Gehry makes bid to purchase landmark Inland Steel Building

Architect Frank Gehry is part of a small group of real estate investors that submitted a bid last month to acquire Chicago's landmark Inland Steel Building.

The group's offer for the 19-story, 47-year-old architectural gem is estimated at $50 million, or more than $200 per sf, according to a Chicago Tribune report. Negotiations with the building's current owner, St. Paul Travelers, are expected to continue through mid-May.

Designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Chicago, the glass-and-steel building is considered one of the city's great modernist structures.

Known for its thin, stainless-steel curtain wall fitted with green-tinted glass, Inland Steel was one of the first major projects for SOM's Bruce Graham, who later designed the John Hancock Building (1970) and Sears Tower (1974) with SOM colleague Fazlur Kahn.

The 232,000-sf office building is almost fully leased. Tenants include San Francisco-based architect Gensler and Ispat Inland, a descendant of Inland Steel.