Wainwright Building, Chicago School office building in downtown St. Louis, US
The Wainwright Building is a Chicago School office structure at 709 Chestnut Street in downtown St. Louis. The ten stories rise from a brown sandstone base, with walls of red brick and decorative terra cotta panels finishing the upper facade.
Architects Adler and Sullivan completed the structure in 1891, creating one of the first tall office buildings with a continuous steel frame. This method set new standards for vertical architecture in American cities.
The name comes from Ellis Wainwright, a beer manufacturer who commissioned the building as an investment project and established a new kind of commercial property in St. Louis. Visitors today notice the naturalistic ornaments on the facade, including leaf motifs and round windows that point to careful craftsmanship of the period.
The building sits centrally downtown and remains accessible from the outside for photos and architectural observation at any time. Access to the interior stays limited following the September 2024 auction and planned redevelopment work.
Frank Lloyd Wright called this structure the first genuine architectural expression of a steel-framed office building in America. This assessment by one of the country's most influential architects underlines the building's role as a turning point in tall building design.
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