Bestiary on Wabash

203 N. Wabash is one of only two office buildings designed by the firm of Rapp & Rapp, best known for their lavish movie palaces like the Chicago, Palace, and Oriental.

Overall, the slim, 25 story structure, built in 1928 as the headquarters of the Old Dearborn Bank, an official Chicago Landmark, has a restrained, streamlined profile.  The firm's fantasist roots, however, can be seen in the ornament.

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At sidewalk level, it's very subdued, squirrels, rams, and human heads that look like they might have come off a Gothic cathedral.

It's at the building's crest, all but invisible from the street, that things go a bit mad . . .  with a very ornate top accented by the usual lions . . .

  . . . and a flock of massive, truly strange birds as the building's sentrys.