Sullivan Center

1881–1895: Early leases and expansions

In 1885, Schlesinger & Mayer leased 133–135 State Street immediately south of the Bowen Building, which gave the company a total of 60,000 square feet (5,600 m²). Leiter attempted to evict the firm that year because of a dispute over the ground-lease payments. Schlesinger & Mayer ended up buying the building (but not the land) in 1886, and a judge ruled against Leiter in 1889. Adler & Sullivan were hired in 1890 to replace the Bowen Building's mansard roof and dome with two additional stories. Sullivan was asked to redesign three bays, with the rest to follow if Schlesinger & Mayer liked his work. That February, Schlesinger & Mayer leased two properties south of the existing store, at 137–139 State Street. A boiler plant was added in conjunction with this annex. Two additional buildings at 141–143 State Street were acquired in 1891, increasing the frontage there to 200 feet (61 m). The four State Street properties formed an L-shaped assemblage, as the newly leased lots at 137–143 State extended 160 feet (49 m) eastward from State Street, while the two buildings to the north extended only 80 feet (24 m) eastward.

After leasing 141–143 State, Schlesinger & Mayer wanted Adler & Sullivan to remodel the State Street buildings as a single structure with a unified facade; sources disagree on whether the enlarged building was to be six or eight stories high. Minimal interior modifications were needed because the floor levels of all four buildings were at the same heights. The renovations would have included an elaborate entrance on State Street, plans for which were announced in 1892. No action was taken for several years, during which Adler and Sullivan dissolved their partnership, forcing Schlesinger & Mayer to pick between the two men. Schlesinger & Mayer ultimately hired Sullivan because of his reputation designing artistic buildings. Frank Lloyd Wright, a onetime draftsman at Adler & Sullivan, later said that most of their clients had instead stayed with Adler.

1896–1897 expansion

Schlesinger & Mayer's site on State Street was among the most valuable in Chicago by the early 1890s. One block east, the Union Elevated Railroad (later part of the Chicago "L") was constructing its Loop above Wabash Avenue. Several retailers on State Street had acquired land on Wabash Avenue to cater to the riders who were expected to use the elevated. Other retailers nearby—who, like Schlesinger & Mayer, leased the land under their buildings and had high ground-lease payments—were rebuilding their stores to attract customers.

In May 1896, Schlesinger & Mayer signed a 99-year lease for two lots on Wabash Avenue owned by the Barker family. The next month, the company signed another 99-year lease with Frederick T. Haskell for two adjacent sites to the south, giving it an 80-by-171-foot (24 by 52 m) assemblage at 141–147 Wabash Avenue. Schlesinger & Mayer commissioned Sullivan to design a ten-story steel structure. The company set a $100,000 budget for the building, which was to be connected by a footbridge to its existing State Street buildings. Work on the Barker site at 141–143 Wabash was underway by August 1896, in anticipation of a September opening. The existing four-story structure was to be remodeled, forming the base of the ten-story building, but only the lowest two floors were ultimately renovated. Schlesinger & Mayer also negotiated to lease two stories in an adjacent building at 135–139 Wabash. The Haskell lease at 145–147 Wabash was not finalized until early 1897.

Sullivan expanded 137–143 State to six stories in 1896, following the original early-1890s plans for these sites. This renovation included an elaborate French cafe. After these modifications were completed in 1897, the building measured eight bays wide on State Street and four on Madison Street, in addition to the Wabash Avenue property. Sullivan also designed a pedestrian bridge connecting 141–143 Wabash's second floor to the elevated Loop's brand-new Madison/Wabash station. Schlesinger & Mayer and Union Elevated agreed to the footbridge in May 1897, but just as the bridge was being completed, the city halted work on November 20. Overnight, 200 workers secretly completed the bridge, which opened the next day. The bridge had elaborate metalwork, steel girders, and glass walls and was similar in design to an overpass in Paris, but was later removed. Schlesinger & Mayer leased 145 State Street from Burley & Co. in 1897, adding 30 feet (9.1 m) to the State Street frontage south of the existing lots. This lease did not take effect until May 1900 when the existing tenants moved out.

