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Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room: Reconstruction at the Art Institute of Chicago

A grand, double-height room with wood paneling, stenciled wall patterns, four hexagonal columns, and an interior balcony with guardrail at left.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A grand, double-height room with wood paneling, stenciled wall patterns, four hexagonal columns, and an interior balcony with guardrail at left.

Date:

1893/94 (original built)
1972 (original demolished)
1976/77 (reconstructed)

Artist:

Adler & Sullivan, original architects; American, 1883-1896
Vinci & Kenny, reconstruction architects; American, 1970-1977

About this artwork

The metal-frame Chicago Stock Exchange building was one of Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan’s most distinctive commercial structures. The centerpiece of this thirteen-story building was the Trading Room, a dramatic, double-height space that was designed for the daily operations of the Stock Exchange and filled with Sullivan’s lush organic ornament and stenciled patterns. Despite the singular beauty of this room, it served its original function for just fourteen years and was occupied only sporadically thereafter. In the late 1960s, the building was targeted for demolition and became the focus of an important, although ultimately unsuccessful, preservation battle. During the course of demolition, photographer and activist Richard Nickel was working to salvage ornament from the building when the unstable structure collapsed and he was tragically killed. As a tribute to Nickel and Sullivan, sections of the Trading Room stencils, molded pilaster capitals, and art glass were preserved and in 1977 the Art Institute created a complete reconstruction of this significant room in a new wing of the museum. At the same time, the monumental entry arch of the Stock Exchange was erected on the museum grounds near the corner of Monroe Street and Columbus Drive.

Status

On View, Stock Exchange Trading Room

Department

Architecture and Design

Artist

Adler & Sullivan, Architects (Architect)

Title

Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room: Reconstruction at the Art Institute of Chicago

Place

Art Institute of Chicago (Building address)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Built 1893–1894

Medium

Mixed media recreation of room

Dimensions

Room is roughly 5,704 square feet (not including gallery)

Credit Line

Gift of Three Oaks Wrecking Company

Reference Number

RX23310/0002

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/156538/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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