| Tribune Tower | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Tribune Tower in June 2013 | |
 Interactive map of the Tribune Tower area | |
| General information | |
| Type | Office |
| Location | 435 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Coordinates | 41°53′25″N87°37′25″W / 41.8904°N 87.6237°W /41.8904; -87.6237 |
| Construction started | 1923 |
| Completed | 1925; 101 years ago (1925) |
| Height | |
| Antenna spire | 496 feet (151 m) |
| Roof | 463 feet (141 m) |
| Top floor | 428 feet (130 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 36 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architects | John Mead Howells andRaymond Hood |
| Designated | February 1, 1989 |
TheTribune Tower is a 463-foot-tall (141 m), 36-floorneo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435North Michigan Avenue inChicago, Illinois, United States. The early 1920s international design competition for the tower became a historic event in 20th-century architecture.[1] Built forChicago Tribune ownerRobert R. McCormick, since 2018 it has been converted into luxury residences and in 2023 won aDriehaus Prize for architectural preservation and adaptive reuse fromLandmarks Illinois.[2]
The tower was the home of theTribune and the relatedTribune Media,Tribune Broadcasting, andTribune Publishing.WGN Radio (720 kHz) originated broadcasts from the building until June 18, 2018.CNN's Chicago bureau was also located in the building. It is listed as aChicago Landmark and is a contributing property to theMichigan–Wacker Historic District. One of its predecessors, the first "Tribune Tower", had been built in 1868 and was destroyed in theGreat Chicago Fire of 1871.[3]
In 1922 theChicago Tribune hosted an internationalinterior and exterior design competition for its new headquarters to mark its 75th anniversary, and offered $100,000[a] in prize money with a $50,000[b] first prize for "the most beautiful and distinctive office 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 aneo-Gothic design by New York architectsJohn Mead Howells andRaymond Hood, withbuttresses near the top.
The entry that many perceived as the best, by the Finnish architectEliel Saarinen, took second place and received $20,000.[c]Saarinen's tower was preferred by architects likeLouis Sullivan, and was a strong influence on the next generation of skyscrapers, including Raymond Hood's own subsequent work on theMcGraw-Hill Building and theRockefeller Center. The 1929Gulf Building inHouston, Texas, designed by architectsAlfred C. Finn, Kenneth Franzheim, andJ. E. R. Carpenter, is a close realization of that Saarinen design.César Pelli's181 West Madison Street Building in Chicago is also thought to be inspired by Saarinen's design.
Other Tribune tower entries by figures likeWalter Gropius,Bertram Goodhue,Walter Burley Griffin,Bruno Taut, andAdolf Loos remain intriguing suggestions of what might have been, but perhaps not as intriguing as the one surmounted by a Mount Rushmore-like head of an American Indian. These entries were originally published by the Tribune Company in 1923 under the titleTribune Tower Competition and later inThe Chicago Tribune Tower Competition: Skyscraper Design and Cultural Change in the 1920s by Katherine Solomonson, 2001.
In the 1980 book entitledThe Tribune Tower Competition published by Rizzoli, authorsRobert A. M. Stern,Stanley Tigerman as well as Bruce Abbey and other architects jokingly submitted "late entries" in Volume II of the work.
Archival materials regarding the competition and the building are held by theRyerson & Burnham Libraries at theArt Institute of Chicago.
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2026) |
On April 11, 2006, theMcCormick Tribune Freedom Museum opened, occupying two stories of the building, including the previous location of high-end gift storeHammacher Schlemmer. The museum closed this location on March 1, 2009, and redirected its efforts to become an online museum.