First phase

In early 1898, Leiter gave Schlesinger & Mayer a 99-year ground lease on the Bowen Building property for $11.088 million, a record for any property in Chicago. The lease mandated the complete redevelopment of the site within ten years and that any new building cost at least $600,000. Schlesinger & Meyer also bought multiple adjacent buildings, including the properties already leased by the store, for the new project. Sullivan drew up two designs, rising 10 and 12 stories but otherwise identical, with elaborate bronze storefronts on the lowest two stories and a white marble facade above. That May, news media reported that the 12-story design would be built for $1 million, while sketches in the Chicago Daily Tribune showed the 10-story plan. Contrasting with Sullivan's previous rectangular work, the building was to contain a rounded corner at State and Madison, evoking the Bowen Building's old curve; the curve was shaped as an octagon at its base. The plans, exhibited at the Chicago Architectural Club that year, were so extravagant that they elicited skepticism.

Leiter sold the Bowen Building site that July to Marshall Field's department store, operated by Leiter's former business partner Marshall Field. By then, Schlesinger & Mayer had hired Adler to design the store's electrical plant, disregarding the possibility of conflict with Sullivan. After a period of vacillation regarding the building's size, Schlesinger & Mayer decided to erect the building in phases, starting with property on Madison Street. The company also directed Sullivan to shorten the building to nine floors. It received a construction permit for the first phase on Madison Street in November 1898, covering a 140-by-182-foot (43 by 55 m) site. The first phase occupied only part of its lot, measuring three bays wide; this allowed the existing Bowen Building and its annexes to remain open temporarily. Sullivan had completed his working drawings by the end of December, by which point work was to begin in early 1899. Continued confusion arose when Schlesinger & Mayer's indecision over the building's height, which was ultimately finalized at nine stories to comply with Chicago's 130-foot (40 m) height limit.

The plans were finalized in April 1899; the building was downsized because Schlesinger & Mayer had not acquired as much land as expected. This revised plan was to cost $600,000. Land clearing at 50–56 Madison Street began on May 1, and the firm simultaneously leased temporary space at 133–139 Wabash. That July, Schlesinger & Mayer paid the Chicago government $500 for permission to protrude the storefront bay outward. Work on the new building was rushed to minimize lost profits; by October, the new building's first phase had topped out. The first phase was open at the end of the year, having cost over $330,000. By then, the site was among the highest-valued in Chicago, at $159.68 per square foot ($1,718.8/m²). The opening of the Schlesinger & Mayer Building's first phase coincided with the completion of two other Sullivan projects: the Gage Group Buildings and the Bayard–Condict Building.

Second phase

Eugene S. Pike, who owned the Bowen Building's leasehold, sued Schlesinger & Mayer in February 1900, claiming the firm was "ruining the building" by removing stairs, walls, elevators, and machinery. A judge placed an injunction restricting further renovations that April. Merchant Otto Young, who had acquired land immediately to the south at 145–153 State Street, announced the next year that Schlesinger & Mayer planned to develop a building there. Schlesinger & Mayer wished to resume construction after the Chicago City Council voted in March 1902 to increase height limits to 260 feet (79 m). The company sought to build a 280-foot-tall (85 m) tower was unsuccessful in securing a further height increase.

Henry Siegel, the executive of Siegel, Cooper & Co., acquired Schlesinger's share of the company in June 1902 following months of negotiations. This acquisition increased Schlesinger & Mayer's assets to $6.5 million; at the time, the building's full construction cost was estimated at $1–2 million. Siegel, Cooper & Co. decided to proceed with the second phase, and Schlesinger & Mayer took out a $3 million mortgage loan on the property in August. Sullivan drew up drawings for an annex at the corner of State and Madison streets. The annex, covering 180 by 70 feet (55 by 21 m), was similar in design to the first phase but had 12 stories. Schlesinger & Mayer initially intended to also expand the first phase from 9 to 12 stories but learned that its foundations were too weak. The final design was nearly identical to Sullivan's original 1898 plans, except for the base and top three stories.

