page_title: Wicks Building
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Wicks Building / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior of the Wicks Building, located at 116 W. Sixth Street in downtown Bloomington, Indiana, United States. Built in 1915, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is part of the Register-listed Courthouse Square Historic District.
context_page_description: The Wicks Building is a historic commercial building on Courthouse Square in downtown Bloomington, Indiana, United States. Built in the early twentieth century in a distinctive style of architecture, it has remained in consistent commercial use throughout its history, and it has been named a historic site because of the importance of its architecture.
context_section_description: Three stories tall, the Wicks Building is a brick structure with a limestone facade.  Reflecting its commercial origin, the majority of the facade is glass: the middle and upper stories feature large windows from floor to ceiling, the entirety of the first floor (aside from the entrance) is composed of display windows, and the gap between the first and second stories is filled with a large leaded glass window.  Bracing the sides of the building are massive limestone piers; between them, the only non-glass surfaces in the facade are seven smaller limestone piers on the second and third stories, which separate the windows of those floors into eight bays.  Below the second story and above the third are prominent horizontal limestone piers: the lower carries large letters proclaiming "The Wicks Company," while the higher lacks written details but is far taller from top to bottom.
  Large numbers of ornamental details grace the building's exterior.  Each of the sixteen large window bays of the second and third stories features five pieces of glass: a single large pane that occupies the vast majority of the bay's area, and four smaller panes (two above the large pane and two below) that divide the small remaining area.  Cast ironwork is also common on the facade: a small balustrade of iron has been placed at the bottom of each window, and the space between the second and third story windows is composed of large iron spandrels decorated with cartouches.  Similar details are reproduced in the stone of the building's summit; it is crowned by the tips of the piers, which rise slightly above the main roofline.
  Aside from its facade, the Wicks Building is an undistinguished commercial structure, both in its other walls and in its ordinary rectangular shape.  Surrounded by brick buildings, the side walls are plain brick, and the rear is composed of a painted brick wall, a fire escape and ordinary windows, and a service entrance.  Covering the entire structure is a simple sloping roof.
  Taken together, the overall design and the many details of the facade combine to form a distinctive example of the Chicago school of architecture.  Most buildings in this style are significantly taller than the three stories of the Wicks, but the placement and size of the windows, the roofline, and the general plan of the building are all similar to buildings considered typical of the Chicago school.
caption: Interior
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