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The Franklin Center is a 60-story supertall skyscraper in the Loop neighborhood of downtown Chicago. Completed in 1989 as the AT&T Corporate Center to consolidate the central region headquarters of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), it stands at a height of and contains of floor space. It is located two blocks east of the Chicago River and northeast of the Willis Tower with a main address of 227 West Monroe Street and an alternate address of 100 South Franklin Street.

The building is the tallest constructed in Chicago in the last quarter of the 20th century. It is the 6th tallest building in Chicago and the 23rd tallest in the United States.

Tishman Speyer acquired the property in 2004 and renamed the adjacent USG Building as Franklin Center in 2007 after USG relocated its offices. The name was later applied to the entire complex.

History

A 1982 consent decree split the American Telephone & Telegraph Company monopoly into several entities with local service providers becoming part of a Regional Bell Operating Company. In the decade that followed, AT&T erected new buildings across the country including the AT&T Building in New York City. April 5, 1985, AT&T issued a request for proposals that produced eleven respondents. Stein and Co., the winning realtor, sought Skidmore, Owings and Merrill as designers for the purpose of distinguishing a proposal from the nearby Willis Tower. AT&T employees began to occupy the office space April 3, 1989.

The building was built under a self-imposed comprehensive minority contracting and affirmative action package that met the city's 1985 30% hiring rule for public sector projects. Chicago mayor Harold Washington's administration issued a directive that 30% of the work for public sector projects be set aside for minority and women-owned businesses. In a show of support for this rule, Stein & Co. and AT&T adopted the rule for its private development.

Architecture

Designed by Adrian D. Smith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Franklin Center is one of the most famous and recognized buildings in Chicago. Above the 5th floor, the lighter rose-beige granite is protected by silk-screened aluminum panels.

USG Building

thumb|Franklin Street facade

The USG Corporation developed the 35-story structure originally known as the USG Building as its corporate headquarters building immediately adjacent to and connected to the AT&T Corporate Center in 1992. Located at 125 South Franklin Street, the same developers, architects and design teams were chosen, and the two buildings were built jointly as a block-long complex on an site.

  • Credit Agricole
  • Glanbia Nutritionals
  • KeyBank
  • Options Clearing Corporation
  • Cantor Fitzgerald
  • Credit Suisse
  • Eris Exchange
  • FTI Consulting
  • General American Transportation Corporation
  • Guggenheim Partners
  • HSBC
  • John Crane Group
  • Robert W. Baird & Co.
  • TGG Group
  • The Trade Desk
  • West Monroe Partners
  • Zekelman Industries

Awards

  • 1990 - Award of Excellence for Urban Development, from the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties
  • 1992 - Best New Building, from the Chicago civic group Friends of Downtown
  • 1997 - Most Valuable Property National Top Ten, from The Wall Street Journal
  • 1998 - Prix d'Excellence, Office Properties Worldwide, from FIABCI International

Position in Chicago's skyline (2006)

The Center is the 6th tallest completed building in Chicago, trailing the Willis Tower, Aon Center, John Hancock Center, and Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago) in height.