The George A. Fuller Company was hired as the general contractor for the second phase. In October, workers began constructing caissons for the second phase's foundation under the existing buildings, which remained in operation, to avoid interfering with the store's holiday window displays. Due to the constrained space, only six caissons were laid at a time. Two lifts were installed to extract debris, but to avoid turning away visitors, no supplies could be stored on the street. The foundations were completed in January 1903 and cost only about $8,000 more than comparable foundations built on empty sites. The Fuller Company was rehired for the second phase's superstructure. The northern section at the corner was to be built by May, followed by the southern section that October. Schlesinger & Mayer moved to the new building's first phase on Madison Street and the older buildings on State Street, which flanked the corner lot.

After the corner had been razed, work on the second phase's northern section began on January 15, 1903. Steelwork was being installed by January 25, and it took twelve days to construct the floor slabs. The corner section was finished on April 25 and opened on May 11. Land clearing for the second phase's southern section began in May, immediately after the northern section opened. The framework had been built by July. The next month, laborers went on strike to protest Fuller Construction's refusal to hire carpenters for the building's falsework; the strike ended after two weeks. The southern section opened on October 12, 1903, giving the building a frontage of 180 feet (55 m) on State and 145 feet (44 m) on State Street. Though the building had cost $1.65 million to date, the interior was still incomplete. The second phase's construction had caused $300,000 in lost revenue between January and May 1903 alone. Sullivan also redesigned the Wabash Avenue buildings that year. When the second phase opened, Schlesinger & Mayer gave tours of the mechanical system.

Ownership changes

Meanwhile, Schlesinger & Mayer's monetary shortfalls had prompted Mayer to seek further land for expansion, as well as more radical ideas such as merging with rival department store Carson Pirie Scott (colloquially Carson's). The company had leased 155 State Street from Adolf Kraus in August 1903 and it leased the adjacent Columbus Club property on Monroe Street, the next month. The company, needing to expand its offices quickly, evicted a jeweler who had been subleasing 145 State. The firm unsuccessfully attempted to buy Young's lease at 145–153 State, which separated the new building from the Columbus Club and 155 State. By early 1904, Mayer no longer wanted to acquire additional land and was looking to sell the building and leaseholds.

Department store operator Harry Selfridge bought the new building, the leaseholds, and all of Schlesinger & Mayer's other assets in May 1904. He paid $5 million, far more than what equivalent real estate across State Street would have cost. The building became a Selfridge & Co. store that June, and Selfridge sold the building to Young that month for $1.485 million, occupying it under a leaseback agreement. Field continued to own the land. Selfridge was unable to obtain 145–153 State, and the leases of 155 State and the Columbus Club also fell through.

After eight weeks of ownership, Selfridge sold the building's lease and the store's assets to Carson's that August for a net profit of $400,000. The lease on Carson's previous flagship store at the Reliance Building was about to expire, influencing its decision to buy the Selfridge's building. Carson's agreed to pay Young $196,000 annually for the building, which was renamed the Carson Pirie Scott Building. The company relocated there on September 19, 1904; it was the final relocation for Carson's Chicago flagship, which had moved nearly a dozen times in a half-century of business.

Third phase

Soon after acquiring the building, Carson's sought to expand it southward, but it did not hire Sullivan for unknown reasons. D. H. Burnham & Company—the architectural firm of Daniel Burnham, who had designed the Reliance Building—was hired to design the third phase of the Carson Pirie Scott Building. The annex, measuring five bays wide, was to be built at 145–153 State. Carson's subleased the site from Young in January 1905, paying $346,000 annually. Carson's and Young agreed to construct a 12-story building with foundations strong enough for 18 stories, continuing the exterior design of the first two phases. Construction was to be postponed until the next year, and several months elapsed before Burnham began working on the design. That August, the city government notified Carson's that the curved corner entrance protruded onto the street and was likely subject to rent payments.

Field died in January 1906, bequeathing his land to the Field Museum of Natural History. Shortly afterward, Burnham & Co. subcontracted the masonry and foundation work to Thompson–Starrett Company. Carson's received a construction permit for the annex in mid-April, and demolition work began on May 1. At the time, the annex had an estimated cost of $850,000. Young died that year, but his will precluded the trustees of his estate from selling the building until at least ten years after the death of his daughter Julia. Under his will, rental income from the building went to his daughters. The original Carson Pirie Scott Building's third and final phase ultimately opened in October 1907, providing additional space for men's, women's, and children's clothing departments.

