AIA Presents:
Location:Chicago, IL
Architect:John Mead Howells, FAIA, and Raymond Hood, FAIA
Year Built:1925
Fact:Contains many famous stones in its walls, including the Colosseum.

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Tribune Tower
Rate: starstarstarstarstar Votes: 29

Tribune Tower

The Chicago Tribune wanted to celebrate its 75th anniversary by building the “most beautiful office building in the world.” To that end, the company held one of the most storied architectural competitions in American history. The winning design was a Gothic one belonging to John Mead Howells and Raymond M. Hood. The building is steel framed and sheathed in Indiana limestone.

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One of the reasons why Gothic was chosen in early scrapers is because that's where they had precedence for tall buildings. The towers of Gothic cathedrals were really the only precedent that Western architects could look to that made sense to have something that gave people a strong and elegant vertical upthrust like that.

David Fixler, FAIA, LEED AP
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The Tribune Tower was never intended to be remarkable but to be the most beautiful building in the world as stipulated and to establish a context… which it did.

Stanley Tigerman, FAIA
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The value of the competition was mostly for the patron, the Tribune newspaper, who was using it to establish themselves as a civic institution in Chicago.

Jess Wendover, Assoc. AIA, AICP, LEED-AP
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This building is a more literal expression of what you can do with a steel frame even though its covered up in Gothic dress... whereas this one goes straight up and down which you couldn't do without the steel frame.

Gary Wolf, AIA
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