Chicago Tribune Building IV

Chicago Tribune Building IV – Tribune Tower
Life Span: 1925-Present
Location: 435 N. Michigan Ave.
Architect: John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood

Polk’s Chicago Numerical Street and Avenue Directory 1928
Tribune Tower 431-439 Michigan Av N E North Water intersects E Austin av intersects

The Tribune Plant at Austin (Hubbard) Street and Michigan Avenue.

Chicago Tribune, December 26, 1920

Tribune Tower

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A bird’s-eye view of the construction of the Tribune Tower as shown in 1924.

Pictured Encyclopedia of the World’s Greatest Newspaper, The Chicago Tribune, 1928

How Gothic Art was Molded into a Superb Tribune Home.
Levying on the Best in Medieval Art and Modern Skill, Engineering and Architecture, The Tribune Achieved Its Present Home.

When The Tribune erected its building at Dearborn and Madison Streets, somewhat over a score of years ago, it thought it was providing permanent facilities for the manufacturing of The Tribune, In less than fifteen years The Tribune found that it had outgrown its quarters, and that it had become necessary to seek a new location. In the discussions that ensued, it developed that this new location must conform to certain requirements. It should be close to the center of the city, it should be on a switch track, and if possible, should be located on the Chicago River.

Tribune Square conformed to all the primary requirements except it was not located on the Chicago River, but it had so many other distinct advantages that to all purposes and interests it was ideal. It is located on the most prominent street in Chicago, it is close to the center of the city, it has a switch track, and most important of all, it is a double-decked street, the lower level of which furnishes perfect facilities for shipping a newspaper. This location was purchased in 1919 at an average price of $13.75 a square foot, and shortly thereafter preliminary plans began.

The first building to be erected on Tribune Square was the seven story Plant, which is generally acknowledged to be a model in every respect.

Four years after the completion of the Plant The Tribune had again outgrown itself and the improvement of the balance of The Tribune Square became necessary. It was decided to hold an architectural competition, open to licensed architects only, for a design of the most beautiful office building in the world.

The mandatory requirements for the design were simple. The proposed building was to be erected at 431 North Michigan Avenue, the size of the lot being 100 feet on Michigan and 135 feet on Austin Avenue. The drawings required were a floor plan, an elevation, a section, and a perspective drawing of the building. It was assumed that the building should cover practically the entire lot and comply with the building ordinances of the city of Chicago.

The terms provided that any properly qualified architect could compete for the three grand prizes offered, of $50,000, $20,000 and $10,000, for the first, second, and third winning designs. In addition, ten architects of national reputation were invited to compete, and given $2,000 apiece, irrespective of prize money, for their designs.

Two hundred and eighty-five sets of drawings were finally received. Of this number, 170 were from America and the balance from 22 foreign countries. These drawings were submitted anonymously, and the jury of award had no information as to who the architects were until after the winning design was selected.

By a unanimous vote of the jury, the first prize of $50,000 was awarded to John Mead Howells and Raymond M. Hood, associate architects of New York, for the design of the present Tribune Tower.

In creating the design for Tribune Tower, inspiration was used without copying. There are two other buildings in the world which suggest in general mass and design Tribune Tower, but which have no relation to it either in use or size. They are the famous Butter Tower in Rouen and the Tower of Malines in Belgium. Both of these buildings are Gothic towers, attached to cathedrals, and of course have no practical use as does Tribune Tower, which is first of all, a practical office building.

In design and composition such towers are naturally vertical. By this is meant that they are many times higher than they are wide and in their design, partly because they are Gothic, the vertical lines are accentuated, and the horizontal lines are comparatively suppressed .

Because the American skyscraper is generally much higher than it is wide, the design becomes a study in verticality—just the same sort of problem as the design of the old Gothic towers—and this is true of the Tribune Tower. It is easily noticeable how the tall columns of windows are deeply recessed to obtain this effect.

Tribune Tower is a stone skyscraper which is square in plan and isolated on sides.

Owing peculiar features crowded American city life skyscrapers have come have certain unit characteristics The few lower stories can be seen from the street they must interesting and decorative and the top can seen against the sky from other offices from considerable distance must have dignified and possible beautiful silhouette.

Tribune Tower then, it would seem, is typical and ideal in design that kind of tall building called the skyscraper.

The Tribune feels that in the Tower it has a building of significance and its resolve to build worthily was carried out in every respect. No materials but the finest went into construction; no machinery except the most efficient used in its activity.