Late 1900s to late 1920s: Expansion

Initially, Carson's used its storefront windows for elaborate displays. The city government directed Carson's to remove protruding signage from the Madison Street facade in 1909. as part of a signage ban along that street. In 1912, the Crozer family—the legal owner of the lots at 145–153 State, by then renamed 25–29 South State Street—sold these parcels to the Field estate.

In 1922, Carson's bought the Thomas Church Building at 32–34 South Wabash Avenue, adjoining its existing Wabash Avenue frontage. Carson's obtained the Mentor Building at State and Monroe two years later. This gave the company full control of State Street's eastern frontage between Madison and Monroe streets. Following these land acquisitions, Carson's contemplated expanding the existing building farther south. Concurrently, Burnham & Co. was erecting the Wabash Monroe Building, at the northwest corner of Wabash Avenue and Monroe Street on the same block, for another developer. The company leased several floors in the Wabash Monroe Building for its men's store in late 1926; at the time, several of Carson's competitors had men's departments facing Wabash Avenue, while the men's store still occupied the building on State Street. Carson's had leased the entirety of the Wabash Monroe Building by that December, and it also evicted the Church Building's tenants to provide space for the men's store.

The men's store moved to the Wabash Monroe Building in July 1927. Carson's also moved several other departments to the new building, allowing the company to renovate the older building. The main entrance was relocated southward, away from the curved corner, The interior was reconfigured to provide wider aisles. Several existing departments were enlarged, and new counters were built around existing columns to take advantage of the open-plan interiors. A footbridge was built to connect the shoe departments in the Carson Pirie Scott and Wabash Monroe buildings. Carson's postponed its plans for a southward expansion of the original building, instead leasing out the Mentor Building.

Early 1930s to early 1950s

Carson's had acquired two further plots on Wabash Avenue by 1930, connecting the interiors of these buildings and remodeling their storefronts. By then, the original Carson Pirie Scott Building on State Street and the store's Wabash Avenue expansions, which were offset from each other, covered much of the block. In 1935, Carson's announced plans to spend $1.25–1.5 million on renovations, including heating, air conditioning, and elevators. Escalators were also added, necessitating the rearrangement of interior spaces, including new diagonal aisles on the second floor. A plaque to World War I soldiers was dedicated at the building in 1938, and four budget-merchandise departments opened two years later. When the State Street subway was proposed in 1941, Carson's received permission to construct an entrance from the subway (between Washington and Monroe stations, which shared a continuous platform) to the original Carson Pirie Scott Building. The subway entrance opened in 1944.

By the mid-1940s, Carson's sought to expand its building, though World War II-era material restrictions prevented work from beginning immediately. Carson's received a permit in 1947 to expand into the north–south alley running midblock between Madison and Monroe streets. The next year, the facade decorations were removed from the top floors of Sullivan's sections. Carson's also announced plans for another building on Monroe Street, consisting of modifications to an existing 10-story building there. The Monroe expansion opened in 1950. The downtown Chicago buildings were Carson's only store location until 1952, when the company opened its first branch. Carson's leased space in the building to Childs & Wood for an insurance bureau the next year. By then, the original building was known as the North State Street Building.

Mid-1950s to late 1960s: Further expansion

In 1954, Carson's proposed buying the original building at State and Madison from Otto Young's estate for $6,321,503, but the trustees could not sell the building without court permission because Julia Young was still alive. If acquisition were not possible and Young's trustees could not lower the rent, Carson's threatened to relocate. Carson's submitted an updated bid of $7.25 million in January 1955, but federal judge Michael L. Igoe restarted the bidding process the next month. In response, Carson's proposed expanding the Wabash Avenue properties—forming an L shape around the original building—for $5 million. Carson's also sought to sell the lease, which ran five more years. When a New York company offered $7.5 million for the building that July, Igoe withheld approval of the bid contingent on Carson's ability to match the order. After Carson's agreed to pay that amount, Igoe gave Carson's the right to buy the building.

