One Prudential Plaza (formerly known as the Prudential Building) is a 41-story structure in

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

completed in 1955 as the headquarters for Prudential's Mid-America company. It was the first skyscraper built in Chicago since the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Second World War. The plaza, including a second building erected in 1990, is owned by BentleyForbes and a consortium of New York investors, since the

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of the early 21st century.

History of construction

The structure was significant as the first new downtown

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

constructed in Chicago since the

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, 21 years earlier and was built on

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over the

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. It was the last building ever connected to the

Chicago Tunnel Company The Chicago Tunnel Company was the builder and operator of a narrow-gauge railway freight tunnel network under downtown Chicago, Illinois. This was regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission as an interurban even though it operated entire ...

's tunnel network. When the Prudential was finished it had the highest roof in Chicago with only the statue of

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on the Chicago Board of Trade higher. Its mast served as a broadcasting antenna for Chicago's WGN-TV. The architect was Naess & Murphy, a precursor to C.F. Murphy & Associates and later Murphy/Jahn Architects.

Recent purchase

In May 2006, BentleyForbes, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm, run by

Frederick Wehba Frederick Wehba (born February 23, 1947) is an American real-estate investor and founder of the firm BentleyForbes. Personal life Wehba was born and raised in Texas. He describes his childhood that he spent working in his father's grocery sto ...

and his family purchased One Prudential Plaza, along with its sister property,

Two Prudential Plaza The Two Prudential Plaza is a 64-story skyscraper located in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. At tall, it is currently the sixth-tallest building in Chicago and the 28th-tallest in the U.S., being only five feet from 1,000 feet, making it ...

for $470 million. After a default on the mortgage encumbering the towers during the

of the early 21st century, New York-based investors 601W Companies and Berkley Properties, represented by New York law firm Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP took control of the towers after investing more than $100 million in equity to recapitalize. BentleyForbes, the prior controlling owner of the towers, continues to have an interest in the owning partnership.

Tenants

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*Studio 1847
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American Institute of Steel Construction
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Position in Chicago's skyline

References

External links