Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room: Reconstruction at the Art Institute of Chicago

The metal-frame Chicago Stock Exchange building was one of Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan’s most distinctive commercial structures. The centerpiece of this thirteen-story building was the Trading Room, a dramatic, double-height space that was designed for the daily operations of the Stock Exchange and filled with Sullivan’s lush organic ornament and stenciled patterns. Despite the singular beauty of this room, it served its original function for just fourteen years and was occupied only sporadically thereafter. In the late 1960s, the building was targeted for demolition and became the focus of an important, although ultimately unsuccessful, preservation battle. During the course of demolition, photographer and activist Richard Nickel was working to salvage ornament from the building when the unstable structure collapsed and he was tragically killed. As a tribute to Nickel and Sullivan, sections of the Trading Room stencils, molded pilaster capitals, and art glass were preserved and in 1977 the Art Institute created a complete reconstruction of this significant room in a new wing of the museum. At the same time, the monumental entry arch of the Stock Exchange was erected on the museum grounds near the corner of Monroe Street and Columbus Drive.