Tribune Tower

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Tribune Tower

The Tribune Tower is a Gothic

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an Architectural style which began in the 1740s in England. Its popularity grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century, when increasingly serious and learned admirers of neo-Gothic styles sought to revive Middle Ages forms in contrast to the Neoclassical architecture styles which were then prevalent....
building located at 435 North Michigan Avenue

Magnificent Mile

The Magnificent Mile is the portion of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, IL, Illinois extending from the Chicago River to Oak Street in Near North Side, Chicago Community areas of Chicago....
in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
, Illinois

Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
. It is the home of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune

"The Trib" redirects here. For other newspapers with similar names, see Tribune The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company....
and Tribune Company

Tribune Company

The Tribune Company is a large United States multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, responsible for the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the The Morning Call, among others....
. WGN Radio

WGN (AM)

WGN is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the Flagship WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally....
(720 kHz) also broadcasts from the building, with ground-level studios overlooking nearby Pioneer Court

Pioneer Court

Pioneer Court is a small plaza located near the junction of the Chicago River and Upper Michigan Avenue in Chicago's Magnificent Mile. It is believed to be the site of Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable's original residence and trading post....
and Michigan Avenue. CNN

CNN

Cable News Network, almost always referred to by its initialism CNN, is a major US Cable News Network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first station to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States....
's Chicago bureau is located in the building. It is listed as a Chicago Landmark

Chicago Landmark

Chicago Landmark is a designation of the Mayor of Chicago and the Chicago City Council for historic buildings and other sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States....
and is a contributing property to the Michigan-Wacker Historic District

Michigan-Wacker Historic District

The Michigan-Wacker Historic District is a National Register of Historic Places District that includes parts of the Chicago Loop and Near North Side, Chicago Community areas of Chicago in , United States....
.

The Competition
In 1922, the Chicago Tribune hosted an international design competition for its new headquarters, and offered a $50,000 prize for "the most beautiful and eye-catching building in the world".

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Encyclopedia

The Tribune Tower is a Gothic

Gothic Revival architecture

Magnificent Mile

Chicago

Illinois

Tribune Company

WGN (AM)

Pioneer Court

CNN

Chicago Landmark

Michigan-Wacker Historic District

The Competition

In 1922, the Chicago Tribune hosted an international design competition for its new headquarters, and offered a $50,000 prize for "the most beautiful and eye-catching building in the world". The competition worked brilliantly for months as a publicity stunt, and the resulting entries still reveal a unique turning point in American architectural history. More than 260 entries were received.

The winner was a neo-Gothic design by New York architects John Mead Howells

John Mead Howells

John Mead Howells was an American architect. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the son of author William Dean Howells, he studied architecture at Harvard and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he met his future partners, I....
and Raymond Hood

Raymond Hood

Raymond M. Hood was an early-mid twentieth century architect who worked in the Art Deco style. He was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, educated at Brown University, MIT, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris....
, with buttresses near the top.

The entry that many perceived as the best—a radically simplified tower by the Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
architect Eliel Saarinen

Eliel Saarinen

Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finland Architecture who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century.Saarinen was educated in Helsinki at the Helsinki University of Technology....
—took second place. Saarinen's tower, which anticipated the coming impact of stripped-down modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century....
on building form, was preferred by critics like Louis Sullivan

Louis Sullivan

Louis Henri Sullivan was an United States architect, and has been called the "father of modern architecture." He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago school , was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come...
, and was a strong influence on the next generation of skyscrapers — including Raymond Hood's own subsequent work on the McGraw-Hill Building

330 West 42nd Street

330 West 42nd Street is also known as the McGraw Hill Building. The original McGraw-Hill building on 42nd Street was completed in 1931, the same year as the completion of the Empire State Building....
and Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States of America and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2007 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles ....
, designed by architects Alfred C. Finn

Alfred C. Finn

Alfred Charles Finn , a notable Texan architect, was born in Bellville, Texas, on July 2, 1883. Finn grew up in Hempstead, Texas, and moved to Houston in 1900 to work for Southern Pacific Railroad as a carpenter and draftsman....
, Kenneth Franzheim, and J. E. R. Carpenter, is a full realization of that Saarinen design. César Pelli

César Pelli

C?sar Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. His designs are known for their curved facades and metallic elements....
's 181 West Madison Street

181 West Madison Street

181 West Madison Street is 50 story building completed in 1990 and located in Chicago. At 680 feet , 181 West Madison is one of the tallest towers in Chicago....
Building in Chicago is also thought to be inspired by Saarinen's design.

