Rooted in Chicago: Why SpringSource Practices from the Monadnock Building

In short: SpringSource's Chicago office is located inside the Monadnock Building, a 130-year-old landmark at Dearborn and Jackson in the Loop, and the tallest load-bearing masonry building ever constructed. We practice here because its enduring strength mirrors the kind of healing we believe in: not trendy, not built to impress, just solid, patient, and real.

What is the Monadnock Building, and why does it matter to Chicago?

Have you ever walked through the Monadnock Building in downtown Chicago?  Upon entering its city block-long main hallway, it can feel like you have stepped back in time.  The lights are dimmed and the details intricate and charming.  The shops that line the main promenade are quaint and seem purposefully chosen to reflect elegance and simplicity. As you stroll along the tiled floor, you see a flower shop, a barber, a haberdashery, a millinery, a cobbler, a coffee shop, and a deli, among other small businesses.

Dr. Angela Derrick notes, “the first time I entered the Monadnock Building, I was struck by the sense of calm I felt inside the space.  It felt like I was somewhere special and distinctly different from the world I had just left behind on the street.  Each time I go into our office I am aware of this same feeling of reverence, which has made me curious to understand what characteristics contribute to this sense of peace.  My belief is that it has something to do with the solidness of the building and how it offers such a sturdy container for so many lovely details to thrive.”

The Monadnock Building is a 16-story structure at the corner of Dearborn and Jackson in Chicago's Loop, completed in 1891 under the direction of Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root, with its southern half finished two years later by Holabird & Roche. It remains, to this day, the tallest load-bearing masonry building ever built. Its walls, rather than a hidden steel frame, are what hold the entire structure up, tapering from six feet thick at the base to a slender eighteen inches near the roofline.

It rose in the years after Chicago rebuilt itself from the Great Fire, in the same stretch of streets where the modern skyscraper was invented. To practice inside the Monadnock Building it is to practice inside a real piece of the city's history, not a replica of one.

Why did SpringSource choose to practice here?

We didn't choose the Monadnock because it was fashionable. In a Loop filled with glass towers built to catch attention for a season and then be replaced, this building has simply stayed put, for longer than anyone currently walking past it has been alive!

There's something we find genuinely meaningful in that kind of permanence. And in our work, that's exactly the quality we try to help people rebuild in themselves, not a louder voice or a more convincing performance of wellness, but something more solid underneath. A foundation, not a facade.  An authentic knowing and expression instead of a mask.

What can the way this building was built teach us about healing?

We think about this often, because the Monadnock wasn't built quickly, and it wasn't built just to look strong. It was built to actually be strong. It is six feet of solid brick at the base, which doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen by cutting corners. It happens layer by layer, until the structure can be genuinely supportive.

That's a fair description of what real recovery from an eating disorder, a mood disorder, or trauma actually requires too. It isn’t a quick fix that looks convincing from the outside, but patient, honest work on the actual foundation, the beliefs, coping patterns, and relationship with self.  As we sometimes say as clinicians, “therapy happens from the inside out!”

There's no shortcut version where the walls look sturdy before they actually are.

The building's own history reflects this same patience under pressure. John Wellborn Root died before the Monadnock was completed, before he ever saw his design finished in full. Still, what he began was carried forward by other hands into something whole and lasting. Good, coordinated care works the same way: built carefully, sometimes across different hands and different phases of treatment, until it holds together as one solid structure.

Is the Monadnock Building still in use today?

Yes. The Monadnock is a fully occupied office building today, home to SpringSource and many others, restored with care over the decades rather than torn down and rebuilt. It has settled several inches into the earth beneath it over the last century and is still standing anyway, still doing its work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is SpringSource's Chicago office located? SpringSource's Chicago office is located inside the Monadnock Building, at the corner of Dearborn Street and Jackson Boulevard in the Loop.

What makes the Monadnock Building historically significant? It is the tallest load-bearing masonry building ever constructed, and one of the last skyscrapers built this way before steel-frame construction became standard. It was designed by Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root, with its southern addition completed by Holabird & Roche.

Why does SpringSource highlight this building's history? Because its story, patient and solid, reflects the philosophy behind our approach to treating eating disorders, mood disorders, and trauma: real healing is built the same way, from the foundation up.

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SpringSource: Eating, Weight & Mood Disorders is a CARF-accredited specialty practice with offices in Chicago's Loop and Northbrook, offering individual therapy and a hybrid Intensive Outpatient Program in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, and Cigna.