Masonry Magazine September 1969 Page. 13
Sweeping skyward in a graceful curve is the new First National Bank of Chicago building. Among other highlights it boasts more than 17,000 tons of granite, more than any other highrise. The $110 million structure occupies a total of 2.2 million square feet in the north half of the block bounded by Clark, Monroe, Dearborn and Madison Streets in Chicago's Loop.
World's Tallest Bank Building
Architects: C. F. Murphy Associates and The Perkins & Will Partnership
General Contractor: Gust K. Newberg Construction Company, Chicago
Masonry, in all its functional elegance, adorns the facing on the sweeping lines of the new 60-story headquarters tower officially opened by The First National Bank of Chicago on May 26.
The dramatically styled, A-shaped structure tapers to a height of 850 feet in the heart of the Loop, ranking it as the world's tallest bank building. It has the added distinction of being tied with the RCA Building in New York City as the sixth tallest structure in the world.
More than 17,000 tons of granite and 40,000 tons of superstructural steel were used in constructing the building. The distinctive new granite, called Pearl Grey and never before used on a major building, was hewn from a quarry near Austin, Texas. The age of the quarry, a 15-acre exposed dome of coarse pink and white granite, has been set by the Texas Geological Survey at one billion, one hundred million years.
The more than 900 truckloads of Pearl Grey required for The First National Bank project is believed to be the most extensive use of granite on a highrise building on record.
Plans for the $110-million building began to take shape on architects' drawing boards in 1964 when the joint venture of C. F. Murphy Associates and The Perkins and Will Partnership was commissioned to design the trend-setting structure. Gust K. Newberg Construction Company of Chicago was selected as the general contractor.
Preparing the site for the project involved the razing (Continued on page 32)