FEDERAL CENTER
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Federal Center in Chicago with 3 buildings organized around a central square with a modernist architecture
Occupying an entire block bounded by four streets - Adams, Jackson, Dearborn and Clark - the Federal Center consists of three buildings organized around a central plaza. The thirty-storey Everett M. Dirksen Courthouse, built in 1964, the single-storey Chicago Central Post Office, built in 1973, and the forty-two-storey John C. Kluczynski Federal Building, built in 1974. All these buildings were designed by the architect Mies van der Rohe, whose simple, functional lines and metal-and-glass structure, devoid of curves or decoration, make this one of his most popular works. The entire structure is built around a 9-metre grid, subdivided into small squares. This grid can be seen everywhere: if you look at the floor of the square, the lines follow exactly those of the black metal beams that make up the three buildings. The same goes for the small stone blocks lining the two tallest buildings: they rigorously follow the main lines of the structures. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling follow the same pattern. These buildings are an example of modernism in architecture, where beauty is in the structure itself, and requires no ornamentation. As the name suggests, the Kluczynski Federal Building houses a number of federal agencies, including the Department of Labor, the US Air Force Recruiting Department and the Internal Revenue Service, which collects taxes.
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