Wainwright Building

Wainwright Building - City Landmark #7 National Historic Landmark

Located at 701 Chestnut St. the Wainwright Building was designed by the famed architects Adler and Sullivan in 1891 for Ellis Wainwright, a wealthy St. Louis brewer (see also Wainwright Tomb, Landmark #18).

The Wainwright building is credited for being the first successful utilization of steel frame construction. The first two floors are faced in brown sandstone, the next seven stories rise in continuous brick piers. Terra cotta panels of ornate foliage relief's decorate the each floor. The tenth story is a frieze of intertwined leaf scrolls framing circular windows, and is capped with Sullivan's characteristic overhanging roof slab. The building became a City Landmark in 1972. The Wainwright building is also a National Historic Landmark.

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