Other Tribune tower entries by figures like Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a Germany architect and founder of Bauhaus who along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, Bertram Goodhue

Bertram Goodhue

Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was a renowned American architect celebrated for his work in neo-gothic design. He also designed notable typefaces, including Cheltenham and Merrymount for the Merrymount Press....
, Bruno Taut

Bruno Taut

Bruno Julius Florian Taut , was a prolific German architect, urban planner and author active in the Weimar culture period.Taut is best known for his theoretical work, speculative writings and a handful of exhibition buildings....
, and Adolf Loos

Adolf Loos

Adolf Loos was one of the most important and influential Austrian and Czechoslovak architects of European Modern architecture. In his essay "Ornament and Crime" he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau....
remain intriguing suggestions of what might have been, but perhaps not as intriguing as the one surmounted by Rushmore-like head of an American Indian. These entries have been collected in The Chicago Tribune Tower Competition : Skyscraper Design and Cultural Change in the 1920s by Katherine Solomonson and Richard A. Etlin, 2001.

In 1980 a number of architects including Robert A. M. Stern

Robert A. M. Stern

Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern, is an United States architect and Dean of the Yale School of Architecture....
, Stanley Tigerman

Stanley Tigerman

Stanley Tigerman is an United States architect, theorist and designer. He studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Chicago IIT Institute of Design, and Yale University....
, and Bruce Abbey jokingly submitted "late entries."

Archival materials regarding the competition and the building are held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries

Ryerson & Burnham

The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries are the art and architecture research collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The libraries cover all periods with extensive holdings in the areas of 18th, 19th and 20th century architecture and 19th century painting, prints, drawings, and decorative arts....
at the Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's premiere fine arts colleges, located in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, The Art Institute of Chicago, but is not related to, nor should be confused with, the chain of schools known as The Art Institutes....
.

The Building

By 1922 the neo-Gothic skyscraper had become an established design tactic, with the first important so-called "American Perpendicular Style" at Cass Gilbert

Cass Gilbert

Cass Gilbert was a pioneering American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers in works like the Woolworth Building, Gilbert was also responsible for numerous museums and libraries , state capitol buildings as well as public architectural icons like the United States Supreme Court building....
's Woolworth Building

Woolworth Building

The Woolworth Building, at 57 stories, is one of the oldest?and one of the most famous?skyscrapers in New York City. More than 95 years after its construction, it is still one of the List of tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the List of tallest buildings in New York City....
of 1913. This was a late example, perhaps the last important example, and criticized for its perceived historicism. Construction on the actual Tribune Tower was completed in 1925 and reached a height of 462 feet (141 m) above ground. The ornate buttresses surrounding the peak of the tower are especially visible when the tower is lit at night.

As was the case with most of Hood's projects, the sculptures and decorations were executed by the American artist Rene Paul Chambellan

Rene Paul Chambellan

Rene Paul Chambellan was an United States sculpture, born in Hoboken, New Jersey.Chambellan studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Julian in Paris and with Solon Borglum in New York City....
. The tower features carved images of Robin Hood

Robin Hood

Robin Hood is an archetype figure in English folklore, whose story originates from Middle Ages times but who remains significant in popular culture where he is known for robbing the rich to give to the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny....
(Hood) and a howling dog (Howells) near the main entrance to commemorate the architects.

Prior to the building of the Tribune Tower, correspondents for the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune

"The Trib" redirects here. For other newspapers with similar names, see Tribune The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company....
brought back rocks and bricks from a variety of historically important sites throughout the world at the request of Colonel McCormick

Robert R. McCormick

Robert Rutherford McCormick was a Chicago newspaper baron and owner of the Chicago Tribune. A leading United States non-interventionism, opponent of United States entry into World War II and of the increase in Federal power brought about by the New Deal, he continued to champion a traditionalist course long after his positions had been e...
. Many of these reliefs have been incorporated into the lowest levels of the building and are labeled with their location of origin. Stones included in the wall are from such sites as the Trondheim Cathedral, Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India, built by Mughal Empire list of Mughal emperors Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal....
, the Parthenon

