330 North Wabash (formerly IBM Plaza also known as IBM Building and now renamed AMA Plaza) is a skyscraper in downtown

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Illinois, United States, at 330 N. Wabash Avenue, designed by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (who died in 1969 before construction began). A small bust of the architect by sculptor Marino Marini is displayed in the lobby. The 52-story building is situated on a plaza overlooking the

Chicago River The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop). Though not especially long, the river is notable because it is one of the reasons for ...

. At 695 feet (211.8 meters), 330 North Wabash is the second-tallest building by Mies van der Rohe, the tallest being the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower at

Toronto-Dominion Centre The Toronto-Dominion Centre, or TD Centre, is an office complex in the Financial District of downtown Toronto owned by Cadillac Fairview. It serves as the global headquarters for its anchor tenant, the Toronto-Dominion Bank, and provides office a ...

. It was his last American building. The building's original corporate namesake no longer owns nor has offices in the building. IBM sold IBM Plaza to the

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate bu ...

in 1996. IBM all but completed its move out of IBM Plaza as of early 2006, taking up space in the new Hyatt Center building closer to

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

. Current major tenants are the

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's sta ...

, Langham Chicago managed by

Langham Hotels International Langham Hotels International Limited, trading as Langham Hospitality Group, is a hotel operator with its headquarters in Hong Kong. The oldest hotel in its portfolio, The Langham, London, originally opened in 1865 as Europe's first 'Grand Hotel ...

WeWork WeWork Inc. is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, headquartered in New York City. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated of space, including in the United States and Canada, in 756 locatio ...

and law firm

Latham & Watkins Latham & Watkins LLP is an American multinational law firm. Founded in 1934 in Los Angeles, California, Latham is the second-largest law firm in the world by revenue. As of 2021, Latham is also one of the most profitable law firms in the world ...

. The former IBM Plaza has several design features that are rare in an office building but understandable given its original owner. The building's electrical system, environmental system, floor strength, and ceiling height (on certain floors) can support large

raised floor A raised floor (also raised flooring, access floor(ing), or raised-access computer floor) provides an elevated structural floor above a solid substrate (often a concrete slab) to create a hidden void for the passage of mechanical and electrical ...

computing centers. With even more need to contain possible electrical fires, fire safety was especially important, and asbestos was one of the most useful fire prevention materials of that era. As with most other buildings of that era, asbestos abatement is an ongoing aspect of building life, with air quality monitoring, asbestos "mapping," and opportunistic asbestos removal when feasible. Also, given IBM's traditional office hours, large number of workers, and commercial interest in marketing then emerging electronic building control systems (notably the

IBM Series/1 The IBM Series/1 is a 16-bit minicomputer, introduced in 1976, that in many respects competed with other minicomputers of the time, such as the PDP-11 from Digital Equipment Corporation and similar offerings from Data General and HP. The Se ...

and its predecessors), the "banked" intelligent passenger elevator system (with separate all-floor cargo elevators) is significantly over-provisioned for a building of its size and rarely keeps anyone waiting long for service. IBM Plaza stayed dry during the 1992 Chicago Flood. In 2007, plans were announced to convert floors two through thirteen of the 52-story building into a high-end hotel. The Langham, Chicago which opened in 2013, occupying floors two through thirteen. The Langham Hotel in the building was named the best hotel in the United States by ''

US News ''U.S. News & World Report'' (USNWR) is an American media company that publishes news, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. It was launched in 1948 as the merger of domestic-focused weekly newspaper ''U.S. News'' and international-focused ...

'' in 2017. The building was declared a Chicago Landmark on February 6, 2008, and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on March 26, 2010. It is the youngest building in Chicago on both lists. On December 9, 2011, the

announced it would move its headquarters and entire workforce to 330 N. Wabash from its previous headquarters on State Street. The move occurred in September 2013 and the building was renamed AMA Plaza.

Position in Chicago's skyline

Gallery

Image:Ibm plaza Chicago.jpg, The sign of the plaza in 2006

In popular culture

*The building is seen briefly in the film '' The Corporation.'' *This building is used in ''

The Dark Knight ''The Dark Knight'' is a 2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan Nolan, Jonathan. Based on the DC Comics superhero, Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman Begins'' (2005) and t ...

'', where it is the location of Harvey Dent's and Mayor Anthony Garcia's offices as well as the

Wayne Enterprises Wayne Enterprises, Inc., also known as WayneCorp and Wayne Industries, is a wealthy fictional company appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Batman. Wayne Enterprises is a large, gr ...

headquarters (including the company board room). *This building is used in ''

Dhoom 3 ''Dhoom 3'' () is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya and produced by Aditya Chopra, who co-wrote the story. It stars Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Katrina Kaif, Uday Chopra, Jack ...

'', where Sahir Khan's apartment was. *The building is also used in the opening episode (Season 1, Episode 1) of the original Netflix series ''Ozark'', where Jason Bateman’s character and his business partner are touring potential new office space. * In Buck Rogers That Man on Beta (1979 novel), the building (set in year 2492) is collapsed and makes a bridge to the Inner City. This is due to the nuclear holocaust in 1987.

Former tenants

Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit organization promoting business in the Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United ...

* IBM *

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

- moved to New York City when consolidated into

PolyGram Records PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

, now part of

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

Jenner & Block Jenner & Block is an American law firm with offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The firm is active in corporate litigation, business transactions, the public sector, and other legal fields ...

References

External links