{"nrhp_refnum":"70000230","name":"Auditorium Building, Roosevelt University","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"430 Michigan Ave. and Congress St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.875592776000076,"lon":-87.64875366399997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-04-17","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1975-05-15","areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Auditorium Building is a large fireproof masonry building in Chicago, Illinois, at the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Congress Street, extending through to Wabash Street. It combined a hotel, an office building and a theater and is now occupied by Roosevelt University.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it was one of the largest and most complex buildings of Chicago's 1880s business boom, combining hotel, office and theater at a record cost of $3,145,291. It was the cultural and social center of Chicago for nearly two generations and an engineering feat by Dankmar Adler. Louis Sullivan's ornament in the theater is cited as an outstanding expression of his organic theory of architecture.","narrative":"Rising ten stories with a seventeen-story tower, the Auditorium Building occupies a large site in Chicago at Michigan Avenue and Congress Street, running through to Wabash Street. Designed by Adler and Sullivan, it originally held a hotel, an office building and a great theater seating about 4,200, expandable to 7,000. The lower three stories are rusticated granite and the upper floors Indiana limestone, while the interior uses iron framing and trusses. Adler loaded the tower with pig iron to force settlement of its foundations. At a cost of $3,145,291, it was the most expensive building enterprise in Chicago at the time and established the firm's later success. It served as the center of the city's musical, cultural and social life for nearly two generations. The theater had hydraulic stage platforms, electric lighting and an early cooling system, and Sullivan's ornament enriches its interiors. Now home to Roosevelt University, its principal rooms have been restored.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":"Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan (Adler and Sullivan)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in good condition; altered; the main interiors have been restored and are used by Roosevelt University.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.130906-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/41/8925/28892541/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/70000230.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000230/d92ac640ac-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000230/d92ac640ac-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Cervin Robinson, photographer.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Auditorium_Building4.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Cervin Robinson, photographer.</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Auditorium_Building4.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892541","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditorium_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q546009"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/auditorium-building-roosevelt-university-70000230/"}