Tribune Tower rises 36 stories 456 feet above the Michigan Avenue level, and its 60 caissons descend 125 feet to bed rock. Below the street there are seven. floors whose space is given over to presses, boilers, coal and paper storage. Viewing at a distance its slim, tapering beauty, it is difficult to conceive of its huge mass. The girder over the entrance at the level of the fourth floor weighs no less than 65 tons! The frame is of concrete-fireproofed steel, and the outer walls are of Indiana limestone in variegated shades of gray.

True to its Gothic origin Tribune Tower carries a symbolical theme throughout its ornamentation. The interesting Aesop’s screen over the front entrance and the numerous grotesques at the fourth and fifth floor levels bear their symbolic stories which are given at greater length elsewhere. These ornamentations will take a strong hold on all who have an appreciation for the old world cathedrals where grotesque decoration was first born.

Lobby.

Famous Structures Furnish Mementoes
Imbedded in the façade are thirty odd stones which have come from such places of historic interest as Hamlet’s Castle, the Taj Mahal and the great wall of China. Descriptions and a complete list are given elsewhere.

The interior of Tribune Tower is in keeping with the exterior. The lobby is a Gothic stone room thirty feet high with a beamed oak ceiling, illuminated with Renaissance fixtures. In the floor of this room in black letters is the quotation from Ruskin’s Seven Lamps of Architecture which epitomizes the spirit of the whole undertaking. The passage reads:

Therefore when we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it be not for the present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the our labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See ! this fathers did for us.’

One of the most interesting features in The Tower is the Observatory, which affords one of the most in spiring of scenes. In three directions Chicagoland spreads itself, and far to the north and south outlines itself against the blue of Lake Michigan. Vast crowds are attracted to the Observatory. On some Sundays and holidays as many as 1000 to 1500 guests visit it.

Within Tribune Tower are housed, for six days a week, three thousand people, veritably a city in itself. There are 165 administrators, and the combined earnings of its inhabitants, if it were possible to compute it, would be staggering. Here city that consumes 120,000,000 gallons of water a year uses, 18,000 electric lights and has 5,000 motors operated push button control This miniature city has a library, a post office, numerous shops and a garage and the offices two broadcasting stations, W-G-N and WLIB.

Tribune Square will ultimately be occupied by three main buildings, which will constitute a great news paper plant and office building 220 x 300 feet in area, the whole blending architecturally with the beauty of the mother structure, The Tower.

These photos show The Tribune Plant from the south (above) and from the north (below). The ruled white space marks the site on which the new Tribune Monument will stand. The low building north of The Plant is a Tribune garage.

Pictured Encyclopedia of the World’s Greatest Newspaper, The Chicago Tribune, 1928

Historic Stones In The Tower.
Few passersby on Michigan Avenue have failed note that the sur face the Tribune Tower walls particularly around the entrance studded with strange stones each identified the name the famous structure from which came Some the names are well known and the stones are interesting simply because they came from such famous structures. Many stones,
however, are there because of remarkable stories which are not so well known, but thoroughly deserve being told.

Here are the sources of all the (original) Stones—with a friendly chanlleng yo try your hand at guessing the stories of those concerning which we have given no information:

Today there are 149 History Stones embedded in the walls of the Tribune Tower. The 150th is a moon rock which is on display in a window. The tradition began in 1914 when Col. Robert R. McCormick, the Chicago Tribune’s longtime editor and publisher, was covering WWI. Touring a medieval cathedral in Ypres, France, that had been damaged by German shelling, he grabbed a piece for himself. Many of the pieces were gifts to Col. McCormick and some were brought back to Chicago by foreign correspondents.

Looking from Michigan Boulevard toward The Tribune’s Manufacturing Plant.

Chicago Tribune, July 7, 1925

The Tribune Tower opened its doors yesterday. Everything. was prepared to handle a crowd of perhaps 2,000 persons. Twenty thousand came, it was estimated.

Judges and society matrons, folks from out of town, a mother with a couple of perspiring children dragging at her arms, a sister in her heavy black robes, a fellow who boasted he read The Tribune for thirty years, all these and many more packed themselves into the lobby of the Tower and over every one of its thirty-four floors.

Forty Famous Stones.
As they came up to the Tower they stopped a moment to gaze up at the smoothly curving arch of the entrance and to murmur over the pierced tracery of the screen above the doors. They loitered to real the bit of carving beside some of the famous stones that are set Into the walls of the Tower. One from Westminster abbey, one from the Taj-Mahal, another from a Chinese temple, and one from Yale and one from Princeton.

Before entering they backed away until they could see to the very top of the flagpole nearly 600 feet above the sidewalk. The flag was six feet by twelve. It looked like a red, white, and blue handkerchief from down below.