Tribune Tower has participated inChicago Architecture Foundation's eventOpen House Chicago every year, starting in 2011. This annual opportunity allows visitors to tour the interior of the building for free.[5][6][7]
TheChicago Tribune, the building's main tenant since it opened, moved out in June 2018, in order for the building to be converted to condos.[8] The conversion of the building is set to cost more than $500 million.[8] The conversion has run into some legal troubles regarding the sign: theChicago Tribune contends that the sign is their intellectual property, so it can not remain on the building, but the developers stated that they had a contractual agreement to buy the sign for one dollar.[8]Col. Robert R. McCormick's former iconic office on the 24th floor will be turned into offices.[8] In the former parking lot for Tribune Tower, there are plans to buildTribune East Tower, a super-tall skyscraper that would become the city's second-tallest.[citation needed]
In 2025, the investment firmNorth American Real Estate bought the Tribune Tower's retail space.[9][10]
By 1922 the neo-Gothic skyscraper had become an established design tactic, with the first important so-called "American Perpendicular Style" atCass Gilbert'sWoolworth Building of 1913. This was a late example, perhaps the last important example, and criticized for its perceived historicism. Construction on the 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 made by the American artistRene Paul Chambellan. The tower features carved images ofRobin Hood (Hood) and a howling dog (Howells) near the main entrance to commemorate the architects. The top of the tower is designed after theTour de beurre (″butter tower″) of theRouen Cathedral in France,[11] which is characteristic of theLate-Gothic style, that is to say, without a spire but with a crown-shaped top.
Rene Paul Chambellan contributed his sculpture talents to the buildings ornamentation, gargoyles and theAesops' Screen over the main entrance doors. Rene Chambellan worked on other projects with Raymond Hood including theAmerican Radiator Building andRockefeller Center in New York City. 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.
The building's lobby also serves as a hall of inscriptions, with quotations about liberty and the freedom of the press taken from the work of Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Euripides, Voltaire, Daniel Webster, and others, carved into the walls.[12][13] This includes Thomas Jefferson's “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that can not be limited without being lost.”[12]
.jpg)
.jpg)
Prior to the building of the Tribune Tower, correspondents for theChicago Tribune had brought back rocks and bricks from a variety of historically important sites throughout the world at the request ofColonel McCormick. Many of thesefragments 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 theSt. Stephen's Cathedral,Trondheim Cathedral,Taj Mahal,Clementine Hall, theParthenon,Hagia Sophia,Süleymaniye Mosque,Corregidor Island,Palace of Westminster,petrified wood from theRedwood National and State Parks, theGreat Pyramid,The Alamo,Notre-Dame de Paris,Abraham Lincoln's Tomb, theGreat Wall of China,Independence Hall,Fort Santiago,Angkor Wat,Ta Prohm,Wawel Castle,Banteay Srei, andRouen Cathedral's Butter Tower, which inspired the shape of the building.[14][11]
In 1999, during a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission,Buzz Aldrin presented a rock brought from theMoon, which was displayed in a window in the Tribune gift store (it could not be added to the wall, asNASA owns a large majority of the Apollo Moon rocks, and this one was merely on loan to the Tribune).[15] The rock was removed in 2011 due to an outdated display.[16] A new rock display is planned but has not been installed as of 2018[update].[17] A piece of steel recovered from theWorld Trade Center has been added to the wall. Tiles from theSydney Opera House were added in 2006.[18]
The building's plaza has abronze sculpture byBela Pratt depictingNathan Hale, commissioned by McCormick in 1940. It is a replica of one commissioned byYale University in 1899; Pratt's widow gave permission for the copy.[19][20] The statue was dedicated on June 4, 1940, with an event that included musical performances and an address by Professor William Warren Sweet, attended by high schoolReserve Officers' Training Corps members.[21] It depicts Hale with wrists and ankles bound.[22] The pedestal states that it is "Dedicated to the reserve officers of America" and the statue's base has Hale's famous quote "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."[23]
Several buildings around the world make reference to the design of the Tribune Tower, most notably in Australia: the spires of theGrace Building inSydney and theManchester Unity Building inMelbourne. TheTitle Guarantee and Trust Building inLos Angeles also took inspiration from Tribune Tower in its design.[24] Additionally, the architects ofOne Atlantic Center located in the Midtown section ofAtlanta were influenced by the building which is most evident in the shaft of the building as well as the base.[25][26]
Articles and topics related to Tribune Tower | |
|---|---|
