Chicago Board of Trade Building

The Chicago Board of Trade Building is a 44-story, 604-foot (184 m) Art Deco skyscraper located in the Chicago Loop, standing at the foot of the LaSalle Street "canyon". Built in 1930 for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), it has served as the primary trading venue of the CBOT and later the CME Group, formed in 2007 by the merger of the CBOT and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In 2012, the CME Group sold the CBOT Building to a consortium of real estate investors, including GlenStar Properties LLC and USAA Real Estate Company. The CBOT has been located at the site since 1885. A building designed by William W. Boyington stood at the location from 1885 to 1929, being the tallest building in Chicago from its construction until its clock tower was removed in 1895. The Boyington building became unsound in the 1920s and was demolished in 1929, replaced by the current building designed by Holabird & Root. The current building was itself Chicago's tallest until 1965, when it was surpassed by the Richard J. Daley Center. The current structure is known for its Art Deco architecture, sculptures and large-scale stone carving, as well as large commodity trading floors. An aluminum, three-story Art Deco statue of Ceres, Roman goddess of agriculture (particularly grain), caps the building. The building is a popular sightseeing attraction and location for shooting movies, and its owners and management have won awards for efforts to preserve the building and for office management. The building was listed as a Chicago Landmark in 1977 and a National Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places honoree in 1978.

On April 3, 1848, the Board of Trade opened for business at 101 South Water Street, in a room over the Gage and Haines Flour Store. When 122 members were added in 1856, it was moved to the corner of South Water and LaSalle Streets. After another temporary relocation west on South Water Street in 1860, the first permanent home was established within the Chamber of Commerce Building on the corner of LaSalle and Washington Streets in 1865. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed that building. The exchange temporarily reopened two weeks after the fire in a 90

Building data from Wikidata (CC0); heights normalised. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).