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Shedd Aquarium

Harold Washington Library Center

400 S. State St. , Chicago, IL 60605

Architecture

The creation of Harold Washington Library Center is a product of a widely publicized architectural competition. Designed by Tom Beeby, the red brick, granite, and glass composition uses traditional design motifs to establish itself as a civic structure. A two-story battered granite base supports a five-story brick body punctuated by five arches along State Street and three facing Congress and Van Buren. The Harold Washington Library Center is a hybrid design that reflects the conflicting architectural ideas that characterized the late 1980s.

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