Carson's finalized its purchase in October 1955, paying about 25% of the cost in cash and taking out a mortgage for the remaining amount. The same year, Carson's announced plans to condense its selling areas, since it no longer needed to reserve space in the Wabash Avenue properties for a potential relocation. The top floors of the original building and the Wabash Monroe Building were converted to offices, and new air conditioning and escalators were added on the original building's lowest eight floors. The original decorations at the corner entrance, on State and Madison, were removed or concealed. The renovation program was half-complete by 1958, at which point sales departments had been consolidated in the basement through seventh stories; many of the departments had also been rearranged between different floors. The Heather House restaurant opened on the eighth floor in 1959. Despite Carson's rapid growth in the suburbs, its downtown store was still its primary operation.

By 1960, Carson's had acquired three buildings south of the Carson Pirie Scott Building, having leased the sites for several years. That July, Carson's announced plans to spend $2 million on an eight-story annex south of the existing building, designed by Holabird & Root and spanning 59,500 square feet (5,530 m²). The annex was one of several ongoing major expansions of department stores on State Street during that time. By then, the store occupied over 1 million square feet (93,000 m²) on the block, but the company was considering leasing out space in its adjacent buildings. The annex was finished by 1961, and O'Connor & Goldberg leased a shoe store on the annex's lower floors. Carson's also restored other parts of its existing structures and continued to seek additional property on the same block during the decade. Large parts of the Carson Pirie Scott Building were damaged by arson in 1968, causing $20 million in damage; some departments reopened quickly, but the flagship store still lost money due to the fire.

1970s to 1990s

A Honey Bear Farm gourmet shop opened at the building in 1970. During that decade, the Field Museum still owned the site, with the United Methodist Church and the Northern Trust Company as co-owners. Carson's bought the Field Museum's section of the land in 1978 for $2 million, gaining full control of the property. The land acquisition ensured that ownership of the building would not revert to the landowner when the leasehold expired. Concurrently, Carson's had announced plans in 1977 for a renovation of the building's first floor, part of a wider-ranging initiative to rehabilitate State Street. Architect John Vinci was hired to oversee the renovation, which involved cleaning the upper facade and repainting the base. The work also involved restoring the original ornamentation in the corner entrance's vestibule, which was rededicated in mid-1979.

The first floor was renovated in 1984. Carson's also spent $2–3 million converting the basement into a Corporate Level store for women, which opened that August. The next year, Carson's divided the second floor into 30 small apparel shops, renovated the men's departments, and opened a Corporate Level men's store next to the women's store. Carson's evicted O'Connor & Goldberg from the State Street annex in 1986 to expand its own departments, and a grocery store opened at the building the following year. By the late 1980s, the site occupied a blighted portion of State Street, and many nearby upscale stores had moved to the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue. Bergner's, which acquired Carson's in 1989, considered closing and redeveloping the Carson's flagship building.

The 1992 Chicago flood damaged equipment and closed the building for two weeks; by then, Bergner's owed $1.4 million in property taxes. By 1994, the sixth floor was being renovated, and Bergner's (rebranded Carson's) was planning to remodel the first floor. At that point, the original interior design had been significantly altered, and the top five stories were being rented out. The restoration had been completed by the late 1990s. Afterward, Carson's proposed selling the building in 1998 to Joseph Freed and Associates, which agreed the next year to buy the building. Carson's also requested that the city provide tax increment financing (TIF) to help fund further restoration. The Chicago government approved $5.5 million in TIF funds for terracotta restoration and agreed to buy out the remaining sites. Another $8 million was allocated for other aspects of the project.

2000s: Initial renovations and Carson's closure

In late 2001, Freed Associates finalized its purchase for $19 million. Carson's occupied about 620,000 square feet (58,000 m²) in the original Carson Pirie Scott Building and neighboring structures under a leaseback agreement, spanning the lowest seven stories. The upper stories of these structures were to be redeveloped as 400,000 square feet (37,000 m²) of office space, rebranded as Sullivan Center. About half of the office space was to be renovated from existing space, while the remainder was to be new construction. The $50 million cost was to be funded primarily by Sherwin-Williams and the National City Bank of Cleveland, with some city and federal tax credits. A new lobby was created to serve the upper stories. GFRC of Lincoln, Nebraska, rebuilt the terracotta decorations on the top stories of Sullivan's two phases. During renovations in 2002, the roof caught fire. By the mid-2000s, most of the office space had been leased.