Parthenon

The Parthenon is a Greek temple of the Greek gods Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the Acropolis of Athens. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered to be the culmination of the development of the Doric order....
, Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is a former Patriarchate basilica, later a mosque, now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture....
, Corregidor Island, Palace of Westminster

Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, in London, is where the two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom meet....
, petrified wood

Petrified wood

Petrified wood is a type of fossil: it consists of fossil wood where all the organic life have been replaced with minerals , while retaining the original structure of the wood....
from the Redwood National and State Parks

Redwood National and State Parks

The Redwood National and State Parks are located in the United States, along the coast of northern California. The parks consist of a combined area of located entirely within Del Norte County, California and Humboldt County, California and they protect 45% of all remaining sequoia old-growth forests, totaling at least ....
, the Great Pyramid, The Alamo

Alamo Mission in San Antonio

The Alamo, originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero, is a former Roman Catholic mission and fortress compound, now a museum, in San Antonio, Texas, Texas....
, Notre-Dame

Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris is a Gothic architecture cathedral on the eastern half of the ?le de la Cit? in the 4th arrondissement of Paris of Paris, France, with its main entrance to the west....
, Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery....
’s Tomb, the Great Wall of China

Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China or is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the History of China from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of Dynasties in Chinese history....
, the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a physical separation barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic , including East Berlin. The longer inner German border demarcated the border between East and West Germany....
among others. In all, there are 136 fragments in the building. More recently a rock returned from the moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
was displayed in a window in the Tribune giftstore (it could not be added to the wall as NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
owns all moon rocks, and it is merely on loan to the Tribune), and a piece of steel recovered from the World Trade Center has been added to the wall.

On April 11, 2006 the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum opened, occupying two stories of the building, including the previous location of high-end gift store Hammacher-Schlemmer

Hammacher-Schlemmer

Founded in 1848, Hammacher Schlemmer is an established retailer and mail order dealer specializing in high-quality, innovative and unique products....
.

Rene Paul Chambellan contributed his sculpture talents to the buildings ornamentation, gargoyles and the famous Aesops' Screen over the main entrance doors. Rene Chambellan worked on other projects with Raymond Hood including the American Radiator Building

American Radiator Building

The American Radiator Building is a 338 ft. tall building in New York City in the borough of Manhattan, located at 40 West 40th Street looking out onto Bryant Park....
and Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue ....
in New York City, also providing all of the modeling work for that project. Also, among the gargoyles on the Tribune Tower is one of a frog. That piece was created by Rene Chambellan to represent himself jokingly as he is of French ancestry.

Tribune Tower in popular culture

On the November 21 and November 28, 2007 episodesOne Wedding & a Funeral and The Thing About Heroes, respectively of CSI: NY
CSI: NY

CSI: NY is an United States police procedural television series, which premiered on September 22, 2004. The series was the second Spinoff , indirectly, from the popular CBS show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and directly from CSI: Miami, during an episode of which several of the CSI: NY characters made their first appearan...
historical pieces stolen from the building (The Alamo, etc...) led the character played by Gary Sinise

Gary Sinise

Gary Alan Sinise is an United States actor and film director. During his career, Sinise has won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for Palme d'Or and an Academy Award....
to his hometown of Chicago

Chicago

Mac Taylor

Mack "Mac" Taylor is a fictional character featured in the TV series CSI: NY. He is played by Gary Sinise. Andy Garcia was originally offered the lead role, a character who would have been named Detective Rick Calucci....
found a dead body in an office of an unused floor in the building. All shots for this episode were filmed on location in Chicago with Sinise joined for some scenes by co-star Eddie Cahill

Eddie Cahill

Edmund P. "Eddie" Cahill is an United States actor best known for playing the role of Det. Don Flack on CBS's CSI: NY, which recently celebrated its 100th episode....
.

For the 2008 film The Dark Knight, the Batcave

Batcave

The Batcave is the secret headquarters of fictional DC Comics superhero Batman, , consisting of a series of subterranean caves beneath his residence, Wayne Manor....
scenes where filmed in the basement of the Tower.

Tribune Tower

The Competition

The Building

Tribune Tower in popular culture

See also

External links