Palmolive Building, Art Deco high-rise on North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, United States
The Palmolive Building is a 172-meter residential tower made of limestone on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The 37 floors display Art Deco lines with Streamline Moderne elements in the upper stories.
Construction finished in 1929 as headquarters for the Colgate-Palmolive Company during the final boom years before the Great Depression. The building changed ownership in 1965 and served a media company until 1989 under the Playboy Building name.
The tower brought verticality to the skyline in the late 1920s with its setback form and fluted surfaces. People still recognize it by former names and associate it with the evolution of the Michigan Avenue corridor.
The first two floors hold retail shops, while the upper stories contain apartments accessible only to residents. The tower sits at the corner of Walton Street and offers exterior views of the facade details and rooftop structure.
A rotating beacon on the roof helped pilots navigate to Midway Airport across Lake Michigan starting in 1930. The beam was later turned off, but the mechanical system remains as a technical relic from early aviation.
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