Bon-Ton Stores Inc. acquired the Carson's chain in late 2005. It considered downsizing the Chicago flagship, which was five to six times larger than the company's average store, or alternatively renovating the building. The first phase of renovations, including restoration and cleaning of the upper facade, was completed in 2006. That August, Bon-Ton announced that the flagship store would close early the next year, after Freed Associates bought out Bon-Ton's lease. By then, the store was losing money due to reduced visitation, but there was increasing demand for commercial and residential space in the Loop. The store closed in February 2007. Afterward, only a small restaurant remained in the building's retail space, and there were concerns that future tenants might not preserve the historical design details.

As part of the Sullivan Center project, Freed Associates wished to convert most of the former Carson's space into offices, retaining only 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²) on the lowest two floors for retail uses. Freed Associates initially sought to lease the downsized retail space to grocer Fox & Obel and clothing store Billabong, both of which withdrew. Meanwhile, in late 2007 the city provided $9.5 million for ironwork restoration. During the renovation, workers uncovered pieces of a storefront Sullivan had designed during the 1903 modifications to the Wabash Avenue buildings. The Wabash Avenue facades were completed in 2009, followed by the original building's facade the next year. The ironwork restoration received a preservation award from Landmarks Illinois.

2010s to present

By the early 2010s, the renovation's cost had increased to $190 million. The renovation was financed by a loan from PNC Bank, which repeatedly extended the loan's due date during the 2008 financial crisis but refused to extend the loan after 2010. An effort to lease some retail space to City Winery was unsuccessful, while department store Target had expressed an interest in occupying other parts of the retail space. Target finalized a lease for 125,000 sq ft (11,600 m²) in February 2011, and it sought permission to restore the lower floors and add its logo to the exterior. In February 2012, Freed Associates sold a 60% stake in the development to Winthrop Realty Trust and Elad Canada. Winthrop and Elan renovated the retail space for $4.4 million. The Target store opened that July and won an architectural preservation award from the American Institute of Architects. The Financial Times wrote that Sullivan Center was among "the most beautiful stores in the world [that] are now either empty or occupied by discount stores".

Sullivan Center and the neighboring structures were placed for sale in 2014 and sold to a joint venture led by Madison Capital in April 2016 for $257 million. The sale included a provision allowing the retail and office floors to be split up into different ownership condominiums; at the time, the buildings had tax credits that prohibited such an ownership split. That August, the Madison Capital joint venture sold the retail space to Acadia Realty Trust for $147 million. 601W Companies bought the office space in 2018 for $176 million, upon which the offices were nearly fully occupied. At the time, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Gensler were among the office tenants.

By 2022, the building had 70,000 square feet (6,500 m²) of unoccupied office space; amid a decline in office occupancy rates, its owners had renovated some of the space to attract tenants. Tenants who moved in during the 2020s included the Chicago Community Trust.

Base

Sullivan's early proposal called for the two-story base to be clad with bronze, but he ultimately used cast iron, a cheaper material. The cast iron is about 1⁄2 inch (13 mm) thick and was supposed to be electroplated for added durability. To save money, it was covered with asphaltum primer and green and red coats of paint, mixed to resemble a bronze patina; by the mid-20th century, it had been repainted gray. The cast iron was designed so that, seen from a certain angle, the natural lighting and shadows would give the appearance that the upper stories were floating. Kristian Schneider, who had previously produced ornament for other Sullivan buildings, made the plaster casts for Elmslie's designs. The decorations themselves were cast by Winslow Brothers, whose other works included the Rockefeller and Society for Savings buildings in Cleveland. After the lower stories became a Target store, the cast-iron facade was nicknamed the "Goth Target".

In Sullivan's original plans, the corner of State and Madison streets would have contained a polygonal display window, flanked by entrances on both streets. Ultimately, a circular entrance bay was built there, designed in a similar fashion to an entrance that Paul Sédille designed for the Printemps flagship store in Paris. Sullivan designed the corner entry to be seen from both streets, with elaborate ornamentation above it, such as wreaths above the doorways. The initials L.H.S,, for the architect's full name Louis Henry Sullivan, are inscribed within the wreaths. The New York Times dubbed the wreaths "a sensational encrustation of cast iron ornamentation". On Madison Street, at the eastern end of that elevation, is a canopy overhanging another entrance. A third entrance exists at the southern end of the State Street elevation.

