James R. Thompson Center

Housing offices for the State of Illinois, this building takes up an entire city block but is only 17 stories tall. Its roughly conical shape is cropped at the top and capped with a skylight to accommodate an internal organization of office floors overlooking a central atrium.

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Glass elevators and stairways that protrude into the atrium make it a dynamic circulation space. The building’s sloping exterior walls are clad in glass. A bold use of color both along the ground level exterior and throughout the interior further sets this structure apart from typical government buildings.

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