Jewelers Building

Art by: Chris Hytha

Story by: Mark Houser

This unabashedly showy highrise was intended to lure merchants from an established jewelry district three blocks to the south. Its ornate crown once housed a speakeasy, while its stocky base contained one of the country's biggest indoor parking garages.

Exhibitors at a national jewelry trade show held here when it opened must have been impressed with the imposing marble lobby and 15-foot coffered ceilings. But an unexpected anchor tenant took the naming rights along with six floors, so by the time the president of the Chicago Jewelers Association unveiled an eight-ton Father Time clock donated by a prestigious watch manufacturer and mounted above the sidewalk, it was hanging from the Pure Oil Building, a name that stuck for almost 40 years.

An original brochure claimed the skyscraper "typifies the goldsmith's art." Chicago architecture critic Carl Condit reckoned it to be "recklessly extravagant" and "orgiastic." The evil Decepticons liked it well enough to make it their base for Earthly domination in the blockbuster "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

The architects had worked on numerous marquee projects for Daniel Burnham's firm, including the Flatiron Building in New York, and launched their own practice after his death. This was their last collaboration.