Field Building

The Field Building occupies the ground where the first Fort Dearborn stood before the eighteen seventy-one fire. Its limestone facade rises in a sharp, tapered profile, reaching forty-five stories toward the skyline. During the Great Depression, the estate of Marshall Field spent eighteen million dollars to construct this skyscraper. Workers finished the job in nineteen thirty-four, making it the last major office building completed in downtown Chicago before the long construction lull that lasted until the end of the second world war.