Inside the lobby with its ceiling of great beams and its cathedral like carvings in stone and in old English oak the crowd was thick. It formed a semi-circle about the round stone in the center of the floor where the words of Ruskin, from his “Seven Lamps of Architecture” are carved. Flowers, the gifts of well wishers to Col Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson, co-editors of The Tribune stood in baskets about the walls.

Those who came early enough, or just late enough, were able to get to the top of the Tower without trouble. But in the middle of the afternoon when the crowd was thickest, the observa. became so jammed that it was necessary for a time to restrict visitors to the Tower top to those with guest cards.

The fastest elevators in Chicago, traveling 800 feet a minute, carried the visitors to the 24th floor. Up there, where are the of the editors, the of the editorial writers, and teie library, they found the wails done In rough plaster, painted a creamy yellow, with the woodwork of oak.

Up a flight to the 25th floor the crowd walked, and out on the lower promenade. They found that the alry buttresses that had looked pliantly delicate from below now pushed up from the masonry at their feet. They discovered the spidery columns were themselves towers, many feet through and tall as giant trees.
trib
Guides under the direction of Holmes Onderdonh, manager of Tribune real estate, directed the visitors and answered their questions The visitors learned that the flagpole, for example, was 110 feet tall and that the Tower itself went down for seven stories below the street level.

Some took the single elevator that runs above the 24th floor. Others wailing to for the one car taxed beyond capacity climbed the stairs to the very top of the platform inside the topmost crown of carved stone.

Such was the opening of Tho Tribune Tower. Toward the end of the day the management received a telegram from Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Wacker. Mr. Wacker Is hend of the Chicago plan commission. It was one telegram among many, but a phrase in it seemed to sum up the day.

There is eloquence in stone and steel. There is inspiration In good architecture. There is character building in good surroundings.

Tribune Tower and Michigan Avenue Bridge circa 1925

Chicago Tribune, December 25, 1938

IMPRESSIVE in its Gothic grandeur, massively tall, serene, majestic, and buttressed to withstand the elements for no one knows how far into the future, Tribune Tower stands a loft landmark over and as a part of Tribune Square, the home of the world’s greatest newspaper.

From the bases of its sixty giant caissons, reaching down 125 feet to bedrock, to the apex of its delicately wrought crown, 456 feet above Michigan avenue, It is a marvel of architectural engineering. And in appearance it is admitted by all to be a wonder of architectural beauty.

Virtually every one in Chlcagoland and thousands upon thousands elsewhere are familiar with this great gray tower of thlrty-slx stories, with its artistry of classic design and its portrayal in imperishable stone of character and strength. What visitor to Chicago does not look forward to glimpsing Tribune Tower through the canyon of Michigan avenue buildings or from across the river in Wacker drive, to the south and west?

Tribune Tower is famous as a structure to be viewed for Its exterior beauty. Among the thousands who have examined Its interior it is equally famous as the mechanical marvel of the age. Combined with the seven story newspaper plant which it adjoins and with the entire basic structure of Tribune Square, Including the W·G·N radio studio building, it is as much a mechanical wonder as any institution can be-even an institution that bears no responsibility of printing news.

In the Tribune Square newspaper home-tower, plant, and all—are 1,905 electric motors, ranging up to 150 horsepower; approximately 1,200 miles of electric wires, 18,000 electric lamps, and countless ingenious machines, many invented and designed by Tribune men. But before entering into a discussion of these mechanical wonders let us consider the superbly artistic features of the tower part of this newspaper home, from the observatory of which, 456 feet above Michigan avenue, the city and suburbs for miles around can be seen on a clear day.

Let us note the imposing entrance to the tower from Michigan avenue, over which is a delicately carved screen of stone called the “Tree of Life,” its symbolic figures being those of Æsop’s celebrated fables and in harmony with the grotesques and other ornamentation employed to adorn the fourth and fifth floor levels of the building.

Let us pause before the facade of the building to give attention to the historic stones embedded in its surface. There are more than thirty of these stones in the walls of Tribune Tower, each identified in letters carved beneath or at one side. From the world’s most famous structures have come these stones from the Taj Mahal in India, from the Great Wall of China, from Hamlet’s castle in Denmark, from old Fort Santiago at Manila, from near and far all over the globe have been collected these historic rock fragments to stud the surface of this notable tower. On the W·G·N studio building, which stands by the side of the tower, are other similarly historic stones.

When one passes through the front entrance of the tower into the lobby his attention Is immediately drawn to the striking mural which adorns the east wall just opposite the entrance. The mural, 16 feet wide and 23l½ feet high, is entitled “The Freedom of the Press.” It depicts the age-old struggle for liberty of utterance, either vocal or by the printed word. It Is done in pastel crayons on paper, In burnt sienna, black, and reds.

