Bank of America Building in Chicago, Illinois by Joe Kurstin

Description

This building gained national attention in December, 2004 when fire swept through the 29th and 30th floors. From Baltimore to Florida to Los Angeles, people wondered how it was possible that a 44-story building could not have a fire suppression system. Locally, it added more fuel to the controversy over Chicago's fire regulations. Though the city considers itself to have the most advanced fire prevention rules in the world, for the second time in two years they were shown to be insufficient. The first incident came in October, 2003 when six people died in a fire at the the Cook County Administration Building. After that blaze, the city council vowed to address gaps in Chicago's fire code. Specifically, the rule which exempts high-rise buildings constructed before 1975 from having fire sprinklers. When the exemption was revealed in the media, there was outrage in the community, and among the family members of those who died. After a while, things settled down and people started to forget about the deadly fire. Then just 14 months later, this building erupted into flames. A dismayed public once again turned its ire on local politicians who a year earlier had promised to make the city's high-rise buildings safer. 135 South LaSalle was, too, exempt from rules requiring fire sprinklers. However, to the credit of the building owners, it was being retrofitted for sprinklers at the time of the fire. This time, Mayor Daley and the city council moved forward with a proposal to require…