Welcome to CornerSpotter, Curbed's regular game in which you, fair readers, consult archival streetscape photos or postcard illustrations to identify the building(s) and/or location presented. Time to tap that reservoir of urban minutiae and flaunt it before your fellow readers. Fire away in the comments, and we'll reveal the correct identity and backstory tomorrow.
It didn't take long for booming Chicago to outgrow its hastily assembled stock of downtown post-Fire structures. Many were retired a mere 20 or 30 years after construction. But it was also a time of the emergent starchitect, adventurous early skyscrapers, and much architectural experimentation. With a century's hindsight, few would argue the building pictured above should have been demolished. Then again, it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The building that replaced it at the start of the 20th century stands today as one of city's most elegant yet brawny landmarks— a triumph of consumerism. Your turn: start naming stuff.
·CornerSpotter
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