The designing artist of this imposing work is Mrs. Clara Fargo Thomas, distinguished mural painter of New York and member of the National Society of Mural Painters.

Carved in the travertin marble of the walls of the lobby are famous and cogent lines, Including those of the first amendment to the national constitution. Among those quoted in this everlasting manner are St. John, Euripides, Junius, Daniel Webster, Patrick Henry, the Presidents Madison and Jefferson, Chief Justice Hughes, and Joseph Medill, who for many years was the guiding genius of The Tribune.

In black letters in the floor of the lobby is a quotation from the great eighteenth-century English writer and critic, John Ruskin, which epitomizes the spirit upon which Tribune Tower was built. The passage reads:

Therefore when we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it be not for the present delight, nor for pre8ent use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that. a time is to come when those stones will be held 8acred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, it “See! this our lathers did for us.”

This tower, which, as the above quotation discloses, was built with the idea of permanency in the minds of the builders, is the eighth home of The Tribune, counting as one it and the other structures in Tribune Square.

The first home of The Tribune consisted of one room in an old building at Lake and La Salle streets. That was in 1847. Two years later The Tribune moved to more commodious quarters in a room over Gray’s grocery at Lake and Clark streets. Another year and another move this time to a building at what then was 173 Lake street. In 1852 The Tribune occupied its fourth home, in Clark street between Lake and Randolph, on a site now covered by the Ashland block. This was a three story building which for a time adequately took care of the newspaper’s growth.
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In 1869, four years after the close of the Civil war, The Tribune was installed In the first building of its own construction, a four-story structure at the southeast corner of Dearborn and Madison streets. In 1871 came the great fire. The Tribune was burned out but not In the least discouraged. It missed only two issues of its newspaper, those of Oct. 9 and 10, moved into temporary quarters in Canal street, and began rebuilding the second Tribune building on the Dearborn-Madison site almost immediately. The new structure was of five stories.

The arrival of the twentieth century found this building, which in the seventies seemed so large and fine, thoroughly inadequate. A seventeen-story skyscraper home was completed in 1902 on the site of the two preceding buildings. This is the building in which The Tribune’s downtown publtc service office is located. When this tall structure was put into service as a newspaper plant thirty-six years ago it was thought that the future of The Tribune had been taken care of for generations to come, but before fifteen years had passed the newspaper had outgrown this home. It needed more spacious quarters, more room for expansion. And so came about the erection of the present newspaper plant part of Tribune Square, a seven-story structure, 100 feet wide and 167 feet long. This was In 1920, and only four years later the paper again had outgrown its quarters. Improvement of still more of Tribune Square became necessary. The result was Tribune Tower.

It was decided to hold an architectural competition open only to licensed architects for a design for the most beautiful office building In the world, to be erected In front of and adjoining the newspaper plant proper on a space 100 feet wide and 135 feet long, the building to face on Michigan avenue at number 435 North.

Three grand prizes were offered as an inducement to architects and in order to obtain the very best designs. The first prize was $50,000, the second $20,000, and the third $10.000. In addition ten architects of national reputation were invited to compete and given $2,000 apiece for their designs, Irrespective of prize money. So intense was the competition for the grand prizes that 285 entries were received, 170 from America and the remainder from twenty two foreign countries. Submitted anonymously, these designs were studied by a jury of awards which voted unanimously the first prize to John Mead Howells and Raymond M. Hood of New York. It was their designs after which Tribune Tower was built. Second prize winner was Eliel Saarinen of Finland (now of the United States). and third prize winner was the Chicago architectural firm of Holabird & Roche, now Holabird & Root. The winning architects adhered to a readily understood principle in designing Tribune Tower. Its lower part, because it would be seen at close range, had to be artistically ornamented. Its crown, because it would be observed by countless thousands from varying distances, had to present a pleasing appearance-a beautiful silhouette. Its two extremes had to be tied together with harmonious lines. Thus were provided In its de. sign the many corbels that stand out from its exterior walls, and those giant flying but. tresses, seven stories high, that adorn the upper part of the tower.

Future plans contemplate an improvement of all of Tribune Square in a manner in harmony with the existing tower-with a building or group of buildings of the same general architecture as the tower. What the final development will be will depend upon conditions and needs at the time the new construction is undertaken. So far as can be visualized at present the tower will be the nucleus of any group to be erected in the future.

Completed in 1925, Tribune Tower was, and still is, a remarkable contribution to American architecture. What a few perhaps do not know, however, is that It is as much a mechanical as an architectural wonder.

