Standard Oil
(3.3 million ft2) aka Amoco Building
Chicago, Illinois (1972)
83 stories, 1,136 feet, 346.3 meters
Edward Durell Stone & Associates, Architect. The Perkins & Will Partnership, Architect and Engineer. Turner Construction Company, Contractor. Standard Oil Company of Indiana, Developer. AmProp Finance Company, Current Owner.

The second tallest tower in Chicago, the Standard Oil Building is a stand-out due to its monumental proportions and gleaming white facade. Measuring 194 feet square in plan and boasting generous 30,000 square-foot floor plates, the tower was originally clad in Italian Carrara marble, and later replaced with 44,000 pieces of 2-inch thick granite. The building employs a tubular steel-framed structural system with V-shaped perimeter columns to resist earthquakes, reduce sway, minimize column bending, and maximize column-free space. To further expand rentable area, 40 of the building's 50 elevators are double-deckers, an often preferred solution to ensure efficient vertical circulation while reducing the space consumed by the central service core.

More Standard Oil superlatives:

The foundation features 56 caissons consisting of steel-encased vertical shafts filled with reinforced concrete and socketed several feet into solid bedrock more than 100 feet below ground. The caissons contain 50 million pounds of concrete and 2 million of steel.

Photo Courtesy of The Amoco Corporation