AMA Plaza | The Most Beautiful Places in Chicago with Geoffrey Baer

The straight lines of AMA Plaza, right, stand in contrast to Marina City, its curvilinear neighbors. Credit: Meredith Francis for WTTW

Dramatic Architecture

AMA Plaza

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed this modernist building, which was completed in 1972. Mies subscribed to the “less is more” principle; his buildings – AMA Plaza included – lack ornamentation and invite passersby to admire the simple beauty of the steel structure and glass. The building was originally known by another name: IBM Plaza. That’s the company that hired Mies to design the 52-story building. It was the last building that Mies designed in the United States. When it was first built, the building had a nice view of Lake Michigan, but that view was obstructed when Trump Tower was built in 2009. The American Medical Association (AMA) moved into the building in 2013, thus its new name. Be sure to check out the audio tour on Mies’ Crown Hall.