Epstein's Top 100 Projects: #72: LaSalle & Jackson (Union Tank Car Building)

Coming in at no. 72 in our Top 100 Projects countdown is the 24-story, $16 million high-rise office building at the corners of LaSalle and Jackson, located in the heart of Chicago.

Completed in 1961, the LaSalle & Jackson building, later to be known as the Union Tank Car and now known as the Transunion Building, was developed and designed by the same team that was responsible for the 22-story Borg Warner Building. This team included National Properties as the developer, Collins Tuttle as the program managers, and Epstein as the architect and engineer.

Union Tank Car, owners and operators of the United States’ largest fleet or railway cars at the time, occupied the top four floors and the penthouse and, as the main tenant of the building, LaSalle & Jackson was named after them shortly after move-in.

LaSalle & Jackson featured a heat absorbing gray glass curtain wall construction with anodized aluminum mullions spaced between exterior expressed columns clad in white marble.

Additionally, an advanced construction technique for the time enabled LaSalle & Jackson to be built with smaller than usual columns. The steel reinforcing bars were welded instead of being tied together with wire, so that each bar in the columns runs continuously from the caissons to the roof.

The building was set back 34 feet from the curb on Jackson and featured a street level plaza and reflecting pool. This design element helped to break-up the canyon effect of the street, giving greater visibility to the iconic Board of Trade building next door.