Diana Court at Michigan Square Building
Architect: Holabird & Root
Location: 540 N. Michigan Avenue between Grand Avenue and Ohio Street
Built: 1930
Demolished: 1973

“The architects of another of Chicago’s exciting enclosed public spaces found their inspiration far from Imperial Rome. For the Diana Court in their Michigan Square Building of 1930, Holabird and Root looked to the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs held in Paris in 1925, from which came the term of Art Deco. But their inspiration was even more specific, relating to the ocean liner design of the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the new Ile de France and Normandie made other ships seem old-fashioned and influenced land-based structures as well. There is about this room the sense of a grand Salon on a transatlantic liner. The marble and bronze fountain that gave the court its name was by the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. The Michigan Square Building and the subtle room over which the ancient huntress presided sailed into a cloud of wrecker’s dust in 1973.” (Lost Chicago, David Lowe, page 215)

Surviving art from the Diana Court can be viewed at the Art Institute of Chicago.