public plaza. A glass curtain wall, with vertical mullions of anodized aluminum, forms the building's exterior. The lobby's facade is set back behind an arcade of columns, while the upper stories are nearly identical in design. The superstructure is a steel frame, with its interiors divided into 30-by-40-foot (9.1 by 12.2 m) rectangular modules. The building was equipped with computer-controlled mechanical systems to increase energy efficiency. The entire ground level is occupied by a lobby, while the second floor (originally the dining room) contains a lobby and restaurant for the hotel. The upper floors were originally open plan offices, though the floors occupied by the hotel have since been subdivided. When AMA Plaza was completed, it received commentary on its design. Both the building and the Langham hotel have received awards, and the building has also been depicted in several works of popular media.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about IBM Building
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Questions about this property
When was IBM Building listed on the National Register?
IBM Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 11, 2010.
What type of historic resource is IBM Building?
IBM Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for IBM Building?
The period of significance for IBM Building is recorded as the modern era, specifically around 1973.
Can I research the history near IBM Building?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near IBM Building will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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