Chicago’s Art Deco Skyscrapers

With stunning photography and abundant historical details, this book is a treasure trove that will delight any fan of architecture, Chicago, or the Art Deco era. 

Chicago is America’s premier showcase for both historic and modern architecture. Even so, many of its finest buildings remain little known to visitors, and even to Chicagoans. In Chicago’s Art Deco Skyscrapers, Joseph Gustaitis showcases nearly two dozen Art Deco towers that were built during the exhilarating years of the Jazz Age, from 1927 to 1933. These skyscrapers exemplify a state of mind from the time—an optimistic, forward-looking aesthetic that has been called the “last of the total styles,” as well as the first American style that spread across the globe. In the time between the Great War and the Great Depression, cities and their architects embraced industrial modernity and the exciting new possibilities of scale. Exploring places like the Board of Trade Building, the Merchandise Mart, and the Carbide & Carbon tower, Gustaitis tells the stories of their creation, the architects and developers, construction and financing, zoning and engineering, and so much more. 

With stunning aerial photography by Ian McClellan, this book also includes color photos of the buildings’ features, vintage images, a travel map, and in-depth historical information. Chicago’s Art Deco Skyscrapers is both a guidebook to these remarkable structures and a history of the upbeat era that created them. 

Joseph Gustaitis is a Chicago-based editor, Emmy Award–winning television writer, and author. This is his fifth book on Chicago history. In 2014, his Chicago Transformed: World War I and the Windy City was named Book of the Year by the Illinois State Historical Society.