The display windows are surrounded by additional ironwork, which Sullivan considered "a garment of poetic imagery". The windows' ironwork was intended to frame the merchandise on display, attracting the attention of shoppers, who at the time were primarily women. To further entice shoppers, Sullivan wanted the display windows to protrude past the lot line onto the city-owned sidewalk, but since these incurred rental costs, later phases did not incorporate protruding windows. Both stories are topped by lintel panels. Behind each window were two display areas, which each measured 6–8 feet (1.8–2.4 m) deep. Prismatic glass panes above the window panes themselves reflected sunlight and, by extension, better illuminated the merchandise inside. Sullivan initially wanted the second-floor windows to be an open loggia but initially placed standard windows there.

Upper section

Originally, Sullivan wanted the 3rd through 12th floors to be clad with white marble, cut to exacting dimensions and left exposed. Marble had been used in Schlesinger & Mayer's earlier building and other comparable department stores, and the material was selected for its fireproof quality and for its use in other classical buildings in the eastern US. As built, these floors are covered in terracotta tiles. Sullivan had used terracotta in his earlier high-rise buildings, and at the time of the first phase's construction, a stonecutters' strike made it difficult to obtain marble. Sullivan also reduced the heights of the 10th to 12th floors between his original and final plans.

The Northwestern Terra Cotta Company manufactured the terracotta tiles. Each tile measures about 2 feet (0.61 m) long, about one-tenth the width of each bay, and is laid in alternating thin and thick courses. Within the first section, the terracotta is clad with a matte finish to resemble natural stone, more specifically Sullivan's original conception for the marble. The terracotta tiles interlock, with gaps of less than 1⁄16 inch (1.6 mm) between each tile, and were smoothened prior to installation. The terracotta spandrels are laid horizontally, interrupting vertical piers. Sullivan wanted to place greater prominence upon the horizontal details, in contrast to his emphasis of vertical details on his earlier Prudential and Wainwright buildings.

On the State and Madison elevations, the steel frame allowed Sullivan Center's windows to span the entire width of their bays. The windows consist of large plate glass sections flanked by smaller sash windows. This specific window layout later became known as the Chicago window. At the curved corner are narrow windows separated by protruding colonettes, which are closely spaced to create vertical emphasis. The windows between these colonnettes were originally curved windows that swung horizontally, later replaced with conventional double hung sash windows.

The respective top stories of Sullivan Center's first two phases (9th in the first phase, 12th in the second) have recessed windows between freestanding columns. This gave the appearance of an attic, contrasting with the spare decoration on the middle stories, and comported with Sullivan's belief that the top of a facade be decorated. Cornices protruded beyond the walls. The top stories' original decorations were removed in 1948 and were replicated in 2006, with new cornices made of fiberglass. The third phase, by Burnham, did not include a special facade treatment on the top story; all floors from the 3rd above were designed the same way.

Interior layout

Originally, the first (uppermost) basement was part of the store's selling spaces. The main corner entrance, at State and Madison streets, leads to a vestibule (also known as the rotunda), originally separated into two sections. The vestibule has mosaic-tile floors, later divided by bronze strips. The vestibule's walls and ceiling have a mahogany veneer, and the vestibule is flanked by two columns; a cast-iron lamp is suspended from the ceiling between the columns. The rest of the first floor originally had small clothes items and jewelry, which Schlesinger & Mayer hoped would entice shoppers to go upstairs. The first floor had a 16-foot-wide (4.9 m) aisle, advertised as the widest in the city.

The second to seventh stories had departments with larger clothes items, along with more substantial product lines such as art, millinery, fabrics, carpets. There were elaborate ladies' parlors in the curved corner on the third and ninth stories. As built, the eighth floor was for dining and had a grill room with onyx pillars and mosaic floors; a kitchen occupied the south side of that floor. There was a dressmaking department on the ninth floor and offices on the top three floors. Holabird & Root's annex also has a 500-seat auditorium. Since the 2000s, only the lowest two floors have contained retail space, while the remaining space is used as offices.

