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One of the most strikingly beautiful buildings in all of Chicago is the Chicago Tribune Tower. It houses one of the top newspapers in the Chicago area and has a very interesting history. Located at 435 Michigan Avenue, it is truly a Chicago landmark. This building started with one man, Colonel McCormick (1880-1955). Robert McCormick was a bright man. He went to Yale, was elected alderman and served on the Chicago City council for two years. He got his title of Colonel in World War I. In 1910, he took over the Chicago Tribune which his grandfather had controlled. Without Robert Rutherford McCormick, the Tribune Tower would not have become the asset to Chicago architecture that it is today. The Tribune has had many different homes. It all started in 1847, in a loft on LaSalle and Lake St. Then, two years later, it moved its central location to Clark and Randolph Streets. The next year, it moved back on Lake St. In 1872, its home became an 18-story building on Dearborn and Madison St. Its last move was to Michigan Ave. where it currently resides. The only problem when they moved there in 1920 was that they didn’t have a building. To solve this problem, in their 75th anniversary issue of the paper, the paper published an invitation to compete in an international competition. This contest to design the Tribune Tower would give the impressive prize of $100,000 to the creator(s) of the winning design. The goal of the contest was “to erect the most beautiful and distinctive office building in the world.” 263 entries responded from 23 countries. Most of these designs went about making this tower in very different ways. The winning design was a neo-gothic tower by two architects from New York, John Mead Howells and Raymond M. Hood. Their design was based upon the Belgian and French cathedrals of the past. This upset many people because that definitely did not go with the mood of the “roaring twenties.” But no amount of public disapproval could stop this architectural giant. At 36 stories, it was a force to be reckoned with. The outside is a wonder made of limestone. With buttresses for decoration and gargoyles to represent everything from pomposity to maliciousness, this is one of the most antique-looking buildings with one of the most modern businesses inside. Everything in the Tribune Tower has a meaning, especially the rocks on the façade. The collection of rocks got its start in Ypres, France. In 1941, McCormick was touring a cathedral. He came upon a piece of stone that was damaged by German shelling, when he took a piece for himself. Later on, he instructed all of his reporters going abroad to get more stones. But, he insisted they were gotten by “honorable means.” However, this became harder and harder. Some of the stones were gotten legally, others were gotten in a less honorable way. This web site brings to life the voices of these international rocks. It shows what they have seen, what they were made of, and why their addition to the famous walls of the Chicago Tribune improves the building and what it represents. Work Consulted |
