The Fisher Building is 20-story,

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

landmark building located at 343 South Dearborn Street in the

Chicago Loop The Loop, one of Chicago's 77 designated community areas, is the central business district of the city and is the main section of Downtown Chicago. Home to Chicago's commercial core, it is the second largest commercial business district in Nort ...

community area of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Commissioned by paper magnate Lucius Fisher, the original building was completed in 1896 by D.H. Burnham & Company with an addition later added in 1907.

History

At the time of its completion, the building was one of two buildings in Chicago that was 18 stories or greater, the other being the Masonic Building (which was 21 stories tall). To this day, the Fisher Building is the oldest 18 story building in Chicago that has not been demolished. The

Masonic Temple A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting. Development and history In ...

, while taller and older, was demolished in 1939. The original structure was designed by

Charles B. Atwood Charles Bowler Atwood (1849–1895) was an architect who designed several buildings and a large number of secondary structures for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He also designed a number of notable buildings in the city of Ch ...

of D.H. Burnham & Company. In 1906, an addition on the northern side of the building raised it from 18 to 20 stories. A former employee of the Burnham firm, Peter J. Weber, designed and oversaw the building's addition which was completed in 1907. The Fisher Building features

terra-cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta i ...

carvings of various aquatic creatures including fish and crabs. In addition, there are eagles, dragons and mythical creatures depicted on the facade as well. The building houses apartments on floors 3–20 and commercial stores on the first and second floors. The Fisher Building was designated a

Chicago Landmark Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, archite ...

on June 7, 1978, and was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on March 16, 1976.

Notable Tenants (Past and Present)

The main headquarters of the C.A. Dunham Company used to occupy the Fisher Building for most of the 20th Century. Dunham was the inventor of the thermostatic

steam trap A steam trap is a device used to discharge condensates and non-condensable gases with a negligible consumption or loss of live steam. Steam traps are nothing more than automatic valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, d ...

for use on

radiator (heating) Radiators and convectors are heat exchangers designed to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of space heating. Denison Olmsted of New Haven, Connecticut, appears to have been the earliest person to use the term ' ...

equipment, and a pioneer in the development of steam heating systems. As time went on, they merged with the Bush Manufacturing Company to become th
Dunham-Bush Company
Later they purchased the Warren-Webster Company, another steam heating pioneer. Eventually the steam heating division was sold off to become Marshall Engineered Products Company o

The building is currently host to Wheeler Kearns Architects, significant in the production of high end architecture throughout Chicago including Marwen and Stratum Pier, in addition to numerous members of staff teaching at

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a Public university, public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus esta ...

and other institutions. They were Firm of the Year according to the AIA in 2016.

References

;Notes

External links

* {{Chicago Landmark skyscrapers Residential skyscrapers in Chicago Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago Residential buildings completed in 1896 Residential buildings completed in 1907 Apartment buildings in Chicago Gothic Revival architecture in Illinois Art Nouveau architecture in Chicago Art Nouveau apartment buildings Chicago school architecture in Illinois Chicago Landmarks 1896 establishments in Illinois