Contemporary

When the first phase on Madison Street was completed, it immediately drew contrasts with the older Bowen Building. Scholar Juan Pablo Bonta retrospectively wrote that contemporary critics had mixed perceptions of the decoration, which they felt was either well-suited or poorly integrated. Several early critics deemed the base too elaborate for the building's function. Bonta also wrote that observers disagreed on whether the building's facade was vertically or horizontally oriented, and that some critics (particularly those who had never physically visited the building) may have been unaware of the upper-story ornamentation.

In 1904, Henry W. Desmond of the Architectural Record wrote that Sullivan "has certainly evolved and elaborated a highly artistic form of superficial decorative expression in logical connection with the American steel skeleton building". Architecture critic Claude Bragdon wrote the next year that the Carson Pirie Scott Building extended upon the architectural technologies of Sullivan's earlier Wainwright and Prudential buildings, calling Carson's "a crystal palace of glass and masonry, and iron overwrought". Dutch architect H. P. Berlage was particularly impressed by the Carson Pirie Scott Building when he toured Chicago in 1911, writing that it was "overloaded with ornament, but nevertheless it makes a quiet and distinguished impression". The next year, the Chicago Daily Tribune wrote that the building demonstrated "what beauty and symmetry may be achieved in a frank facade of iron, glass, and terra cotta".

The Carson Pirie Scott Building was less widely covered in American publications of the 1920s (particularly after Sullivan's death), and Sullivan himself never claimed it as a major work during his lifetime. An exception to the muted American reception was Lewis Mumford, who regarded Carson's as "more decisive in every way, it seems to be, than his skyscrapers".

Retrospective

The store continued to attract visiting architects in the mid-20th century. Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, touring Chicago in 1938, claimed that "had the avant-garde in Europe known the Carson-Pirie-Scott Building, the evolution of modern architecture there might have been accelerated by fifteen years". Historian Sigfried Giedion similarly credited the Carson Pirie Scott Building as having improved upon earlier attempts to articulate a steel frame in a way that was both functional and decorative, backing his view with pictures of the middle stories in his 1941 book Space, Time and Architecture. Ludwig Hilberseimer, a colleague of Bauhaus architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, perceived the upper stories as having "a cleanliness and precision so nearly absolute that the most minute changes in proportions could be detected". In 1946, Architectural Review writer Henry Hope said that, although the large windows had long been admired, "many of us have been embarrassed by the highly ornate main entrance to the store". The Chicago Daily Tribune, in 1956, cited the Carson's and Auditorium buildings as Sullivan's two major accomplishments in Chicago.

Historian Carl W. Condit, writing in 1964, called it "the ultimate achievement of the Chicago School and one of the great works of modern commercial architecture in the world". Condit viewed Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building as possibly Carson's only true rival among commercial buildings. In 1970, architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that the building and the Chicago Stock Exchange's headquarters "still maintain a tremendous presence", akin to Italian Renaissance palazzi. During that decade, Country Life magazine called the decoration "incredibly luxuriant", on par with the European Art Nouveau movement, and a Critical Inquiry journal article described Sullivan Center as one of several late-19th-century Chicago buildings to demonstrate novel building technologies. United Press International called the building "possibly the most beautiful department store in the world", saying it contributed to the beauty of State Street's retail district. Paul Gapp regarded it as "the most familiar example of Sullivan's ornate work".

In the late 1980s, architectural historian Joseph Siry wrote that the building was "a monument characteristic of a place and time, as well as the work of a remarkable architect", though Building Design magazine perceived only the exterior as noteworthy. Historian Andrew Saint, writing in 1991, perceived the second floor's facade as more esthetic than functional, since it was seldom used for displays. During the 2000s, Sullivan biographer Hugh Morrison described Sullivan Center as "of equal significance with the Wainwright Building", despite their highly divergent appearances. The American Institute of Architects' 2007 List of America's Favorite Architecture ranked Sullivan Center 145th on a list of the top 150 buildings in the United States.

Explanatory notes

Inflation figures