Chicago Tribune February 4, 1929

STEEL AND STONE BUT TENDER—THE TRIBUNE TOWER
British Writer Tells of Its Beauty

By John Steele

London, Feb. 3.—An unsolicited testimonial to the beauty of The Chicago Tribune Tower appeared in St. John Ervine’s article on Chicago in the London Observer. Considerable space is devoted to a glowing eulogy of the city’s most distinguished building.

The Tribune Tower is lovely in daylight; but lovelier still at night when it stands high above the dusky town lit up with concealed lamps that throw soft gleams along its lines so that parts are clearly seen and parts remain in the shadow. Late in the evening I saw the skyline. It was a lovely sight, but the loveliest thing of all was that dark and illuminated mass of building—The Tribune Tower, delicate as a lady’s hand and as firm as a man’s.

More Kindly Toward Chicago.
The readers of Mr. Ervine’s article received a much more just impression of Chicago than is obtained in news stories in the British press about the gangs and the fulminations of Mayor William Hale Thompson.

The growth of Chicago was too rapid at the time when utility was all the rage, but there is a social consciousness spreading throughout the city and its citizens are resolved to make it the greatest town in the world. I believe they will do it. I believe they will eventually make Chicago the most handsome city in the world. There is a vitality in this place that is amazing.

Chicago is a city of shining towers, a city which one day, I believe, will excite the envy of all civilized men. It is in this place and not in New York that the genius of America is found. Here is energy, here is bewildered, but indubitable strength, here, too, is emerging beauty.

Chicago Sunday Tribune, December 16, 1928

A Golden Crown For Tribune Tower

Chicago Tribune, December 30, 1928

trib

Chicago Tribune, November 3, 1929

Bejeweled Towers, Gold and Silver,

Chicago Sunday Tribune, March 4, 1928

“LOOKING NORTH,”
by Carl C. Preussl, a young Chicagoan famous for the beauty of his paintings of foreign scenes, pictures Randolph street, at Grant park. It shows the Illinois Central tracks and on up toward Tribune Tower, with the Tower dominating the picture at the right. The painting was awarded the Joseph Eisendrath prize two years ago at the Chicago Artists’ exhibition in the Art institute here.

Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1933

A unique view of Tribune Tower, photographed from the air during the American Legion parade.
Photo by Air Corps Technical School, U. S. Army.

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“The Sentinel of a Metropolis”
Chicago Tribune Delivery Truck by International Harvester Co.
1927

Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1937

Chicago Tribune, October 8, 2015

Tribune Tower Is For Sale

Tribune Tower, the historic Michigan Avenue home of the Chicago Tribune, is for sale.

The building’s owner, Tribune Media, announced Thursday that it has hired real estate investment banker Eastdil Secured to explore an outright sale or partnership for redeveloping the 36-story building, which sits on 3 acres along one of Chicago’s busiest shopping districts.

“The global renown of this building, its unparalleled location and development potential make this an incredible opportunity and we are expecting a high level of interest from a broad range of private and institutional investors and developers,” Murray McQueen, president of Tribune Real Estate, said in a statement.

Tribune Real Estate unveiled conceptual plans last year to redevelop the parcel, potentially tripling Tribune Tower’s space with residential, retail and hotel components. The landmarked neo-Gothic building, which houses the Chicago Tribune and other tenants, has 737,000 square feet of space but is zoned for up to 2.4 million square feet.

Chicago Tribune August 31, 2016

Developer CIM Group has agreed to buy the Tribune Tower for up to $240 million marking the end of media ownership for the historic North Michigan venue building. Chicago-based Tribune Media has been shopping the property since October. Trone, the publishing company parent of the Chicago Tribune, is the building’s biggest tenant.

Chicago Tribune, June 3, 2018

Leaving Tribune Tower: “The World’s Most Beautiful Office Building”
Chicagoans who witnessed the hoopla and hype of the Tribune Tower’s birth announcement 93 years ago would never have anticipated the moving boxes being packed up in recent weeks at 435 N. Michigan Ave.

After several years of company turmoil, the Chicago Tribune no longer owns the Tribune Tower, and most of its newsroom and business operations are quietly relocating to office space a few blocks south, at One Prudential Plaza. Journalists will work at the Tower through Friday evening, June 8, and report to their new newsroom as soon as the following day.

Pictured Encyclopedia of the World’s Greatest Newspaper, The Chicago Tribune, 1928

Chicago Tribune Building IV – Tribune Tower

The Tribune Plant at Austin (Hubbard) Street and Michigan Avenue.

Tribune Tower Is For Sale

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