The Law School's Eero Saarinen Building featured on WBEZ's "What's That Building?"

What's That Building? The Modernist Home Of The University Of Chicago Law School

On the south end of The University of Chicago campus is a modernist structure beloved by some and considered cold and sterile by others.

The Laird Bell Law Quadrangle, home for the university’s law school, was designed in the 1950s by architect Eero Saarinen. The centerpiece is the D’Angelo Law Library, a spiky glass structure that overlooks a reflective pond of roughly the same dimension.

The modernist stunner is noteworthy for several reasons, including its role as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's point of entry into Chicago when she moved to the city to get a law degree.

More than the law library

The Laird Bell Law Quadrangle includes more than just the D’Angelo Law Library.Classrooms, offices, a law clinic and even a courtroom can be found in other parts of the structure.

Those other parts are clad in limestone, linking the quadrangle to U of C's signature Gothic buildings. The folded glass face of the library could also be a modernist take on the many points and angles of a Gothic building.

Read more at WBEZ