333 South Wabash
333 South Wabash is a 600-ft, 44-story skyscraper located at 333 South Wabash Avenue in the central business district of Chicago, Illinois.
Description
333 South Wabash is a simple, rectangular International Style building, but it is unique in that the entire building was painted bright red by Eagle Painting & Maintenance Company, Inc., turning an otherwise ordinary-looking structure into one of the most eye-catching buildings in the city. It was designed by the firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White and was completed in 1972.Occupants
As of 2014, CNA occupied 65 percent of the tower. Other occupants included The Chicago Housing Authority, United Way and Akuna Capital.In August 2017, Buck and Northern Trust announced an agreement for the bank to lease of the building. The lease, which includes signage and naming rights, was to consolidate approximately 2,500 to 3,000 Northern Trust workers from several sites around Chicago and take place in 2020.
History
Originally known as Continental Center III, in reference to the original moniker of CNA Financial Corporation, Continental National American Group, both CNA Center and the neighboring CNA Center North adjoined and were painted red. The shorter red building was later restored to its original gray tone in 1999. The two buildings remain joined at the second floor: CNA's Conference Center uses space on that floor, but all entrance and egress to it is through CNA Center. The company's previous headquarters from 1943 to 1962 had been Metropolitan Tower.In 1999, a large fragment of a window fell from the building and killed Ana Bertha Flores who was walking by with her three-year-old child, Viridiana. Windows had been cracking at the building ever since it had been built in 1975 due to thermal stress of uneven heating caused by the building's inset windows. CNA Financial, a property insurance company, later paid $18 million to settle the resultant lawsuit. All of the building's windows were replaced in an expensive retrofit.
333 South Wabash became a Chicago Landmark in 2012. CNA decided to sell the building in 2015 after relocating to 151 North Franklin, and the John Buck Company acquired the building in March 2016 for $108 million. Buck planned to redevelop the building.
In January 2020, a joint venture between Michael Shvo's firm SHVO, Deutsche Finance, and BLG Capital agreed to buy the building for $370 million. Hayden Hall, a food court in the building, opened the same month but closed shortly afterward due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sale of the building was finalized that August for $376 million. Hayden Hall reopened in 2024. Following a renovation the next year, designed by HOK, 333 South Wabash was rebranded as The Red.