Tribune Tower

Tribune Tower is the headquarters of Tribune Company, a media industry leader with businesses in broadcasting and publishing in the nation’s major markets. The company dates back to June 10, 1847, when the first 400 copies of the Chicago Tribune were printed on a hand press in a one-room plant. Today, through television, radio, newspapers and the Internet, Tribune reaches more than 80 percent of U.S. households.

By its 75th anniversary in 1922, Tribune was enjoying greater influence in the Midwest and found it had outgrown its 17-story home on the corner of Dearborn and Madison streets. The company announced an international architectural competition for what was to be, in the words of the Chicago Tribune’s legendary publisher Col. Robert R. McCormick, “the most beautiful office building in the world.”


Crowning achievement The winning architects visually linked the blocky lower portion of the Tower with the architectural pyrotechnics of the top. They did this with flying buttresses, which carried the structural piers of the lower part of the Tower right up to its ornamental crown. To heighten the drama, they provided for floodlighting of the top at night. The Tower’s Gothic design de-emphasizes horizontal lines and accentuates the vertical, creating the illusion that the building soars well above its 36 stories.

The Tower's frame is made of steel, fireproofed with concrete. The outer walls are Indiana limestone in variegated shades of gray. Construction called for 9,316 tons of steel and 13,160 tons of stone. The cost was $8.5 million.

Tribune Tower's design is said to have been influenced by the famous Tour de Beurre of the Rouen Cathedral in France and the Tower of Malines in Belgium. Both buildings are Gothic towers attached to cathedrals. However, neither has the functionality of Tribune Tower, which is a practical office building.

The present site was purchased in 1919, and a six-story plant was erected in 1920. Construction of Tribune Tower began in May 1923 and was completed in 1925. It was heralded by the monthly tabloid, Real Estate News, which described the Tower’s grandeur in a special 16-page supplement:

Thirty-six stories of dignified and impressive stone, glass and metal will look down upon Chicago’s throngs in the new Tribune Tower. It will be by far the highest tenanted structure in western America. Its unusual character and beauty will make it a national landmark from coast to coast. Moreover, in equipment, appointments, material and workmanship, this building is conceded to represent the highest attainable modern standard of excellence.

Tribune Tower continues to be one of the most recognizable buildings to grace Chicago's skyline. Its influence can be seen in the Palmolive Building, the Board of Trade and the Carbide and Carbon Building, all built within a few years of the Tower. The stylized buttresses of the neighboring NBC building, completed in 1989, mimic those of the Tower.

Renovating for the future The three lower levels of the Tower housed the printing operations of the Chicago Tribune until 1982. At that time, the newspaper moved those operations to Freedom Center, a state-of-the-art production facility on West Chicago Avenue. Now, the floors of the lower levels embody the company's multimedia evolution. The renovated and contemporary space is home to several business units including Tribune Interactive, Tribune Classified and some Chicago Tribune departments plus a fitness center and conference rooms. The renovation was completed in 2001. Many elements from the original area were retained, such as exposed concrete-encased steel framing and the trolley rails once used to transport rolls of newsprint to the presses.

Master masons added menacing gargoyles and grotesques to the great cathedrals of medieval Europe to ward off evil spirits. Gargoyles also function to direct rainwater away from stained-glass windows and foundations.

The stone sculptures on Tribune Tower, though strictly ornamental, are in the same tradition. Animals and other figures were chosen to depict the virtues and vices of humankind. A carved stone screen bearing the symbolic imagery of Aesop's fables is over the doorway in the main lobby. The soaring entrance area is known as the Hall of Inscriptions. Carved into the walls are famous quotations expressive of the ideals and obligations of the press. Inscriptions record the words spoken by visionaries and great leaders such as Patrick Henry, Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin. The words of Col. McCormick can be found on the lobby's south wall.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Chicago Tribune in 1997, the Tower's Nathan Hale lobby was renovated and inscriptions were added to include the words of Abraham Lincoln, playwright Arthur Miller and former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Other features In the 1990s, a project was undertaken to restore and emphasize Tribune Tower's stately Gothic character. Improvements included the restoration of the main lobby to include a replica of the original reredos, a decorative screen usually found behind a church altar. In front of the reredos, a replica of the original dark brown oak security desk was reproduced from old photos. Also on display is a topographical relief map of North America, originally installed in 1927, made of plaster and ground-up retired U.S. currency.

Other improvements included the painstaking cleaning of the Tower's limestone facade, a two-year project; a refurbishing of the Nathan Hale Court; restoration of the crestings above the first-floor windows; and installation of street lighting to enhance the Gothic details at the fourth floor, the Nathan Hale balustrade and the main lobby entrance archway.




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